Gregg Hull said he would support legislation to put guardrails on a governor’s emergency powers if he was elected as governor of New Mexico.
The Republican nominee and former mayor of Rio Rancho said he would sign “a well-written bill” that would limit how long a governor’s emergency order can remain in place, in a Sunday email response to an inquiry from the Roswell Tribune.
Hull is running against Democrat and former-U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in the Nov. 3 election. The winner will succeed term-limited Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat.
Though he said governors should have the authority to react quickly to situations such as floods and wildfires, Hull wrote that the Legislature should have a role in extending such authority.
“A governor needs to act fast in a crisis, but no governor should run New Mexico by emergency order for months on end without the legislature having a say,” Hull wrote.
Hannah Menchoff, communications director for the Haaland campaign, declined to comment when asked by the Tribune in an email if Haaland would support such a measure.
The response from Hull came after GOP nominee for the state’s 59th House District Steve Dodson of Roswell announced at the Sept. 17 meeting of the Chaves County Federated Republican Women, that he will introduce a bill to restrict the governor’s emergency powers each year until it is passed. Later in response to questions from the Roswell Tribune, Dodson wrote in an email that he believed Hull would sign such a bill.
Dodson secured the party’s nomination in the June 2 Primary Election after running unopposed and will be unopposed in the Nov. 3 General Election.
He wrote that a bill that includes legislative oversight of the governor’s emergency authority is important regardless of which party controls the governor’s office and that he hopes Haaland would also consider signing. To make his point, Dodson posed a hypothetical scenario in which President Donald Trump moves to Santa Fe and runs for governor of New Mexico.
“Should Governor Trump have unlimited ‘emergency’ powers,” Dodson wrote?
Hull, when asked, did not give specifics about what exactly such a bill should include, but said a series of bills and proposed state constitutional amendments introduced by former state Rep. Greg Nibert (R-59) of Roswell would be a good starting point.
Between 2020 and 2024, Nibert sponsored six bills and four proposed state constitutional amendments that would have capped the amount of time an emergency order could remain in place at 30 or 90 days depending on the proposal. Before the end of that period, a governor who wanted more time would have to call the Legislature into a special session to amend, suspend or terminate the order, or grant a 60-day extension to the emergency power.
New Mexico law grants a governor authority to issue executive orders to commit state resources and address natural disasters, civil disturbances and public health emergencies.
Lujan Grisham used such authority during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the state’s efforts to manage the spread of the virus. Those orders restricted business operations, halted in-person learning for students, prohibited public gatherings and required face coverings. The Legislature since passed no measure limiting the duration or scope of those emergency orders.
Lujan Grisham spokesperson Michael Coleman said the governor opposed the GOP’s proposed limitations, and argued special sessions are costly amid an emergency.
The second of two special sessions in 2025, cost the state $75,000, according to House Bill 1, which appropriated funding for the session.
“The governor has opposed restricting the executive’s ability to manage on-going emergencies. Requiring the legislature to convene every time an emergency extends longer than 90 days would lead to delays at times when every second counts to save lives and property,” Coleman said in an email. “It is also worth noting that the legislature already has the ability to convene a special session on its own, so if it is unhappy with the way a governor was handling an emergency it has the ability to convene and take action.”
Hull wrote that he believes the oversight provided by the Legislature is worth the price tag.
“A focused one or two day session, limited to the emergency at hand, is a modest price for accountability when an emergency is shaping the lives of two million New Mexicans.” he wrote.
