STATE GOP News:

ALBUQUERQUE – The Republican Party of New Mexico is excited about the positive legislative changes that Republicans in the Senate and House fought to successfully pass in this short 30 day session.

“Despite the best efforts of Senate Democrats, Republicans in the legislature were able to make significant progress in these 30 days,” said Republican Party of New Mexico Spokesman Tucker Keene. “We’ve finally fixed the many issues with our drivers licenses and made them REAL ID compliant, we’ve passed a budget that pays to address the rape kit backlog and increases salaries for public safety officers, we’ve increased penalties for possession of child porn,  and we’ve passed serious criminal justice reform that not only protects communities from violent offenders but ensures that people aren’t kept in jail solely for being too poor to pay bail.”

Even with the Republicans’ hard work, Senate Democrats still killed many important measures, putting an end to hopes that we’d get critical ethics and economic reforms this year, or address some of the shortcomings in our education system. 

“When Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto asked for elected officials like himself to be exempted from oversight of an ethics commission, he showed how unserious Democrats are about passing meaningful ethics reform,” Keene said. “Democrats didn’t even attempt to address economic development this year. They killed Right to Work quickly, and their only economic plans were tax increases. Education reform efforts were effectively negated when the Democrats killed bills ending social promotion and allowing adjunct teachers. These important issues will be on voters minds this fall, and we look forward to getting these crucial reforms passed with a Republican majority in the Senate next year.”