Feb. 15—Republicans, heavily outnumbered in the New Mexico Legislature, managed to win some victories in this year’s 30-day session.

Speaking at a news conference just minutes after the session ended at noon Thursday, Rep. Ryan Lane, R-Aztec, said his party played a role in passing what he called “meaningful” public education measures and did its best to kill bills that did not have the support of the GOP caucus.

The “big resounding win on the House floor” for Republicans, Lane said, was the narrow 36-34 vote against a proposed paid family and medical leave program, which already had cleared the Senate.

“We stood up for both New Mexico businesses and employees” in fighting to end the bill, Lane said. He called Senate Bill 3, which would have required employers and employees to pay into a fund to cover workers’ pay for up to 12 weeks, “far-reaching.”

Republicans want to revisit the possibility of such a program in interim committee hearings this year to see how they can “support moms who support children. We need something that works for New Mexicans,” he said.

Sen. Mark Moores, R-Albuquerque, agreed the failure of SB 3 proved Republicans “flexed some muscle this year.”

House Republicans alone did not stop SB 3, as 11 Democrats joined them in voting it down. Lane said building support among Democrats is part of a “relationship business” necessary to win some battles.

The two parties do work together on some initiatives.

Lane co-sponsored a bill with Rep. G. Andrés Romero and Sen. Mimi Stewart, both Albuquerque Democrats, that would update the state’s high school graduation requirements for the first time in about 15 years.

House Bill 171 gives students more choices and allows them take career and technical classes as a direct path to the workforce rather than college.

“The idea was to give students more control over their education, which we believe will lead to better outcomes,” Lane said during the news conference.

Republicans in both chambers went into the session knowing they had little chance of introducing nonbudget-related legislation without the approval of Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

Instead, they vowed to use any tools in the rulebook — such as extending floor debates — to slow down the passage of bills they opposed.

Noting many gun safety bills favored by the governor stalled in Senate committees or on the House floor, Moores said, “There’s a thousand ways to kill a bill. It’s usually not on the floor of a chamber with an up or down vote. There’s ways to stall it, to kill it in a committee. There’s ways to amend it. I think we used every arrow in our quiver this year to kill a lot of those bills.”

House Republicans added an amendment to a contentious bill banning firearms near polling places to make it more palatable to conservative constituents. The change exempts gun owners with concealed carry permits.

They had help from conservative Democrats in passing the amendment.

Moores said if Senate Democrats had reached out to Republicans early in the session, they might have been able to work together on a bipartisan bill addressing guns and elections.

When the majority party discounts Republicans, “it becomes more contentious and they don’t get what they want,” he said. “I honestly don’t think they got what they wanted this session.”

A couple of crime bills — increasing penalties for second-degree murder and giving judges more leeway to detain suspects in multiple felony cases — were successful Wednesday evening with bipartisan support in the House. Still, Lane decried the Legislature’s lack of action on other bills intended to keep New Mexicans safe from gun violence and crime.

“It’s unfortunate to me that in a state that is so ridden with crime, we make a priority of making a petty misdemeanor out of carrying a firearm at a polling place,” Lane said.

“That should tell you all you need to know about the seriousness of the crime legislation that the Democrats pushed forward this session.”