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SANTA FE — Legislators will drive back to the Capitol, put their families back on hold and bunk in hotels and guest rooms again for the special session that starts Tuesday.

But Gov. Bill Richardson might have it the toughest of all: He must persuade lawmakers to go for a list of proposals he says can't wait after they signed off on nearly everything else he wanted in the 60-day session that ended Saturday.

And it isn't like legislators haven't seen these measures before.

A proposed limit on campaign contributions was rejected by one vote late in the session. A $200 million package of road construction projects wasn't even considered by the full Senate because of opposition.

Time ran out on a bill guaranteeing domestic partners some of the the same rights as married couples. And a measure setting up an independent ethics commission got through the House but couldn't get past its Senate committee assignments.

Richardson, who is also campaigning for president, called for the special session just as bleary-eyed lawmakers were headed home Saturday. The governor had not threatened a special session this year, although he has frequently in the past.

"People are prepared to get back to their business and their daily lives, so it's pretty tough," House Minority Leader Tom Taylor said. "We only have two days to plan for it."

Richardson's office this morning released the agenda for the special session. It includes the highway bill, the domestic partner measure, establishment of a state ethics commission, public campaign financing for judges and an individual campaign contribution limit of $2,300.

It also calls for tougher penalties and treatment for those who batter a household member and a anti-methamphetamine measure. There is no word on how long the special session might take, although it can last 30 days by law.

"I'm hoping it will be short," Taylor said. "I'll push for it to be as short as possible."

Here's a look at how the measures Richardson wants fared in the session that just ended.

Ethics

A bill to limit individual campaign contributions to $2,300 passed the House and nearly passed the Senate.

But on Saturday morning, less than an hour before the session adjourned, Sen. Joe Carraro, an Albuquerque Republican, changed his vote on the measure from yes to no.

Carraro later said he didn't like House amendments to the bill, which he said would have allowed the state to pick up the tab for lawmakers' trips only if they were educational.

"It would probably stop us from going to national committee meetings," he said.

Matt Brix, the executive director of Common Cause New Mexico, said he'll be in "session mode" until the ethics measures get passed.

"We were very let down by the results of reform this session," he said. "We barely took a baby step."

The Legislature did pass a gift ban and a measure to reform the state's regional housing authorities. But Brix said work remains.

"We need to do the right thing, revisit these issues and get them passed, not because anybody did anything wrong here in the Legislature, but because the public wants it and because it's the right thing to do."

Many of the proposals came about after the corruption trial of former state Treasurer Robert Vigil, who was accused of taking part in a conspiracy to receive kickbacks. Vigil was convicted on one count of attempted extortion but acquitted of most of the charges.

GRIP II

Richardson's package of road construction projects started the session at $250 million to be spent over five years on local streets. For Albuquerque, it would mean $8 million to improve Unser Boulevard, $5 million for Rio Bravo Boulevard, $5.6 million for Edith Boulevard between Candelaria and Montaño roads and $3.4 million to resurface Fourth Street.

The House passed the bill with just five votes against it.

In the Senate, however, the measure was whittled to $208 million and never got a vote on the Senate floor.

"There's too many issues about it that turned us against it," Carraro said.

"It's the fact that we haven't finished GRIP I."

The Democratic co-chairmen of the Senate Finance Committee also had major heartburn with the measure. It sat in their committee for 20 days, records show.

Sen. John Arthur Smith, a Deming Democrat, has said the first GRIP program - short for Governor Richardson's Investment Partnership - was facing a projected shortfall of some $300 million.

"A lot of us are saying, there's good things in there for GRIP II, but not enough for us to start something new and expand government," Carraro said.

Other Republicans have criticized the bill because it contains money for a proposed spaceport in southern New Mexico.

Rep. Dan Silva, an Albuquerque Democrat who sponsored the bill in the House, said he's not sure how to make the package more palatable to opponents.

"You can't really make it any smaller. We've told those communities about those projects for the last year and a half. They've known about it, and they are expecting it," Silva said.

However, Silva said if he can get the bill past the Senate Finance Committee, he believes he has the votes he needs in the full Senate.

Domestic partners

Richardson didn't mention a bill to guarantee the rights of domestic partners among his priorities until late in the session. He says the measure is about treating everyone in the state equally.

"We want to be the state with the strongest civil rights record and legislation anywhere in the country," he said.

On Saturday, Richardson will be the keynote speaker at a Human Rights Campaign event in Los Angeles, but he said his proposal has nothing to do with that. The Human Rights Campaign is a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender group.

The Senate did pass a domestic partners bill during the session, but advocates said it was stripped of its meaning. The House then restored language guaranteeing the same rights as married couples to heterosexual and homosexual couples, but time ran out before the Senate could vote again.

Taylor predicted it will be hard to sway lawmakers on the topic.

"On those moral issues, I tell my members to go look in the mirror and settle that and vote that way," he said. "You aren't going to change anybody's mind on those issues. I think it will be difficult. It will be extremely difficult because it's very personal."

Overall, lawmakers passed 80 bills Richardson wanted in the 60-day session.

They gave him some big victories, including a minimum wage increase to $7.50 an hour, a ban on cockfighting, a bill allowing medical use of marijuana, tax cuts and a renewable energy package.

Rep. Mimi Stewart, an Albuquerque Democrat, lauded the work the 112 lawmakers did. Richardson called it the most productive session in the state's history.

"This is one of the best sessions we have ever had," Stewart said. "So productive. I think with the new leadership from the minority party, it just went well. It was much less contentious."