Daniel Ivey-Soto Archives - Page 2 of 2

Nasty feud between two Dem senators reaches boiling point in heated late-night floor debate

3 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By John Block

Late on Thursday, Sen. Daniel Ivey Soto (D-Bernalillo) and President Pro Tempore Sen. Mimi Stewart (D-Bernalillo) continued their nasty feud again on the Senate floor after multiple little battles as they butted heads this session in committees.

During a discussion on H.B. 20, which is a “paid sick leave” bill, Sen. Ivey-Soto repeatedly questioned Sen. Stewart on her bill applying to both private and public entities. The provisions of the bill would mandate employers to pay out one hour of sick leave per 30 hours of work.

She called the bill “very moderate” and “very reasonable.”

“This bill was not written for a public employee sick leave policy,” said Sen Stewart.

Ivey-Soto shot back, saying, “While I understand that it was written for [the] private sector when it left the Senate Judiciary, it was no longer was for [the] private sector.” He added, “What I seem to be hearing you say is ‘we the government want to apply a standard to private enterprise that we don’t want to apply to oursel[ves].’ And I just find that very problematic…. The last time I checked, among frontline workers, would not police officers be included in frontline workers?”

Stewart continued to claim that the bill was designed to cover “people that work in grocery stores, bars, restaurants, food delivery services, the folks that are out there without a plan at all, without a plan to get paid sick leave.”

Ivey Soto continually used the example of a receptionist at UNM Hospital versus one at Presbyterian and whether they would be eligible for the bill’s paid sick leave. Stewart continued to claim that the bill was for the private sector, intended for smaller businesses.

In multiple points during the debate, Stewart claimed Ivey-Soto’s questions were “abusive” and at another point refused to recognize Ivey Soto at all.

After the contentious debate, the Senate took a ten-minute recess requested by Sen. Jacob Candelaria (D-Bernalillo) following Sen. Liz Stefanics angrily scolding Sen. Ivey-Soto for his questions, claiming “we are in a bullying state at this point in time and it’s disgraceful to the public.”

Watch a supercut of the whole fiery exchange between the two Democrats:

The two senators previously hashed it out in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where they gave each other sass while discussing an assisted suicide bill. Ivey-Soto claimed “leadership” told him he could no longer debate on House bills, so he left the meeting and claimed he would not hear House bills in his Senate Rules Committee for the foreseeable future. The Senate floor debate appears to be a boiling point for the two senators’ feud.

TODAY: Legislators scramble to ram through gas tax on the poor, recreational pot bills

Leave a Comment / New Mexico, News, Politics / By John Block

On Thursday, legislators stayed up late to duke it out over bills regarding a ballot initiative to raid New Mexico’s permanent fund and pass through a trapping ban on public lands. The question of whether to raid the permanent fund will go to the voters in the next election and the trapping ban bill goes to the Governor’s desk. The body also debated H.B. 20, the “Healthy Workplaces Act,” where Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto (D-Bernalillo) and Pro-Tem Mimi Stewart continued their feud. The bill passed by 25-16.

However, there are many hotly contested bills that Democrats still hope to ram through in their dead-of-night, closed-door legislative process, including initiatives to harvest gender and sexual identity information from citizens, legalize recreational marijuana, and pass a radical gas tax on the poor.

Recreational Marijuana Bill

The extreme pot bill, H.B. 12, finally was pushed through its final committee this week after Chairman Joseph Cervantes was “pushed” by Democrat leadership to hear the bill and fast-track it so it could reach the full Senate before the session closes at noon on Saturday.

This marijuana legalization bill according to the bill sponsor, Rep. Javier Martinez (D-Bernalillo) “makes for the perfect conditions if you will. I don’t think the opportunity has ever been better than it is now to pass a legalization bill.” He says New Mexico needs the bill to cover for gaps in the budget, despite revenue projections being astronomically lower with recreational legalization of pot in states that have legalized it like the state of Colorado.

The revenue projections from the fiscal impact report claim in 2022 the law will increase state revenues by $15,186,000. Mind you, the state’s projected budget is over $7 billion, meaning pot legalization would only make up 0.2% of revenues. Even with the bill’s higher projections of $35,128,400 in revenues by 2024, that would only be approximately 0.5% of the needed revenues for a state budget projected at $7 billion.

Pro-family groups such as the Family Policy Alliance are organizing against the legalized pot bills, making the case that, “Since Colorado legalized recreational weed, our neighboring state has seen a dramatic increase in violent crime, traffic fatalities, and marijuana hospitalizations. And usage by minors – sometimes fatal, from eating poorly regulated marijuana “candies” – has soared.”

The Senate will likely vote on the proposal Friday after a long debate. The bill, if passed through the chamber, would need to make its way back over to the House of Representatives for the lower chamber to approve the amendments made in the Senate before hitting the Governor’s desk. It is unclear if all of this can be achieved in a single day.

Find and contact your legislator to oppose the bill by clicking here.

Gas Tax on the Poor

The extreme gas tax on the poor, S.B. 11, passed the House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Committee on a party-line vote, despite concerns of New Mexicans’ gas prices being hiked by 20+ cents — harming poor and middle-class New Mexicans the most.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Mimi Stewart (D-Bernalillo) callously dismissed these concerns, claiming that in other states who have implemented these extreme policies, “Gas is cheaper now than when they started.”

That was a lie.

“When everybody talks about, ‘Oh the poor are gonna be hurt,’ I do believe the poor care about the climate,” said Stewart.

Despite the concerns from poor New Mexicans, the committee advanced her bill, which is scheduled to be heard today on the House floor.

Find and contact your legislator to oppose the bill by clicking here.

Harvesting Gender and Sexual Identity Info

This extreme bill, S.B. 316, brought forth by Sen. Carrie Hamblen (D-Doña Ana) harvests gender and sexual identity information from New Mexicans, putting more information into the hands of the state government, for them to use for whatever they want. The bill is mostly copy/pasted from a California bill, Assembly Bill 677 from 2017, and would put this private information in the hands of government bad actors who could weaponize this data against New Mexicans.

The House of Representatives will likely consider this bill today

Find and contact your legislator to oppose the bill by clicking here.

Assisted suicide bill advances from committee amid ugly spat between Sen. Ivey-Soto, Pro Tem Stewart

Leave a Comment / New Mexico, News, Politics / By John Block

On Sunday, the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Doña Ana) met to consider multiple proposals, chief among them H.B. 47, which is a rabidly anti-life assisted suicide via lethal drugs bill brought forth by Rep. Deborah Armstrong (D-Bernalillo) and Sen. Liz Stefanics (D-Bernalillo, Lincoln, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Torrance, and Valencia).

The bill would legalize doctors to prescribe a “cocktail” of lethal drugs to patients suffering from terminal illnesses, which will save insurance companies money. The bill is opposed by the American Medical Association’s guide of ethics, the Navajo Nation, multiple Catholic organizations, and disability rights groups.

During the committee, the “expert witnesses,” law professor Robert Schwartz and physician Steven Kanig could not even list the drugs that would be prescribed to end an individual’s life and admitted that there is no set “cocktail” that is used. Schwartz claimed the concoction of harmful drugs “has been refined over the years” and that “these drugs do change.”

Chairman Cervantes asked multiple questions regarding the legality of the bill, such as its clause listing that a physician would be compelled to list the patient’s underlying condition as their cause of death instead of the lethal drugs. Another concern regarded proof that the patient was not being coerced into the decision, as well as the effectiveness of these drugs to end the patient’s life. He also asked about redundancies in the bill, such as the term “a peaceful death,” referring to the ending of the patient’s life. He said, “The issue here is not to produce that, but rather to produce death. And that really is straightforward.”

No other senator, Republican, or Democrat asked the bill sponsors or their expert witnesses about the bill, other than Sen. Katy Duhigg (D-Bernalillo and Sandoval) arguing with the Chairman over exempting doctors from liability.

During the consideration of a previous bill in the committee, H.B. 129, Senate Pro Tem Mimi Stewart (D-Bernalillo), and Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto (D-Bernalillo) had a spat over amendments to the bill, with Stewart claiming she was not sent amendments in advance.

Later, during consideration of the anti-life H.B. 47, Ivey-Soto had informed the committee that he had been asked by leadership not to exercise his “senatorial duties” on any House bills and that he would no longer be hearing House bills in his Senate Rules Committee.

He said, “I just wanted to let everybody know that since I have been asked by leadership not to exercise my senatorial duties on any House bills, I will not be participating in the consideration of any House bills. I am terribly sorry for this. We will also no longer, in my committee, be considering any House bills at this time for the foreseeable future. Thank you very much, and I wish everyone well on this bill and I’m very sorry not to be participating in the consideration of this bill because I find it to be incredible for us to be doing in our work in the Legislature.”

In prior committee hearings in his Rules Committee, Sen Ivey-Soto has gotten into spats with Sen. Mimi Stewart. She has been critical of his inclination to amend bills to not create problems later on. In contrast, she has been focused on ramming through as much radical legislation despite any ramifications in the future.

Before the final vote on H.B. 47, Republicans on the committee made a motion to table it, with it dying on a vote of 3-5. The anti-life bill ultimately passed through the committee 5-3 despite many indications of opposition from Chairman Cervantes, with him voting to advance the bill. Cervantes said he intends to offer amendments to the bill on the Senate floor, the proposal’s next stop before the Governor’s desk.

Bill enacting independent redistricting commission advances to House floor after tense debate

Leave a Comment / New Mexico, News, Politics / By John Block

On Friday, the House Judiciary Committee advanced two redistricting proposals, one bipartisan bill, H.B. 211, brought forth by Rep. Rebecca Dow (R-Truth or Consequences) and Natalie Figueroa (D-Bernalillo), and the other, S.B. 15, brought forth by Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto (D-Bernalillo) and Speaker of the House Brian Egolf (D-Santa Fe).

Critics of S.B. 15 noted how it uses partisan data and incumbency as tools for redrawing maps, whereas H.B. 211 does not exclusively use that data. H.B. 211 takes into account the needs of local communities, including tribal communities, and encourages public input in the fair process of redrawing legislative maps. It also would discourage litigation, as has been done in all but one census year over the past fifty, according to Rep. Figueroa.

At the beginning of the meeting, a poll of attendees showed that 89% of them supported H.B. 211 compared to the meager 11% who opposed it.

During the committee hearing, Speaker Egolf continually whined about Republicans “casting aspersions” that he did not want a fair redistricting process, demanding an apology from Republicans, including GOP Leader Jim Townsend (R-Chaves, Eddy, and Otero). He did not end up getting one, as Egolf has continually worked to favor Democrats in the redistricting process and only recently joined Sen. Ivey-Soto’s last-ditch redistricting bill to install a more political way of redrawing district maps. After the meeting, Rep. Stefani Lord (R-Bernalillo, Sandoval & Santa Fe) wrote, “We will NEVER apologize for standing up for the people of New Mexico!”

Previously on a Zoom call with a left-wing group, Retake Our Democracy, Egolf blasted the idea of an independent redistricting commission, saying, “I think that it puts at unacceptable peril a woman’s right to choose, environmental protection, fairness in taxation.” He added, “It puts at tremendous peril all of the progressive causes that we care about.”

Regarding districts, such as Sen Liz Stefanics’ (D-Bernalillo, Lincoln, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Torrance, and Valencia), which covers six counties, Egolf claimed it was not gerrymandered, despite its strange shape going all the way from Santa Fe to Lincoln counties.

“They look strange, and they are long—that was not a gerrymander, That was—the litigation around that district, in particular, was focused on trying to preserve and maintain a rural seat…. That’s why we have that district…. That was the purpose for that, and I think that was a good purpose,” said Egolf.

“The boundaries we have right now in the Legislature were not drawn by legislators…. I don’t believe we have legislatively created maps since 1990 so we are operating basically coming up on thirty years of maps that were drawn by members of the Legislature. And the current maps were drawn by a judge in Santa Fe,” said Egolf.

Egolf also claimed the Republican Party was trying to push laws that were making “it harder to vote,” invoking Georgia strengthening their voting laws to discourage fraud. Egolf claimed laws such as Voter ID are “obvious” discrimination against minorities, even though members of his own party, including Sen. Antoinette Sedillo-Lopez (D-Bernalillo), have noted the value of an ID. During a March 7th hearing on H.B. 127, a bill regarding youth ID cards, she said, “Try going a week without an ID and see how difficult it is.”

Rep. Eliseo Alcon (D-Cibola & McKinley) complained about an independent commission taking away representatives’ “rights” to redraw their own districts, saying, “I don’t think it’s our duty to give up our rights.” He did not like the idea of a seven-member commission making the decisions, not him. “If these seven people really want to be part of the redistricting, then they should run for our spots,” he said, adding, “I will be a solid no matter how you look at it,” despite the majority of people in the committee hearing in support of giving more power to the people.

Rep. Matthew McQueen (D-Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Torrance and Valencia) made similar comments, discounting the people in support of the bill, saying, “I appreciate the public’s participation, but to say that we should be bound in this committee by the poll of a few dozen people is absurd.”

Other opponents of H.B. 211, including Rep. Gail Chasey (D-Bernalillo) and Rep. Micaela Cadena (D-Doña Ana), constantly invoked the January 6th incursion of the U.S. Capitol as the pivotal moment that they were not in favor of independent redistricting. Chasey said, “January 6th changed that a lot for me. 40-45% of the country doesn’t think we had an election that was valid.”

Both S.B. 15 and H.B. 211 cleared the committee with bipartisan support, with H.B. 211 getting a vote of 7-4. It now heads to the House floor.

Deep-pocketed marijuana lobby banking on Legislature’s proposals to legalize weed

3 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By John Block

On Monday, state Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto (D-Bernalillo) introduced a proposal, S.B. 13, to legalize marijuana for recreational use in adults.

He said, “The reason I decided to do it this time is I got frustrated with the fact that I think people want us to do this in pretty high numbers,” and he wanted to propose a bill that “would pass,” as Democrats’ previous attempts to legalize the drug have been met with large opposition on both sides of the aisle. His bill would tax the substance an extreme 21%, which may, in fact, promote the illegal sale of the drug on the street due to the unaffordable price with taxes.

Ivey Soto received $1,000 from PurLife, a marijuana dispensary headed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham “maxed out” donor Darren White, in his 2020 bid for re-election.

Other members of the Legislature have also proposed marijuana legalization bills, including Sen. Cliff Pirtle (R-Chaves, Eddy, and Otero), whose bill, S.B. 288, wants to legalize marijuana and leave private companies such as PurLife with the distribution. Pirtle proposes a 2% excise tax on top of local gross receipts tax on the drug. He received $2,500.00 from PurLife and $1,000 from another marijuana company, Natural RX, in his 2020 bid for re-election.

In an interview months before the 2018 election, which Gov. Lujan Grisham won, PurLife’s Darren White said “Our company got behind Michelle pretty early and we maxed out [its allowable contributions] quickly.” Now, the governor is trying to make it a top-priority to ram through her marijuana bill to fulfill her 2018 campaign promise made to both the voters and to marijuana dispensaries like PurLife. She failed to do so in 2019 and 2020, however, due to more moderate Democrats leaving the chamber due to the Governor running primary challenges against them in the 2020 election, she has a better shot at legalizing weed in the state.

Another legislator who is sponsoring a bill for legalized pot is Rep. Javier Martinez (D-Bernalillo), who said of his bill that “It makes for the perfect conditions if you will. I don’t think the opportunity has ever been better than it is now to pass a legalization bill.” He says New Mexico needs the bill to cover for gaps in the budget.

Martinez received $5,000 from Darren White’s PurLife for his 2020 re-election bid to the state House.

UPDATE: The New Mexico Legislature will meet on March 30 for Gov. Lujan Grisham’s special session to force through recreational marijuana since the Governor and her allies failed to pass it in the regular 60-day session.

Other members of the Legislature who received campaign donations from PurLife in the 2020 election cycle:

Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino (D-Santa Fe): $1,000

Rep. Kelly Fajardo (R-Valencia) $1,000

Rep. Deborah Armstrong (D-Bernalillo) $1,000

Rep. Rod Montoya (R-Farmington) $1,000

Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Doña Ana) $1,000

New Mexico Senate Democrats $5,000

Rep. Harry Garcia (D-Bernalillo, Cibola, McKinley, Socorro, San Juan & Valencia) $1,000

Sen. Stuart Ingle (R-Chaves, Curry, De Baca, Lea and Roosevelt) $1,000

Rep. Candie Sweetser (D-Grant, Hidalgo & Luna) $1,000

Sen. Craig Brandt (R-Sandoval) $2,500

Rep. Antonio “Moe” Maestas (D-Bernalillo) $2,500, Moe’s “Moe PAC” $5,500

Fmr. Sen. John Arthur Smith (D-Dona Ana, Hidalgo, Luna & Sierra) $2,500

Brian Egolf Speaker Fund (D-Santa Fe) $2,500

Sen. Mark Moores (R-Bernalillo) $2,500

Sen. Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe) $2,500

Fmr. Sen. Sander Rue (R-Bernalillo) $2,500

Fmr. Sen. Mary Kay Papen (D-Doña Ana) $2,500

Rep. Sheryl Williams Stapleton (D-Bernalillo) $1,000

Fmr. Sen. Candace Gould (R-Bernalillo & Sandoval) $2,500

Rep. Micaela Cadena (D-Doña Ana) $1,000

Sen. Nancy Rodriguez (D-Santa Fe) $2,500

Rep. Jason Harper (R-Sandoval) $1,000

Rep. Doreen Gallegos (D-Doña Ana) $1,000

Sen. Mimi Stewart (D-Bernalillo) $1,000

Rep. Dayan Hochman-Vigil (D-Bernalillo) $1,000

Rep. Gail Chasey (D-Bernalillo) $1,000

Rep. Eliseo Alcon (D-Cibola & McKinley) $1,000

Sen. George Muñoz (D-Cibola, McKinley and San Juan) $2,500

Sen. Steve Neville (R-San Juan) $2,500

Other members who received campaign contributions from Nature RX:

Brian Egolf Speaker Fund (D-Santa Fe) $2,500

Sen. Jacob Candelaria (D-Bernalillo) $500

Rep. Joy Garratt (D-Bernalillo) $250

Sheryl Williams Stapleton (D-Bernalillo) $1,000

Fmr. Sen. Mary Kay Papen (D-Doña Ana) $500

Sen. Pete Campos (D-Colfax, Guadalupe, Harding, Mora, Quay, San Miguel and Taos) $500

Sen. Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe) $1,000

Marijuana Company Reynold Greenleaf & Associates, LLC

$5,000 to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham

Donations by “associate” members of the “New Mexico Cannabis Chamber of Commerce.”

Sen. Pete Campos (D-Colfax, Guadalupe, Harding, Mora, Quay, San Miguel and Taos): $5,000 from Affordable Solar on 12/16/2019

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