Inside the New Mexico Senate

Elected to New Mexicos state senate in 1996, Dede Feldman faced the challenges that confront state legislators around the country along with some that are uniquely New Mexican. In this forthright account of the workings of New Mexicos legislature, she reveals how the work of governing is actually accomplished. In New Mexicos part-time citizen legislature, Spanish may be spoken in the halls of the capitol as often as English, and Native American issues are often pivotal. But each year the Land of Enchantments legislators, like those in other states, must balance revenues and expenditures, tangle with lobbyists, and struggle with redistricting and campaign finance reform. State legislatures approaches to air pollution, drunk driving, and chronic disease, Feldmans book reveals, find their way into national law after theyve been road tested on the highways of various states.