Ex-New Mexico state senator John Arthur Smith dies at 82

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Former New Mexico state Sen. John Arthur Smith, a conservative-leaning Democrat who served southwestern District 35 for more than three decades, died Monday. He was 82.

Smith died at his Deming home, according to New Mexico Lt. Gov. Howie Morales. A cause of death wasn’t immediately disclosed.

Morales said he was notified of Smith’s death early Monday and announced it at the annual meeting of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association in Santa Fe.

Smith represented Senate District 35 on the borders of Arizona and Mexico from 1989 until 2021 — serving Doña Ana, Hidalgo, Luna and Sierra counties.

He was chair of the Legislative Finance Committee in two-year terms alternating with a House member from 2007 until 2020 and was Senate Finance Committee chair starting in 2008 until his retirement.

Smith was a gatekeeper on state spending as chairman of the lead budget-writing committee.

He also helped expand the state’s multibillion-dollar educational trust fund.

“Every New Mexican owes a debt to John Arthur Smith,” Legislative Finance Committee Chairman George Munoz, a senator from Gallup, said in a statement. “He protected the state’s finances in good times and bad. He faced criticism for being fiscally cautious but it’s because of him that the state weathered downturns that would have crushed other states.”

Smith “was committed to fiscal responsibility while consistently aiming to improve quality of life for all New Mexicans,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Janette, his family, and the countless individuals whose lives he touched.”

Smith earned a degree from the University of New Mexico in 1966 and got involved in southern New Mexico politics starting in the early 1980s.