Women’s caucus emerges in Legislature

Female legislators in New Mexico are forming a Women’s Caucus to leverage their growing numbers and influence following the November election.

Democratic state House Rep. Andrea Romero of Santa Fe, elected Tuesday as the group’s parliamentarian, said it includes lawmakers from both political parties and is designed to push for reforms that can help women, children and families.

“It’s the Year of the Woman,” House Majority Leader Sheryl Williams Stapleton said in a news release on the Women’s Caucus. “And here we are.”

Other caucus officers elected include two president co-chairwomen, Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, D-Albuquerque, and Rep. Kelly Fajardo, R-Belen; two vice president co-chairwomen, Reps. Dayan HochmanVigil, D-Albuquerque, and Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena; Rep. Natalie Figueroa, D-Albuquerque, as secretary; and Rep. Rebecca Dow, R-Truth or Consequences, as treasurer.

“The solutions that impact women, families and children are bipartisan solutions,” Sedillo Lopez said in the news release. “We want to model a Legislature that works together and gets things done.”

More details about the alliance’s agenda will emerge as it approves bylaws.

In November, 31 women won election to the 70-seat state House. That’s a stark change from 1973 when there were none. Among Democrats in the House, women now outnumber men.

There are eight women in the state Senate after the governor’s appointment last month of Sedillo Lopez. They are outnumbered by men by a ratio greater than 4-1.