Democrat gubernatorial candidate Michelle Lujan Grisham further proved that she is too partisan to lead New Mexico after admitting that she and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus denied membership to Republican lawmaker Carlos Curbelo earlier this month “because the group has to strategize against” the President and Republicans.
Lujan Grisham, who co-chairs the caucus, previously claimed that Curbelo was rejected due to his voting record, claiming that “their group is at odds” with his values. But now Lujan Grisham has revealed that the real reason was to allow the group to continue to pursue a left-wing political strategy without bipartisan compromise or any dissenting voice.
Instead of using her position in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to promote compromise by reaching across the aisle, Lujan Grisham is using it as a vehicle to drive her partisan agenda while discouraging those who seek to work together and solve problems. If this is how Lujan Grisham chooses to use her office in Congress, she is unfit to provide bipartisan, results-oriented leadership for New Mexico.
The chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said they denied membership earlier this month to a Republican congressman because the group has to strategize against President Donald Trump and having a Republican in the group would be counterintuitive.
Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham told reporters on Thursday that the decision to exclude Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a Republican, from the caucus was ‘because we have strategies about the White House and we have strategies about those committees and we have strategies about who we are working on and leveraging with and that creates an environment where we stop having strategic discussions.’
The New Mexico congresswoman noted that end-of-the-year issues like negotiating protections for undocumented immigrants “were all-important issues that the caucus understood” needed certain leverage and that having a Republican in their midst could jeopardize that.
“The most important issue for the end of the year and seeing where key Republicans are gives us an opportunity to think about shifting the way in which we have strategies in this Congress,” she said…
Earlier in November, Grisham issued a statement that the decision not to accept Curbelo into the Caucus was based on his previous voting record.
‘The CHC isn’t just an organization for Hispanics; it is a Caucus that represents certain values,’ she said. ‘This vote reflects the position of many of our members that Rep. Curbelo and his record are not consistent with those values.’
As for whether the Hispanic Caucus will change its name to reflect its partisan direction, Grisham said, ‘If you were to ask that question individually to some members of the Hispanic Caucus, it would not surprise me that some members would prefer a Democratic-only caucus.’
