Looking at legislator's ACU ratings - it seems, that the word "conservative" must be used here in strictly relative sense (as all 5 have 20-30 ratings by ACU standards). Real conservatives in the past usually had 80+ from ACU... At least - 70. Former Democratic congressman from New Mexico Harold Runnels, for example, had lifetime ACU rating 79 (a couple percentages higher, then his Republican counterpart, btw..)
yeah, this is a disappointing sign of the Democrats' continued leftward lurch excluding moderates, not some toppling of conservative scions
It seems like New Mexico progressives had a major breakthrough. They (apparently) defeated five conservative Democratic senators who had formed an IDC-like coalition with Republicans that controlled the senate, despite it being nominally 26-16 Democratic.
When you make a deal to give the opposing party legislative control despite your party holding the majority, you need to go, period.
