The vote Friday in the House of Representatives to prohibit those in the country illegally from getting a state driver's license was a surprising and important victory for House Republicans, Gov. Susana Martinez and, most of all, Rep. Andy Nu ez of Hatch, who early in the session left the Democratic Party to become the only independent in the history of the state Legislature.

Some have argued that the bill will die in the Senate, and passage in the House was nothing more than a political ploy to put Democrats on record as voting against a popular bill. Maybe, but with public support for the measure running at about 70 percent, I wouldn't be so sure.

The assumption was that Nu ez's bill had been disposed of early in the session when it was tabled in the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee on a 3-2 party-line vote. Nu ez would later miss the final vote on the House budget bill as he was up on the fourth floor of the Roundhouse strategizing with Martinez and her staff on ways to revive his bill.

That strategy paid off last week, but only after three days of wrangling by Nu ez with his former party and its leader, House Speaker Ben Lujan. When Nu ez made his first attempt to blast the bill out of committee Wednesday night, Lujan gaveled the session to an end, and he and other Democrats left the chambers.

It's not unusual for the minority party to walk out in protest. But when its done by the party in power, that's a pretty good indicaton that they're in

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trouble.

The House spent all day on the bill Thursday, voting 36-34 twice to move it out of committees. Democrats Dona Irwin of Deming and Sandra Jeff of Crownpoint were the only two Thursday to cross party lines.

Majority Leader Ken Martinez of Grants complained Thursday that Nu ez had violated the sanctity of the committee process.

"It's not to effect advantage," he said of that process. "It's to allow the citizens to come before this Legislature and state their case."

Then on Friday, Rep. Martinez introduced a substitute bill - bringing it directly to the floor ahead of Nu ez's bill, and without one committee hearing or allowing one citizen to comment.

The Senate has thus far been disposing of its immigration bills in committee, but passage of the House bill ratchets up the pressure. And, the process of blasting bills out of committee has been more common in the Senate than in the House.

Momentum clearly seems to be on the side of those opposed to granting licenses, and I don't see anything happening to change that between now and 2012, when all 42 Senate seats are up for re-election. Senators may want to delay the inevitable, but don't be surprised if a few pragmatists cross over the aisle to pass it this year.

One final note for the Republican purists who insisted their members vote in lockstep for Tom Taylor, even though Taylor thought it would be a better idea to form a coalition and get Joseph Cervantes elected as speaker over Lujan. While Lujan used every procedural trick in the book, and made up a few that weren't in the book, to try to stop this bill, Cervantes was one of eight Democrats who voted for it in the end.

Walter Rubel has been a newsman for more than 25 years and is managing editor of the Sun-News. He can be reached at wrubel@lcsun-news.com.