Welcome to a wild session

New Mexico’s legislative sessions are a little like a state fair — only with politics rather than amusement rides.

People from across the state — from children to retirees — fill the hallways of the Roundhouse each January. They sign up to testify in cramped committee rooms, cheer from the gallery as achievements and local heroes are celebrated, and mix with professional lobbyists, staffers and politicians.

This year’s session could be wilder than most.

Democrats swept every statewide office Nov. 6 and increased their margins in the state House of Representatives. An oil boom in the southeast part of the state, meanwhile, is giving New Mexico an unprecedented amount of extra money to work with.

Add it all up, and legislative leaders are preparing for plenty of work this session — a flood of ideas after years of belt-tightening and a governor who clashed with Republicans and Democrats alike.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, now occupies the fourth floor of the Roundhouse, and she has outlined an ambitious agenda of her own. Some of the initial work is expected to include the passage of bills that her predecessor, Republican Susana Martinez, had vetoed.

It’s a 60-day session, so lawmakers must get their bills through a series of committees and both chambers of the Legislature by noon on March 16, or start all over again next year.

In the House, Democrats will hold a 46-24 edge, an eight-seat gain from the 2018 session.

In the Senate, Democrats are expected to maintain a 26-16 advantage, but some of the most powerful members are fiscal conservatives from rural areas. It’s unclear how much common ground they’ll find with Democrats in the House, where there’s been an influx of new lawmakers from metropolitan areas.

My colleagues and I hope you’ll follow along this year — in the paper, through social media and our website at abqjournal.com/ legislature.

Thank you for reading.