John Arthur Smith

	John Arthur Smith
	New Mexico Senate District 35
	Incumbent
	In office
	1989 - present
	Term ends
	December 31, 2016
Years in position	24
Party	Democratic
	Compensation
Base salary	$0/year
Per diem	$153/day
	Elections and appointments
Last election	November 6, 2012
First elected	November 8, 1988
Next election	November 8, 2016
Term limits	N/A
	Education
Bachelor's	University of New Mexico
	Personal
Profession	Real Estate Appraiser
Websites
	Office website

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Committee assignments

2013-2014

At the beginning of the 2013 legislative session, Smith served on the following committees:

New Mexico Committee Assignments, 2013
• Committees'
• Finance, Chair

2011-2012

In the 2011-2012 legislative session, Smith served on these committees:

New Mexico Committee Assignments, 2011
• Joint Legislative Capital Outlay
• Committees'
• Finance, Chair

2009-2010

In the 2009-2010 legislative session, Smith served on these committees:

New Mexico Committee Assignments, 2011
• Committees'
• Finance

Issues

Lawsuit against Gov. Martinez

Mimi Stewart, Henry Saavedra, John Arthur Smith and “Lucky” Varela filed two lawsuits against Gov. Susana Martinez over her line item vetoes in an unemployment bill and a housing bill.

Raul Burciaga, the director of the Legislative Council Service, told committee members of the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) May 19, 2011 that in his opinion two line-item vetoes made by Gov. Martinez violate the state’s constitution.

“Some of the governor’s vetoes seem to impinge on the legislature’s appropriation powers and plow new ground in a governor’s exercise of the veto authority,” said Burciaga.

That day, Gov. Martinez firmly said she disagreed.

“I could protest any governor doing this … it’s not partisan,” Sen. Stuart Ingle. “She’s a good governor … but it’s a little bit of stretch to do this.”

Burciaga testified that the veto Martinez made in unemployment bill H.B. 59 is part of a revenue bill and “did not authorize the expenditure of state money because that authorization was already in statute and not amended in this bill.” Burciaga said the veto is “unconstitutional and, hence, unenforceable.”

The second veto came when Gov. Martinez reduced an appropriation the legislature made to budget bill H.B. 2 from $150,000 to $50,000. Burciaga said that while state courts have not addressed the issue specifically, reducing “an item of appropriation is a legislative function that the governor has no power to do.”

“I think we need to challenge this in the courts,” Rep. Luciano “Lucky” Varela (D-Santa Fe) said.

“The main difficulty I have is changing the figure [from $150,000 down to $50,000 in HB2],” Ingle said, expressing concern that if the current partisan makeup of the Roundhouse were reversed, a future Democratic governor could assume greater power at the expense of the legislative branch. ”We just can’t go there.”^[1]^[2]

Elections

2012

See also: New Mexico State Senate elections, 2012

Smith ran for re-election in 2012. He defeated Larry P. Martinez in the June 5, 2012 Democratic primary and defeated Russell G. Allen in the general election which took place on November 6, 2012.^[3]^[4]

New Mexico State Senate, District 35, General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	John Arthur Smith Incumbent	61%	10,446
	Democratic	Russell G. Allen	39%	6,688
Total Votes				17,134

New Mexico State Senate, District 35 Democratic Primary, 2012
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
John Arthur Smith Incumbent	56%	2,031
Larry P. Martinez	44%	1,596
Total Votes		3,627

2008

On November 4, 2008, Smith was re-elected to the 35th district in the New Mexico Senate. Smith had no challenger. ^[5]

Smith raised $70,856 for his campaign.^[6]

Campaign donors

2012

Campaign donor information is not yet available for this year.

2008

Listed below are the five largest contributors to John Arthur Smith's 2008 campaign.

Donor	Amount
CMTE to Elect John A. Smith	$12,336
New Mexico Medical Society	$2,500
Chuck Hamilton	$1,900
New Mexico Hospital Association	$1,000
Phelps Dodge	$1,000

Personal

Smith has a wife, Janette.

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