Questions Linger on New Mexico’s Virtual Legislative Session

(TNS) — Among New Mexico Democratic state Rep.  Candie Sweetser's  favorite customs when a new legislative session gets rolling is welcoming young people from her southwestern rural district to the state Capitol.

With the Roundhouse closed to the public for the 60-day session, that won't happen this year, and Sweetser expressed sorrow that she won't be showing them around in person.

"Having another virtual experience for a generation that is having all virtual experiences — it's just not the same," she said Wednesday.

The Deming Democrat joined Republicans and some fellow Democrats in the Legislature in a lawsuit last summer arguing that the 2020 special session should be open to the public, after leadership announced the Capitol would be closed as a measure against community spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

It remained closed and mostly empty as lawmakers convened for 2021's 60-day session on Tuesday.

Sweetser suggested one solution for the brief special session would have been a "hybrid" approach encouraging the public to follow the session virtually through webcasts and virtual committee meetings, while allowing those unable to do so to visit the Capitol.

Instead, it will remain closed under rules allowing legislators to participate remotely via technology while at the Capitol.

Sweetser represents the 32nd House district, which includes Hidalgo and Luna counties plus the southern tip of Grant County, where she said there are gaps in broadband infrastructure, spotty internet service in many areas, and a number of constituents who are not accustomed to computer and internet technologies.

Speaking on the floor Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader  Peter Wirth , D- Santa Fe, argued that virtual processes were a boon to participation for residents spread out across the state, who would otherwise need to travel and find accommodations to participate.

Yet Sweetser said residents in her district are often caught between two challenges: Traveling and lodging in Santa Fe for long enough to participate in meetings or hearings, or struggle with internet applications some take for granted.

More: New Mexico Senate sets rules for a more virtual session

In the meantime, opportunities for citizens, lobbyists and experts to weigh in on crafting legislation or simply follow what's going on are being moved almost entirely to virtual processes, even as leadership still works out how to incorporate public participation and transparency into a virtual format.

Melanie Majors , director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, said the predicament is ironic, given the opposition by legislators a decade ago to broadcasting and livestreaming the process.

"FOG really worked hard to get the legislature to be aired over the internet and the airwaves, so they would be open to electronic transmission of the proceedings in committees, etc.," she said. "Now, something that the Legislature found to be a difficult move has actually been their saving grace in all of this."

And while legislative rules require for proceedings to stop immediately if the Legislature's livestream is disabled, the Capitol has no control over service outages around the state.

This is not simply a rural problem: On Tuesday, as the session was getting underway, commercial internet service providing signal to a swath of Santa Fe was down for part of the day.

'It lacks that personal touch'

Even with a steady broadband signal, many argue that communicating with people in-person added an essential quality to the process.

Lawmakers who spoke to the Las Cruces Sun-News said the nonverbal communications and physical presence made a distinct impression compared to viewing someone on a screen, and Majors said that buffer could prove a hindrance for accessing one's lawmakers.

"You don't get the same feel for the passion of people or the feel of the room, the energy, you don't get the undertones, the nonverbal communications that you get when you are meeting in person with people," Majors said.

Senate Minority Leader  Greg Baca , R- Belen, suggested the situation challenges what we mean when we speak of the New Mexico Constitution's guarantee of "access" to government.

"We've been forced to redefine that access as video access," he said Tuesday. "Now that just lacks the immersion that's required to legislate and govern properly for our state. … It lacks that personal touch. It lacks the exposure of one person to another, and it really takes away from the transference of ideas from one person to another."

"We're passing laws that directly impact New Mexicans and without their direct influence and participation in that law, New Mexicans should be very concerned about what it is that a very small group of elected officials are deciding to do," state Sen.  Crystal Diamond , R- Elephant Butte, said.

Diamond is among the freshman lawmakers getting oriented to the legislative process under far from ordinary circumstances: A mostly empty Capitol building currently separated from the public by temporary fencing, erected over concerns about potential political violence in protest of President  Joe Biden's  inauguration Wednesday.

More: New Mexico governor has lengthy to-do list for session

Limits on social gatherings owing to the pandemic forbid many of the parties and meals out during which lobbyists, local leaders and others mix with lawmakers.

Nonetheless,  Cris Balzano , a lobbyist advocating for clients including the Las Cruces Public Schools, said that even with those avenues closed, lobbyists are still able to make contact with lawmakers.

"Our legislators are very open to listen to what we have to say. I can reach out to any of them," Balzano said. "They are always welcoming by phone, by text message or a Zoom meeting, and I also have visited with some on a one-on-one basis as well … following the public health order and making sure we are safe."

"Having a lobbyist in Santa Fe is needed more than ever because those relationships are built over years," he added.

Solutions

Sweetser conceded that a hybrid solution along the lines she advocated for a brief special session would be far more difficult for a 60-day session, during which the Legislature is mandated to pass the state's budget.

A typical session, she said, "is fast-moving. It's difficult to mobilize advocates or opponents to bills in the best of circumstances, and with things being hybrid … it would have made it even more challenging."

Majors said that video conferencing applications like Zoom can allow for public input, but they are also vulnerable to being hijacked (or "Zoom-bombed") by people who flood the meeting with inappropriate messages, beyond the reach of the Sergeant at Arms.

Leadership could try to institute some sort of lottery system for public input, she said, but this would not assure equity among different opinions on an issue.

One solution Majors said leadership could explore is limiting the length and scope of legislative sessions until the pandemic is under control.

"The constitution says, in a 60-day session, you are required to pass the state budget. They could decide that's the only thing we are constitutionally bound to do: Create a budget, then go home; and if the pandemic eases in the late summer or early fall, hold another session," she said.

A legislative session devoted to redistricting is planned for September, or later in the year depending on when data from the 2020 U.S. Census is available.

As the Sun-News spoke with Sweetser, her husband  Jon Sweetser , a Luna County Commissioner, was on a Zoom meeting while multiple phones were ringing.

"We'll figure out how to do it better but it will never be ideal," Sweetser said.

(c)2021 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.