Santa Fe New Mexican (New Mexico) September 25, 2003 Thursday ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: ELECTION A NIGHT OF UPSETS BYLINE: Steve Terrell SECTION: SANTA FE/EL NORTE; Pg. B-1 LENGTH: 450 words House Democratic Leader Danice Picraux was surprised when she arrived at an election-watch party Tuesday at La Posada and learned that constitutional Amendment 1 -- which will establish a state secretary of education and strip the current school board of most of its power -- was headed for victory, while Amendment 2 -- to use more permanent-fund money to pay for higher teacher salaries -- was in serious trouble. Based on calls she had received from constituents in her Albuquerque district, Picraux said, she thought if any amendment would be in trouble, it would be Amendment 1. Picraux had backed both. "People were telling me that if (former Gov.) Gary Johnson had his own secretary of education, we'd have had vouchers by now," said Picraux. She said she told callers the Legislature would have to approve any voucher program and the state Senate will have to confirm any governor's nominee for the education post. King family values: Former legislator Gary King said at the party that King family dinner conversation about the permanent- fund amendment has been interesting. "I'm for it, my uncle Don is adamantly against it, my dad said he's voting against it, and my cousin Rhonda is kind of for it." (Gary King's dad is former Gov. Bruce King, and his cousin Rhonda is a Democratic state representative from Gary's old south Santa Fe County district.) By the way, Gary King confirmed he's still contemplating running for Congress. And King, who has run for governor before, said he still aspires to that office. Was it something we said? Neither this writer nor a freelance photographer working for The New Mexican was allowed into Gov. Bill Richardson's inner sanctum in a 10th-floor La Posada suite Tuesday night, although a reporter and photographer from an Albuquerque paper were there. Richardson spokesman Billy Sparks told photographer Jake Schoellkopf that The New Mexican wasn't welcome because the governor was angry about last week's Roundhouse Roundup and a headline in Saturday's paper. Last week's column pointed out the irony in Richardson's statement during last year's campaign that police should be concerned about adults smoking marijuana in their homes because it's "against the law," while the governor keeps a stash of Cuban cigars -- which are illegal to import into this country. The offending headline -- "Official: Governor hypocritical on hiring" -- was for a story about the flap over state Land Commissioner Pat Lyons' decision to hire the son of a state legislator who was fired from another state agency after an investigation into pornographic e-mail. Knowing Richardson, I predict the freeze-out is temporary -- a tempest in the humidor. SUBJECT: LEGISLATIVE BODIES (91%); EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS (90%); POLITICAL PARTIES (90%); US STATE GOVERNMENT (90%); GOVERNORS (89%); PHOTOGRAPHY SERVICES (86%); POLITICAL CANDIDATES (78%); CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (78%); COUNTY GOVERNMENT (78%); SCHOOL VOUCHERS (77%); TEACHING & TEACHERS (72%); APPROVALS (72%); TEACHER COMPENSATION (71%); WAGES & SALARIES (71%); FREELANCE EMPLOYMENT (68%); PHOTOGRAPHY (68%); PHOTOJOURNALISM (68%); FAMILY (67%); SMOKING (64%); WRIT ERS (63%); CANNABIS (60%); TOBACCO PRODUCTS (60%); PERSON: BILL RICHARDSON (79%); CITY: ALBUQUERQUE, NM, USA (92%); SANTA FE, NM, USA (79%); STATE: NEW MEXICO, USA (92%); COUNTRY: UNITED STATES (92%); LOAD-DATE: September 28, 2003 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH Copyright 2003 New Mexican, Inc. .