Santa Fe New Mexican

John Arthur Smith: Senate's straight shooter
Finance committee head gains reputation as a fearless questioner
Kate Nash | The New Mexican

Almost as soon as recent state-revenue projections were released, Sen. John Arthur Smith was busy questioning them.

As head of the Senate Finance Committee, Smith had an inkling the so-called consensus revenue projections were too high.

And while Gov. Bill Richardson's administration in turn questioned the numbers Smith thought accurately reflected the state's true revenue picture, it twice last week revised its projections downward.

Yet Smith isn't convinced Richardson is playing straight with the public, and he's not afraid to say that. "To my way of thinking, those are imaginary dollars," he said of the administration's revenue figures from the Senate floor during a debate this week.

This isn't the first time Smith, from Deming, has found himself crosswise with Richardson, who like Smith is a Democrat.

Still, Smith said he's got nothing personal against Richardson and simply is doing his job as a lawmaker. "When he says he's bold, he is bold, but I've often said there's a fine line between being a fool and coward, and you have to walk that line, and we have to have a balanced budget even after the governor is gone," said Smith, 67.

Since taking the helm of the Senate Finance Committee, Smith has slowly become a more high-profile member of the Senate.

In fact, he is seen by some in the Roundhouse as the fearless questioner of the governor — and few other things that seem the meat and potatoes of state government.

During that same recent debate, Smith took a stand against a measure in the bill that pays for the session that would have allowed $35,000 in franking, or mailing privileges. "When you get politicians and money together, it's like stampeding buffaloes," he said.

His colleagues in the Senate say they admire Smith for his frankness. "It's not to me that I'm interpreting that he's taking the governor on," said Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort, a Sandia Park Republican.

"What I see is that he's a master of the fiscal process of the budget, He doesn't want to get us into trouble where a couple years later ... that future bodies are either going to have to cut program ... or turn around and raise taxes," she said.

Beffort and Smith worked together on a program several years back to voluntarily expand kindergarten programs from a half-day to a full day.

She said she admired the way the senator stuck to his guns on that proposal — and many since, although they are not always on the same page politically.

"He's very strict, he does not waiver on his convictions, and he has the best interest of the state of New Mexico in mind," she said.

Smith, who ran for Congress in 2002 against Steve Pearce, has spent a good chunk of his life in small-town Deming, but worked for H.J. Heinz Co. in sales management in Dallas. He now works as a real-estate appraiser full time, at least when he's not doting on his grandkids. He was elected to the Senate in 1988.

Since then, he says, he's missed just one floor session, on a day a close friend died.

But lest you think politics is all Smith has going for him, think again. He's quick to point out he could take it or leave it.

But before he leaves, will he make a run for the Senate's top post?

That's really not his mission in life, he said. "If that's where the course takes me someday, fine and dandy," he said. "If it doesn't, fine and dandy, and I could walk away tomorrow from politics. And I have another life."

Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, has sat next to Smith on the Senate floor over the years, including during early-morning and late-night debates. While from the outside, Smith seems the stern contrarian, Lopez said he has another side.

She recounted a joke Smith told to former Sen. Phil Maloof, who at one point also sat in the back row of the Senate floor near Smith and Lopez. "Senator Maloof came to sit back here, and Senator Smith and I were joking that we used to sleep together," Lopez said, referring to naps lawmakers have been known to take in the wee hours of debates.

Maloof, known in part for his wealth, seemed shocked. According to Lopez, he asked "how can you say such a thing?"

But Smith didn't miss a beat. "Oh, with my kind of money, it's not a problem," he joked, as if he were as well off as Maloof.

To stay sharp — or at least awake — during some of the longer days and nights at the Capitol, Smith says, "I'm not a sleeper, and I stay tanked up on coffee."

Smith also keeps up to date on oil and gas prices — a staple of state spending — and almost daily during the special session that ended Tuesday, he would recite the current figures and what they meant for the budget.

And those numbers are the main genesis of Smith's clashes with Richardson, he said. "I'll bet you 99.9 percent of my disagreements with the executive branch has to do with fiscal issues ... it goes back to fiscal issues, and what's responsible and what's not," he said.

In a place where party loyalty often reigns, Smith, is poised about his rubs with Richardson. "The governor and I have had firm words with one another, but he also knows that I can take a punch and get back up off the mat."

Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com. Read her blog, Green Chile Chatter, at www.santafenewmexican.com.