Gov.-elect ready to move quickly
Lujan Grisham has lengthy to-do list by year’s end
SANTA FE — Since being elected New Mexico’s next governor last week, Michelle Lujan Grisham has appeared on national television news shows, met with outgoing Gov. Susana Martinez and started laying the groundwork for her gubernatorial administration.
She’s also found running errands around town to be a little more time-consuming than usual.
“I can’t go anywhere without someone coming up to me and saying, ‘This is really important’ and tell- ing me about issues that need fixing,” Lujan Grisham said in an interview Monday. “It is on every single person’s mind.”
With her swearing-in less than two months away, Lujan Grisham plans to juggle finishing up her term in Congress — she heads back to Washington, D.C., today — with a lengthy gubernatorial to-do list before New Year’s Day.
The state’s first elected Latina Democratic governor said Monday she will be announcing transition
teams for various state agencies in the coming days and hopes to have her Cabinet assembled by the time she takes office on Jan. 1. The state has 23 Cabinet-level departments whose directors are appointed by the governor and are subject to Senate approval.
“I think people are going to see we’re very substance heavy,” Lujan Grisham told the Journal.
She also vowed to be “very transparent” about inauguration fundraising and planning, though she said inauguration details are still being worked out.
In a gubernatorial race marked by hard-hitting attacks and big spending by both candidates, Lujan Grisham received more than 57 percent of the roughly 690,000 votes cast to defeat Republican Steve Pearce, according to unofficial returns.
A former Cabinet secretary herself under three different governors, she will take office at a time of unprecedented incoming revenue — the state is projected to have at least $1.2 billion in “new” money in the coming budget year — and with Democrats holding a sizable majority in both legislative chambers.
Lujan Grisham said she’s committed to working with legislative leaders in the coming weeks to come up with a plan to boost funding for pre-kindergarten and other early childhood programs, in part by taking more money from New Mexico’s largest permanent fund.
She said specifics have yet to be hammered out, but such a change would also require approval by statewide voters. In recent years, similar proposals have stalled in the state Senate, due in part to opposition from some Democrats.
Given that backdrop, existing relationships with many lawmakers will be beneficial in the early childhood and other legislative efforts, said Lujan Grisham, who added she intends to listen to legislators’ views and not impose a top-down approach at the Roundhouse.
But Lujan Grisham also said she doesn’t expect easy agreements on all issues.
“I’m not Pollyannaish,” Lujan Grisham said. “These sessions are always more difficult than you think.”
While Lujan Grisham and Martinez said last week they intend to set aside political differences to work toward a smooth transfer of power, the governor-elect has also touted the need for change — including hiring more social workers in the Children, Youth and Families Department.
She also said general dissatisfaction among New Mexico voters may have played a role in the record-shattering turnout for a non-presidential election year.
“I think New Mexicans by and large were really tired of things not working,” Lujan Grisham said.