The last 3 years I was D.C., I was a registered lobbyist on Capitol Hill (along with a lot of other attorneys), and some years prior that I did some lobbyist work in Santa Fe before I went to D.C. I also work very closely with my state senator, Candy Spence Ezzell who is THE leading advocate for gun rights in the NM Senate. HD-Ghost brings up a very important and salient issue about contacting the legislators in the New Mexico legislature regarding anti-gun bills, and all of us should do so if any anti-gun bills are introduced in a regular or special session. I would like to offer some tips which increases your influence (in Santa Fe as well as D.C).
1.) Clay Kimberling does a great job as the Regional NRA Grassroots Coordinator working with the Republicans & some Democrats opposing anti-gun legislation, and sends out timely alerts about what legislation has been submitted, and what is happening to it; the contact for Clay Kimberling is:
[email protected], phone: (703) 943-6566, and you can ask to receive updates on what is going on with regard to that bill and other gun legislation.
2.) When legislation is introduced in both the House & Senate, the bill is sent to committees and sub-committees for review/hearing and they vote to approve, reject, or table that bill before it proceeds to the Floor for a full vote; therefore not only do you want to contact
your legislators, but you want to contact the Committee Chair for the committee to which the bill is to be sent even though that person is a Democrat, AND other Democrat legislators...the reason for this is their staff keeps track of both positive and negative reaction about the bill, and while you need to give your name on your email communication, you don’t have to give your address or political affiliation, and your communication to each legislator may be counted multiple times...if there is a flood of negative comments about the bill it stands a good chance of being tabled for the session. The most likely committees in the
Senate which would receive
any gun legislation would be:
Judiciary – Joseph Cervantes, Chair, and the email is/
[email protected] ;
Finance – George K. Munoz – Chair, and the email is/
[email protected] ;
Health and Public Affairs – Linda M. Lopez, Chair, and the email is/
[email protected].; HOWEVER,
you must know for certain to which committee it is going before you send along your position, and that is where Clay Kimberling has knowledge. The bill must pass in
all the committees in both the House & Senate before it is sent for a full Floor Vote, and then it must be passed in both chambers by a full floor vote before it is sent to the Governor to sign before it becomes law.
3.) Your communication (email, text, phone, or letter) should name the bill by number & title; i.e. For the House - HB 5 & the title; For the Senate – SB 7 & the title. Your communication should not contain any threats, derogatory words, and be concise and not long…they only track by positive or negative position, and aren’t really interested in any long arguments pro or con.
The reason I am concentrating on the NM Senate is because historically that chamber is where
most anti-gun legislation has been stopped (tabled, killer amendments, or presented on the last day of the session and time runs out before there is a chance to vote on it). If you are interested I will try to send along a complete list of NM Legislators, in the House & Senate; the district they represent, their political affiliation, and their contact information; but it is a long list, and I am not quite sure about how to do so. The Governor is not very popular with the NM Legislature these days, and there are a considerable number of legislators (Republicans AND notably some Democrat Senators) which do not like, and resent, her multiple calls for a special session, plus she is a very Lame Duck Governor, and her influence has notably waned. From what I hear any special session would be to address ways to combat what President Trump has done to her liberal social agenda, BUT we cannot rule out some last ditch attempts for anti-gun bills.
Respectfully Submitted, Silvertip1
