Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham defended her record on crime Tuesday as she continued to call on lawmakers to pass an omnibus public safety package during the 60-day legislative session. During a news briefing at the Capitol, called to underscore what the Governor's Office described as an "urgent need for public safety reform," Lujan Grisham rejected the idea she had waited too long to ramp up pressure on the Legislature to act amid a yearslong crime problem.
"I asked them to take action in 2018, 2019, 2020, '21, '22, '23," said Lujan Grisham, a Democrat serving her second and final term in office. The governor noted she had called a special session in July to focus on public safety, which ended after lawmakers adjourned in five hours without giving any of her proposals a hearing, saying they weren't ready for consideration. "But look, whatever time it takes, it takes," Lujan Grisham said.
"Here's something else that I need to say: They did not not send me criminal justice bills. Every single year, I can point to a bill I've signed, including lots of gun legislation that there was not always bipartisan agreement on. They got upstairs.
" Though she took partial blame for a "one-sided" narrative, the governor said the notion policymakers didn't want to tackle crime is untrue. "But figuring out when we had a decimated behavioral health system, when we had issues attracting providers, when we had COVID ..
. you lose an entire race," she said. "Then we had fires.
We led the country with.
