John Arthur Smith, a longtime New Mexico Senator who secured his reputation for fiscal conservatism as chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, died at his home in Deming early on Monday. Lt. Governor Howie Morales confirmed rumors of Smith’s passing at an annual meeting of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association and penned a tribute calling the retired lawmaker a “mentor, confidant and friend.”
Smith was 82. A cause of death was not immediately announced, but the Albuquerque Journal reported that he had been diagnosed with stomach cancer earlier in the year.
“John Arthur’s frugal care of the state’s finances reflected the rural, ranch and small business values of the area he was raised in and represented for 32 years, Senate District 35, covering all of Luna and Hidalgo counties down to the border of Mexico, including part of Doña Ana County,” Morales wrote on his Facebook page. “He was the consummate gentleman, honest and compassionate, and cared deeply for the people of New Mexico. As a legislator, he sponsored full-day kindergarten and consistently supported annual increases in funding for preschool, extended school year programs, and home visitations for pregnant mothers and new parents.”
Smith, a real estate appraiser who regularly mixed with constituents in the lobby of Deming’s post office or at La Fonda Restaurant, where he had a dedicated table, served in the state senate from 1989 until 2020, when he stepped down a month before his final term expired. Smith defined himself politically as a “Truman Democrat” and guardian of “the public dollar.” The latter also earned him the nickname of “Dr. No” from former Gov. Bill Richardson, a fellow Democrat, for turning away spending proposals even when they were favored by Richardson and other Democrats.
"I've had to say no, not because I was against the policy, but just because I didn't know how to pay for things," Smith told the Las Cruces Sun-News in 2020, following his surprise defeat in that year’s Democratic primary.
Smith was succeeded by Elephant Butte Republican Crystal Diamond Brantley, who made her first run for statewide office on a promise to emulate Smith’s frugality. On Monday, Brantley wrote on Facebook, “Though we came from opposite ends of the political spectrum, we shared a positive vision for the future of New Mexico through fiscal prudence and economic opportunity. Our rural roots made us more alike than different.”
“Senator Smith was committed to fiscal responsibility while consistently aiming to improve quality of life for all New Mexicans,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement issued Monday afternoon. “His leadership of the Senate Finance Committee helped put the state on sound financial footing and earned respect from colleagues across the political spectrum.”
Smith effectively presided over state spending in boom years as well as dry years, cutting budgets when revenues were low and urging caution when they were high. (“When you have money, the tone is better,” he quipped in a 2018 interview with the Deming Headlight.) He staunchly resisted proposals to increase expenditures from New Mexico’s Land Grant Permanent Fund, which provides over $1 billion annually for educational institutions.
Smith’s primary defeat by first-time candidate Noemi Martinez-Parra of Lordsburg signaled a shift in Democratic politics in New Mexico, as a number of Democratic incumbents faced challenges from within the party over a 2019 effort to repeal a 1969 law criminalizing abortion care in the state. The law was unenforceable at the time, but proponents anticipated it could go back into effect if the U.S. Supreme Court struck down its 1971 Roe v. Wade ruling that treated abortion as a constitutional right. Smith was among several Democrats who joined Republicans in voting the bill down. Martinez-Parra cited that vote as an inspiration for her 2020 run, which ended in her loss to Brantley. (New Mexico’s repeal of the older law passed in 2021, protecting abortion rights before the Supreme Court overturned Roe in 2022.)
After leaving the senate, Smith was frequently seen around Deming, chatting with residents at La Fonda and other public places, offering advice to local organizations and even attending a board meeting of the local chamber of commerce during a difficult transition in its leadership.
He lived long enough to receive thanks and accolades for his accomplishments in office.
A bench engraved with his name was installed in front of the historic Luna County Courthouse in 2022. His name also appears on new educational and medical facilities because, while he might have been called “Dr. No,” he also said yes to some high-dollar initiatives and helped win state funding for them.
In March of this year, Sierra Vista Hospital in Truth or Consequences named its rural health clinic after Smith, thanking him for securing $35 million in total for the new building and then helping the hospital’s parent corporation redesign the project to reduce its cost. Western New Mexico University announced plans in May to name its new educational center in Deming after Smith and his wife, Janette Smith, who survives him.
And on Sept. 14 – three weeks before his passing – former colleagues, state officials and friends took part in a “John Arthur Smith fiesta” celebrating Smith’s life at the famed “Pink Store” across the border in Puerto Palomas.
