Photo by Craig FritzTribune

Tribune

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish meets with Gov. Bill Richardson to discuss staffing for their next term in office. Before the meeting in mid-December, the two had exchanged little more than niceties for a month because of the governor's busy schedule. With Richardson expected to pursue a run for president, Denish's role could grow this term.

Photo by Craig FritzTribune

Tribune

A portrait of Diane Denish, the state's first female lieutenant governor, hangs outside her office with photos of her predecessors. Denish says she hopes to be the state's first female governor, as well, and plans to run for the post in 2010. "I think the voters are ready," she says. "I think what they really want is someone who is committed to New Mexico."

Photo by Craig FritzTribune

Tribune

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish speaks to an activist during a conference on teen pregnancy in Albuquerque. Denish has been active beyond the post's usual role of presiding over the Senate when it's in session.

Photo by Craig FritzTribune

Tribune

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish confers with an attendant before a conference on teen pregnancy in Albuquerque.

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Diane Denish stood on the floor of the Senate, brushing off her red suit and getting ready.

The sergeant-at-arms asked her to clear the aisles because the governor was coming.

It was January 2003, and what the sergeant-at-arms apparently didn't know was that Denish was set to walk down the aisle herself - as New Mexico's lieutenant governor.

It wasn't the last time Denish encountered people surprised that our state's second in command is a woman.

The occasional telephone caller still rings the Denish home number, asking for "Mr. Denish, the lieutenant governor."

Despite any preconceptions some might have about power in New Mexico, Denish said the state is ready for a female governor.

"I think the voters are ready," said Denish, 57. "I think what they really want is someone who is committed to New Mexico."

That someone could be Denish, who says she'll run in the 2010 governor's race but who might be handed the key to the Governor's Office sooner than that, given widespread speculation that Gov. Bill Richardson will run for president or take a post in a new presidential administration.

"I came to realize a long time ago that my feet are firmly planted on the ground in New Mexico," Denish said in a recent interview.

"I am going to run in 2010, God willing and barring anything that would prevent me."

That run, that ambition to lead may have started way back when Denish was a girl growing up in Lea County.

Kay Hannum, Denish's high school English teacher and cheerleading coach, said no one in Hobbs raises an eyebrow over Denish's accomplishments.

"I'm not the least bit surprised. I always knew that anything Diane did, she would succeed at."

Hannum retired this year, and happened to have handy a copy of the 1967 Hobbs High School yearbook, the year Denish graduated. During a recent telephone interview, it didn't take Hannum long to spot photos and mentions of Denish in the book.

She's there as a cheerleader, a member of the drama club, the debate team, honors English. You name it, Denish did it.

The thing about Denish that stood out, even before she was old enough to vote, was that she could do so many things well, Hannum said.

"There are some students that are really good students, but that's all they are. They don't have other interests. Diane always did," Hannum said. "When I think of the all-American girl, I think of Diane."

She may be all-American. But Denish has never forgotten the place she started.

Denish, a Democrat who serves on the board of directors of the Daniels Fund, a charitable organization started by her uncle Bill, has helped countless people in her hometown community, said Johnny Cope, chairman of the state's Transportation Commission, who graduated from Hobbs High in 1969.

"There are so many kids who would be working in the oil fields with no opportunity," he said.

"She's got a human heart that makes me proud to be her friend."

Like those who knew her as she grew up, some politicians who work with Denish now say she's more than capable of running a state of nearly 2 million people.

The governor says Denish "is immersed in every issue that the administration works on."

"I don't think she needs any grooming. She'd be ready to step in if she had to," Richardson said.

"She's very diverse, very strong in a lot of areas."

Denish would have no problem, he said, leading a pack of power that's mostly male.

Richardson said Thursday he's asked Denish to spearhead the administration's efforts related to water in the coming legislative session. Richardson is proposing to spend more than $100 million on water projects around the state, as well as making policy changes such as requiring new homes to have water-saving technology.

So far, Denish has been much more active than other lieutenant governors - a role that typically means presiding over the Senate when it's in session and filling in for the governor when he is gone.

If she made it to the governor's chair, Denish would be the fourth New Mexico lieutenant governor to do so - although none have been elected to the top spot.

In 1917 and 1933, lieutenant governors took office when the governor died in office. In 1962, Tom Bolack became governor for several months when Edwin Mechem resigned to join the U.S. Senate.

So can a woman rule what many still regard as a men's club?

Senate Majority Whip Mary Jane Garcia - one of a few female leaders in the Roundhouse - said there's no doubt Denish could.

"If we have a (U.S.) House speaker that is female, why not a governor of New Mexico?" she said.

Garcia, 70, said she looks to Denish as a leader - even though Garcia is 13 years older.

"She's younger than me, but I look up to her," she said. "If she was governor, it would be the same thing."

Garcia, a Do¤a Ana Democrat, said Denish is adept at keeping things running as smoothly as possible in the Senate.

"When she knows there are going to be controversial topics, she keeps us in order. Sometimes we tend to get a little carried away, but she doesn't let us."

But Senate Minority Whip Leonard Lee Rawson, a Las Cruces Republican, said it's hard for him to imagine how Denish would do as a governor, in part because she hasn't been the Richardson administration's liaison with the Senate.

"Any time we've negotiated, it's been with Richardson or his staff," he said.

And, he said, by state Constitution, the lieutenant governor's job isn't that powerful.

"The Legislature and the governor have been making up jobs for the lieutenant governor since Casey Luna," Rawson said of the lieutenant governor under former Gov. Bruce King from 1991-94.

Denish, who is married to consultant Herb Denish and has three adult children and two grandchildren, is modest but proud of her accomplishments in the four years since she was first elected.

Her best memory of her first term in office isn't a specific moment but the affirmation from Democrats and Republicans that she was doing well leading the sometimes unruly Senate.

"Toward the close of that first 60-day session, I started to get a lot of feedback about doing a good job . . . and that meant a lot to me, although I was pretty sure I could do it."

Denish even politely put the legendary former Sen. Manny Aragon in his place a few times, something few in New Mexico politics can say they have done.

"I think he would bluff you and challenge you on whether you did know the rules, but he wouldn't take you to the mat over a rule unless there was something really big at stake," she said of the longtime South Valley Democrat and power broker.

"I think he appreciated the fact that I was willing to say `You are out of order,' " she said.

Presiding over the Senate has also proven to be Denish's biggest challenge.

"Wading into presiding over a body of 42 experienced senators I thought was a challenge at first," she said.

"But it seemed like almost no time at all before I felt comfortable in the chair behind the gavel. I knew I had the resources at hand to navigate the waters of real serious debates."

Other accomplishments:

Serving as chairwoman of the Children's Cabinet.

Funding the state's pre-kindergarten program.

Helping pass Katie's Law, which will require people arrested on most felony offenses to give a DNA sample. The law takes effect in January and is named after Katie Sepich, a New Mexico State University student from Carlsbad who was raped and killed in 2003.

"When it was actually on the Senate floor, someone had prepared 11 amendments, but they were out of the chamber when I called for the vote."

The Senate voted and the bill moved on.

Denish didn't know about the amendments at the time. What she did know was that the bill needed to move past the Senate.

"That's to me what you have to do to be a leader, it's to see an opportunity, take advantage of it, bring the people together and try to get the right results at the end."

While she's a leader in her own right, some might see Denish as living in Richardson's shadow. He's the one who holds the majority of Capitol news conferences. He's the one who puts out the most news releases. He's the one on television most of the time.

But Denish, a former political consulting group owner and chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, hasn't just followed in Richardson's footsteps.

She's put down her own path.

"What I've done is I've gone to the governor and said here's some areas I want to work on."

At the same time, she said, she's learned from Richardson, 59.

In particular, she's watched his negotiation style.

"You have to be able to see it through others people's eyes; you have to know what you want out of it, what your goals are, what their goals are," she said.

So what would Denish bring to the Roundhouse table?

"I've proven my work in the way I operate. . . . I'm not a bully, I listen to all sides, but in the end, I'm willing to work with a lot of people."

Denish works with a lot of people in part because there is so much to be done in one of the nation's poorest areas.

The state has to train the people who will run New Mexico's next economy, she says. It must solve water problems, develop alternative energy programs, figure out how to fund its highway and health care systems as federal money diminishes.

"I think we're going to have a lot to build on out of this administration," she said.