Lawmakers scramble to find lodging in July amid high tourist season, looming Baldwin trial

May 12—State Rep. Randall Pettigrew jumped on the phone the same day Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced she was calling lawmakers back to Santa Fe for a special session in July.

Pettigrew, a Republican who lives in Lovington in far southeastern New Mexico — some 300 miles from the capital city — sought to find accommodations right away.

"The Drury was booked, and La Fonda didn't have anything for all the nights I wanted because I wanted to come in the day before," he said, adding the unknown length of the session made booking a hotel room even more challenging. The governor anticipates the session, which starts July 18, will last two to four days.

Pettigrew, who wanted a room within walking distance of the Capitol, made reservations for five nights at the Hilton Santa Fe Historic Plaza on Sandoval Street. The price tag for the stay was hefty.

"The total for the 17th through the 22nd was $1,837 plus tax, and then add another $150 for parking and then resort fees and stuff like that because it's the Hilton," he said.

It's also Santa Fe at the height of the busy tourist season.

The dates of the special session fall right between two major summer art markets that draw thousands of visitors and could overlap what is expected to be the final days of a high-profile involuntary manslaughter trial for actor and film producer Alec Baldwin.

The trial, over a fatal shooting in 2021 on the Rust movie set south of Santa Fe, is scheduled to start July 9 and run through July 19. Some are predicting it will create a "media circus" in the city.

Finding a place to stay for the session could be more stressful and expensive than usual for New Mexico lawmakers who don't live within driving distance of the Roundhouse.

"Aside from being able to find a place with availability, the rates are probably going to be about 50% higher," said Jeff Mahan, executive director of the Santa Fe Lodgers Association. "When you have higher demand, they charge more money for the limited inventory."

The average rate in Santa Fe last July was $220, up from $145 for January and February. The citywide occupancy was about 75% in July 2023, up from about 55% at the start of the year.

"The occupancy is 50% higher and the rates 50% higher [in July], so they may be able to squeeze in some rooms, and it may be a boon for Cerrillos Road because I think typically the downtown properties run a higher occupancy," Mahan said.

Rep. Jared Hembree, R-Roswell, said the annual meeting of the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law is also scheduled to start in Santa Fe on the same day as the session.

"That'll bring like 800 to 1,000 attorneys and their families into Santa Fe for the conference," he said. "So, there is a lot going on."

Hembree, who is working with the foundation on its annual meeting, said he had already made hotel reservations for the July meeting back in February and warned his fellow Republicans not to wait.

"As soon as I heard about the special session, I was letting members of my caucus know that they needed to get on hotels quick because the foundation had blocks at 12 or 14 different hotels, which was going to make it really difficult," he said.

Rep. Andrea Reeb, R-Clovis, said hotels near the Roundhouse quoted her rates of $400 to $480 a night when she first started calling.

"I'm trying to just look around and trying to see if I can find somebody I could stay with or something," she said. "I don't know what I'm going to do, truthfully, and I know all of us are kind of in the same boat."

While lawmakers receive a $231 per diem for days of work between March and September, several said the rate isn't enough to cover the cost of a hotel room near the Capitol, let alone lodging and meals.

"The actual costs of serving in the New Mexico Legislature are much, much higher for those of us who are not in Northern New Mexico or Albuquerque," said Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena, D-Mesilla.

Lara Cadena said she hasn't yet booked a room because she doesn't know how long the session will last.

"We can hear the insider politics of, 'Oh, it shouldn't last longer than this many days,' " she said. "Well, if it turns out it lasts shorter and I paid an extra $500 or $600 for a room I didn't need — with a per diem that didn't [cover the cost]?"

Rep. Nathan Small, D-Las Cruces, said he hasn't secured lodging, either.

"I ... may end up staying in Albuquerque if prices are too high in Santa Fe," he wrote in a text message.

Asked whether she was worried about waiting too long and not finding a place to stay, Lara Cadena said she may be "living out of [her] car," as she often does.

"I'm going to have a bunch of shoes thrown in the backseat and a bunch of different outfits and depending on the hour and depending on the day, I will be a little bit stressed out and won't have the comfort and ease of being Albuquerque- or Santa Fe-based," she said. "Some people have different disposable income than I do and so the per diem is not the worry for them, and they get to stay somewhere beautiful and stable. I don't have those means."

Lara Cadena said figuring out where to stay during the session may be a daily decision. The Cottonwood Court Motel on Cerrillos Road has proven affordable in the past, she added.

"Sometimes I get a room there for 50-some a night," she said. "They are tiny, and they have wood paneling, and they have an old-fashioned key that's an actual key that you put in a door. There's nothing fancy with furniture that's probably thrifted and from the '70s and '80s and '90s, but those folks are kind and the rooms are clean."

The city's tourism director, Randy Randall, characterized mid-July as "definitely a very busy time" in Santa Fe.

"I think it'll be tough for [lawmakers] to find places to stay within their per diem allotments," he said. "An awful lot of the legislators use short-term rentals for their stay, typically during [a regular] session because it's a longer stay, and it gives them kitchen facilities. I'm not sure how they will handle it. But we, of course, from a tourism perspective, always love anything that increases the demand."

Randall said demand drives up prices.

"Most of our hotels have revenue management plans that as they see demand increasing, rates go up a little," he said.

A five-night reservation at the Hilton for July 17-22, the same timeframe Pettigrew booked a room at the hotel last month, was listed at $2,321 on Wednesday.

Airbnb and Vrbo both showed numerous available short-term rentals over those days, ranging from $66 a night for a room in a home to several hundred dollars a night — plus hundreds of dollars in fees. The total cost of a one-bedroom property listed at $155 a night, for instance, came to a total of $1,235 for the five nights.

Mahan advised lawmakers, or anyone, to "book now" if they want to stay in Santa Fe during that time.

"It'll be interesting to see how it plays out, you know, where there's a will, there's a way," he said. "But it will cost everybody more, and it'll take more time to find a place to stay, and those places to stay may be further away."

Randall questioned whether the governor would consider modifying the start of the special session, now set for a Thursday. He said it's easier and cheaper to find accommodations earlier in the week.

"If it were to start on, say, a Monday afternoon ... it would definitely be both easier to find accommodations and probably a little bit more affordable," he said.

Michael Coleman, a spokesman for Lujan Grisham, said the governor isn't considering changing the date of the special session.

"The governor chose July 18 for the start of the special session after conferring with legislative leaders in both parties and taking a number of factors into consideration, including waiting until New Mexico's primary election campaign season was over," he wrote in an email.

Reeb and other lawmakers have questioned the need for a special session altogether.

Reeb noted the governor's legislative agenda fell flat among Democrats and Republicans alike during a meeting Monday of the interim legislative Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee.

The special session is focused on public safety, and the governor is floating a civil and criminal competency bill, as well as a roadway safety proposal and an increase in the penalty for being a felon in possession of a firearm — proposals some lawmakers contend won't do much to address crime in New Mexico.

"There was not an enthusiastic response on either side of the aisle," Reeb said. "... I don't even think we'll accomplish anything, and then all the taxpayers' money that's going to be spent on it and then all our own personal money. I just think people are going to get up there and be a little — you know, ugh — bitter. Just a little bitter."

Senate Republican Whip Craig Brandt of Rio Rancho expressed similar doubts.

"This is just, honestly, the weirdest special session that this governor has called so far, and she's called a whole lot of them," he said. "It doesn't make sense how she thinks we can come in for three or four days and accomplish what we couldn't get any movement on in the 30-day session."

At least for Brandt, accommodations won't be a problem because he lives within driving distance.

"I just refuse to pay ridiculous prices for a hotel when I live an hour away," he said. "But most of my colleagues do not have the privilege of being able to drive an hour and stay in their own bed."

Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.