Tony Wagner sent us this post a little while ago with good news from Santa Fe:
Supporters of the domestic partnership bill crowded the hallways and committee room at the Roundhouse.
This afternoon, the New Mexico Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send the Domestic Partnership bill to the floor with NO RECOMMENDATION. Not exactly the glowing outcome we had hoped for, but what this means is that we are alive and kickin’.
This all came after a flurry of drama in the committee room. The first vote on the bill ended in a 5-5 tie with Sen. Bernadette Sanchez absent. After the vote was taken, Sen. Sanchez entered the room and told the crowd that she wanted another vote. The second vote was taken and Sen. Sanchez voted with the other fair-minded legislators to send it to the floor.
This also means that we have no more worries about committee action in the Senate, but we do have the added burden of having to pass the legislation twice on the Senate floor. Difficult yes, but when has anything in our movement not been difficult. We’re up for it!
Kudos go out to Terry, Marybeth and everyone else from the field team for pushing our operations into high gear. In the past two weeks since the last vote, the field operation has generated hundreds of knocked doors and thousands of phone calls from volunteers. These field activities generated close to a thousand postcards, letters, emails, and phone calls to the priority legislators. Many people on the ground here attribute the bill’s turn around, in part, to the efforts of the field program.
So what’s next? Word is spreading that the floor vote could come on Thursday and boy do we have a lot of work to do between now and then. That’s ok, we’re up for it and ready to put in the long hours!
Tonight, though, is celebration time at a local BBQ and Margarita joint in Santa Fe. The coalition just took a “dead” DP bill in New Mexico and breathed a little life into equality.
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