In an attack piece last week Pat Davis and ProgressNow New Mexico lied about “missing” members of the House Voters and Elections Committee. Davis claimed that all Republicans were missing during the vote on the minimum wage bill (see his attack piece below), but what is the real story?
For the second time in less than a week this morning’s House Voters and Elections Committee is missing a few legislators – every Republican to be exact.
All five Republican members of the committee were missing in action when the committee met this morning. After spending weeks complaining that things in this short 30-day session were moving too slowly, Republicans simply collected their taxpayer-funded per diem and skipped out on their only job: legislating.
Although representatives are not paid a salary, taxpayers paid each absent member a per diem to be present and represent their constituents and get work done.
The missing members avoided debate on a Constitutional amendment to raise the minimum wage. The bill passed the Senate last Friday.
Five days ago, all GOP members were MIA for debate on bills to lower class sizes, modernize our school funding formulas and ensure that the state’s education chief has education experience. These are big issues that New Mexicans want addressed.
If you see a missing member, please take a picture and share on Twitter using the #NMLEG hashtag.
(Read Original Article here) AMBER ALERT for Republican Legislators
The committee report, which is publicly available on the New Mexico Legislature’s website (and can also be seen below), shows that FOUR Republicans voted against SJR 13, and that ONE was excused. Pat Davis lied. The Republicans were NOT absent.
Rep. Bandy, Rep. Rehm, Rep. Smith and Rep. Youngblood voted NO on SJR 13. Rep. Anderson was excused.
Rather than an “Amber Alert” for missing Republicans, maybe we should have a “Pinocchio Report” for Pat Davis?
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Political Fireball 