Editor’s note: The letter below is being transmitted by Common Cause New Mexico on behalf of a group of eight organizations concerned about a toxic culture of sexual harassment, bullying and inappropriate behavior during New Mexico legislative sessions.

We write to follow up on our open letter to Senators Peter Wirth, Mimi Stewart, and Greg Baca on February 24, 2022. In that letter, we expressed our support for the brave public stand taken by Marianna Anaya, and urged the Senate leadership to initiate a formal investigation regarding Ms. Anaya’s allegations of sexual harassment against Senator Daniel Ivey-Soto.

It appears now that Ms. Anaya’s experience fits within a larger pattern of alleged misconduct involving Senator Ivey-Soto. Since publishing our open letter on February 24, 2022, members of our organizations have been contacted by many other women who have suffered sexual harassment, gender-based bullying, or inappropriate advances from Senator Ivey-Soto. Some members of our organizations have also stepped forward to share stories of their own.

Some of these stories are summarized below, with the permission of those who suffered them: 

• While drinking at the Bull Ring, Senator Ivey-Soto began rubbing the knee of a female lobbyist – then began aggressively rubbing his hand up the inside of her thigh. That lobbyist asked a second female lobbyist for help. The second lobbyist asked Senator Ivey-Soto to walk her down the street so that the first lobbyist could get away from him.
• While drinking at Rio Chama in the evening, Senator Ivey Soto asked a twenty-four year old female lobbyist a number of inappropriate personal questions before inviting her to “meet privately with [him] in [his] office.” This incident was reported to Senate leadership.
• After an evening gathering at the home of a current state legislator, Senator Ivey-Soto pushed a female lobbyist up against her car and forcefully attempted to kiss and touch her despite her telling him “No” and physically struggling with him. This incident was witnessed by a former state representative, who can attest to the accuracy of the account.
• Senator Ivey-Soto groped a female advocate on the second floor of the Roundhouse.
• Senator Ivey-Soto repeatedly referred to two female executive directors of one of the undersigned groups as “Lips and Hips.”
• Senator Ivey-Soto screamed and cursed at a female advocate from one of the undersigned groups moments before she was scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. This incident was reported to Senate leadership.
• Senator Ivey-Soto screamed and cursed at multiple high-ranking female electoral officials, so loudly and aggressively in one instance that a nearby advocate inquired as to whether the official felt safe or required assistance.  

In addition to all of the stories above, which recount Daniel Ivey-Soto’s time as a state senator, we were contacted by a woman named Gayle Krueger, who was physically assaulted by Daniel Ivey-Soto when he was in graduate school at the University of New Mexico. The woman was a staffer for the UNM Graduate and Professional Student Association. Daniel Ivey-Soto was the elected chair of the GPSA council, and pressed and held this woman against a wall and screamed in her face for disregarding a task that he wanted her to perform. This woman reported the incident to the University, and her account was investigated and substantiated.

Taken individually, each of the incidents described above are disturbing and worthy of formal investigation. Taken collectively, they are indisputably intolerable, and demonstrate that Senator Ivey-Soto has a long-standing and deeply engrained pattern of abusive behavior towards women.

With our first letter, we called upon the leaders of the Senate to investigate Marianna Anaya’s allegations under the Legislature’s Anti-Harassment Policy. With this letter, we call upon Daniel Ivey-Soto to resign from the Senate, or for the Senate to remove him from its ranks. While many of us have worked closely with Senator Ivey-Soto and consider him a reliable vote for many of our causes, it has become clear to us that he is not fit to hold the powers or responsibilities of a legislator. We believe that Senator Ivey-Soto needs time out of office to reflect on his abusive behavior and hopefully seek assistance for the underlying causes of that behavior. More importantly, we believe that power must be held to account and that the culture of our legislature must be reformed.

Were Senator Ivey-Soto to remain in his position – or were the Senate to allow him to remain there – it would send a clear message that the elected leaders of our state are willing to tolerate serial sexual harassment, the abuse of women, and the abuse of power.

Such a message would be unacceptable.

Senator Ivey-Soto must resign his position or be removed from it.

SIGNED,

Heather Ferguson and Viki Harrison, Common Cause New Mexico
Andrea Serrano, Ole
Marshall Martinez, Equality New Mexico
Miranda Lipscomb, New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence
Austin Weahkee, NM Native Vote
Ahtza Chavez, NAVA Education Project
Nick Voges
Melanie Aranda, Center for Civic Action
Oriana Sandoval, Center for Civic Policy