Gail Chasey

After 27 years in the state House, New Mexico Rep. Gail Chasey (D-Albuquerque) is retiring, and four Democratic candidates are vying for her Nob Hill-area District 18 seat in the primary election. With the four progressives sharing similar political ideals, their varied backgrounds have emerged as a focal point of the campaign.

New Mexicans who call 1-800-QUIT-NOW, a program to help people kick nicotine products, are being turned away. Local organizations doing smoking prevention work say the state has also told them to stop their projects.

Bills aiming to create broader and safer participation in New Mexico elections continued to move swiftly in both chambers of the Legislature Monday.

Democratic sponsors of the New Mexico Voting Rights Act say more people would be registered to vote and have access to the ballot were it to become law. Many Republicans argued on the House floor late into the night Tuesday that certain provisions could compromise election security. The House backed the bill after three hours of debate.

A resolution that would ask voters whether to change New Mexico’s constitution so that state lawmakers no longer draw their own voting districts is moving forward in the legislature with bipartisan support. But the proposal to create an independent redistricting commission also has detractors in both parties.

A bill that aims to establish an independent redistricting commission to limit lawmakers’ role in drawing their own maps is expected to be introduced next month. Its sponsor, Rep. Natalie Figueroa, says it’s a necessary next step in removing politics from New Mexico’s process.

Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless’s Rachel Biggs told the legislature’s Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee Monday that investing in housing can keep people with extremely low incomes from committing or being victims of crime.

Since February this year, people in prison in New Mexico have not been able to receive physical mail. Correspondents must write to an address in Florida, and inmates receive scanned versions of most letters, after processing by a private company.

After a bill expanding voting rights in New Mexico got hung up on the Senate floor, a version of it remains alive as the 30-day legislative session nears its end.

The question of whether to have an independent commission, rather than lawmakers, redraw the state’s legislative maps has advanced out of its first committee.