NMiF Correspondent Buttons up Another Legislative Session

What a session! As usual I’m sad that it’s over because it really is the most exciting part of my reporting year. But also, I’m glad for the opportunity to reacquaint myself with my family, friends, critters and real life. The 30-day trip to sine die was a sprint as usual, with stakes made higher by a record surplus of money and the pressure to spend it responsibly before we hit another inevitable slump. Sometimes these budget sessions feel like standing in a telephone booth full of cash trying to stuff your pockets before the buzzer rings. 

What was new this year was a much more concerted strategy to stay sober through the cash fiesta and put as much money as possible into various trusts and funds aimed at creating “future money” that will get the state through the dry spells we know are coming. I hope you enjoy our conversation about that during this week’s show. It was a pleasure to work with my statehouse mentor, Trip Jennings of New Mexico in Depth, and new(ish)comer Shaun Griswold of Source New Mexico. 

At the beginning of the year, I was deeply worried that we wouldn’t have enough coverage of the legislative session after a series of retirements and reassignments left the Roundhouse press corps thinner than usual. Instead, I was thrilled to see news organizations step up, bringing a fresh crop of journalists to the beat. Young reporters from the Albuquerque Journal, Source, NMID and other news orgs converged on the Capitol and did a great job of keeping the public informed. 

I was heartwarmed by how much veteran reporters reached out to help first-time reporters — and students! This year I became a full-time professor of practice at UNM and each week this session I brought a class of journalism students to the Roundhouse with me. These 14 students, mostly seniors, spent their early college careers in the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic — which meant they had less experience than usual in field reporting. I didn’t know exactly what to expect but I was surprised by how much they achieved, how much they grew and how much they deepened my love of government reporting. 

Seeing the process through their eyes — the arcane procedures, quirky decorum, colorful characters, complicated legislation — gave me fresh perspective on why I’m still on this beat 15 years after I started. I was hugely impressed by their initiative and their fearlessness. They interviewed lobbyists, lawmakers and regular people about issues from oil and gas to guns, health care, climate change, education and more. 

Together we struggled with FOMO. Every time we dug into one story another bigger one popped up elsewhere. But I was so happy to bring them into this important work and show them why it matters but also how doing journalism can feel so interesting and fulfilling. I hope you’ll be reading their bylines and seeing their faces on screens near you soon. 

I want to give an extra special thanks to the team at NMPBS who all pitched in to bring you this coverage, and to our New Mexico Local News Fellow Justine Collister, who spent some of her last weeks at the station giving advice to my students and showing them how short the path can be from the classroom to the newsroom. 

– Gwyneth Doland, NMiF Correspondent