The governor held her first post-Legislature news conference outside of an elementary school with a couple of dozen children behind her and a podium with a large logo reading, "Protecting the Future of Our Children."

Granted, the handmade banner held by some of the kids said "Wood Gormley" and not "Susana Martinez for Governor." But the scene sure seemed like a campaign photo op.

But don't accuse the governor of politicking. When a reporter brought up the fact that some Democrats have accused her of campaigning during the session, Martinez bristled.

"You know, I don't think you could ever say that putting our kids first is politics," she said, seemingly unaware that for years, politicians of every persuasion frequently have insisted their policies are to help or protect "the children."

"To call it 'politics' is insensitive to the needs of our children," Martinez said.

Martinez then mentioned the bill that would have prohibited driver's licenses for illegal immigrants — one of her major losses during the session. "To fight for the majority of New Mexicans and what they are demanding of their elected officials is not politics. It's doing the people's business," Martinez said. "And I intend to continue to do so."

Again, referring to the driver's license bill, the governor said, "Regardless of whether the Senate refused to embrace this reform, I intend to continue to fight for what New Mexicans demand. ... Although I am willing to work collaboratively to bring change, I was not sent to New Mexico to compromise my convictions or shrink in the face of conflict."

But don't call her continued fight on this issue "campaigning."

"I don't call it campaigning. I call it advocating," she said.

Victories and defeats

Martinez was mostly upbeat during the news conference. She began the event talking about her legislative triumphs. "While the executive and legislative branch didn't agree on everything, we did move forward on change," she said.

Among Martinez's victories were the cap on film credits; a bill that would exempt locomotive fuel from state gross-receipts tax; and an expansion of Katie's Law, which will require law-enforcement officials to obtain DNA samples from all suspects booked on felony charges.

"I am pleased that the Legislature was willing to put our children and our children most vulnerable ahead of Hollywood," Martinez said of the film measure.

She also touted a bill that will assign schools the grades of A to F based on student achievement and other factors, such as high-school graduation rates. Martinez described her push for education reforms as "a hard-fought battle against those who continued to defend the status quo."

But the governor didn't gloss over the setbacks she was handed during the session. She said she was disappointed that few major laws at battling corruption made it out of the Legislature.

There also was the driver's license issue, House Bill 78, which officially received the stake through its heart Saturday morning. A conference committee made up of members of the House and Senate failed to reach a compromise.

But while everyone involved knew for days that this bill had little chance of making it, the failure of an education bill aimed at ending the practice of social promotion — passing elementary school students on to the next grade even if the student is failing — seemed to rankle Martinez even more.

House Bill 21 passed the House by a 62-5 margin and had cleared the Senate Education Committee unanimously. Yet it remained on the Senate floor calendar for 10 days and died without a hearing Saturday.

The inaction on the bill angered some Republican senators who on Saturday pulled a filibuster to protest. Sen. John Ryan, R-Albuquerque, during debate on an unrelated bill, went into a lengthy, stream-of-consciousness monologue in which he spoke about matters including Frank Foy's whistle-blower lawsuit over state investments, the design of Diet Coke cans and the fact that he attended high school with cartoonist Mike Judge, the creator of Beavis & Butthead. Toward the end of the filibuster, he tag-teamed with Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell.

Ryan later told a reporter it was a "last-ditch effort" to convince Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez to hear HB 21.

The new boogeyman

At the outset of the session, some Republicans said some in their party wanted to keep House Speaker Ben Luján in power to use as a foil, or even a "boogeyman" in future campaigns. However, as was the case at a previous news conference, Martinez made it clear at Saturday's event that she's cast Sanchez, D-Belen, in the role of legislative villain.

Speaking about the failure of HB 21, Martinez said, "Despite broad bipartisan support ... Sen. Sanchez refused to let the Senate hear this critical bill. Unfortunately, Sen. Sanchez chose to play politics with our children's future."

When a reporter told her that Sanchez had said there were no politics in the session, Martinez chuckled. "The senator certainly has control of the calendar on the Senate floor, and he gets to decide what bills come forward and what doesn't come forward and the timing of that. Social promotion, that bill sat on the Senate floor for 10 days. But when there was a vote by the Legislature on the Senate floor to increase (legislator) pension benefits, it was done with a two-minute debate and all in one day." This, she said, "smelled of politics."

Before Martinez's conference, Sanchez told reporters, "I don't know that there was any willingness to negotiate on any issue — with the budget, the film, you heard her statements. They came out on a regular basis," he said with a laugh.

"What I got from the context of what I heard and read was, 'You either do it my way or else.' I don't think that's the way the legislative process works. Not that I'm any expert in it. I hope that in the future, she will work with us more. She'll understand what compromise means.

"I can tell you that I've only met with her staff twice," Sanchez said. "I met with her once. I was never approached by her staff on the issue that they seem to think I was holding. They didn't come to me and ask me any questions about where it was on the calendar. I saw one of her representatives down here toward the end of the session. He just smiled and said, 'It is what it is.' And that's what it is. It is what it is."

As for Luján, he told a reporter that he supported the social-promotion bill. "We thought it was a bill that needed to get addressed and should go up to the governor. Anything that's going to improve education, we certainly would be very supportive of.

"We addressed most of the things that the governor wanted to put in place, and she had concerns about," Luján said.

Neither the speaker nor the governor mentioned that it was House committees, not the Senate, that killed some of her pet bills, including measures to bring back the death penalty and requiring photo identification to vote.

Martinez on Saturday raised the possibility that she might try to convince the Legislature to pass the driver's license bill and the social-promotion measure during the expected autumn special session, which mostly will be devoted to drawing new district lines for the Legislature, Congress and the Public Regulation Commission.

Trip Jennings contributed to this report.

UPDATE: 3-28-11 After this story was published it was brought to our attention that HB21 was reported out by the Senate Education Committee on March 17, two days before the Legislature ended. That means the bill could not have been on the Senate floor calendar for 10 days as the governor was quoted saying.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.