Raúl Burciaga, Longtime New Mexico Research Director, Announces Retirement

Burciaga

When Raúl Burciaga, director of the New Mexico Legislative Council Service for the past 14 years, chose Aug. 30 as his retirement date, top of mind was NCSL's 2024 Legislative Summit in Louisville, Ky., earlier in the month.

"I'm a huge fan of NCSL, and I wanted a chance to say goodbye to people," Burciaga says, noting that he also moderated a Summit panel discussion and attended his last meeting as a member of the committee that screens and selects new officers. Burciaga is a former NCSL officer himself, having served five years on the Executive Committee, including a term as staff chair.

Burciaga's involvement with NCSL grew steadily in the years following his appointment in 2010 as director of the LCS, the nonpartisan administrative arm of the New Mexico Legislature.

New Mexico provides a modest per diem but no salary for its legislators, and only this year began funding the hiring of district-level staffers, one per member. So, legislators rely heavily on the LCS, a hard-working agency whose 60-member staff handles bill drafting and legal research, security and information technology, orientation of freshman legislators, and maintenance of the state Capitol.

In turn, the LCS has come to rely on NCSL for resources, guidance and networking opportunities, Burciaga says, noting its assistance during the pandemic. "I don't know how we would've gotten through those challenges without the help of NCSL, especially the monthly Zoom calls that allowed agencies like mine to share information."

From Math to the Law

A first-generation U.S. citizen whose parents immigrated from Mexico, Burciaga was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1955 and grew up with his five siblings in an apartment in a synagogue where his father was the longtime live-in custodian. After high school, he studied mathematics at the University of Texas at El Paso, then moved to Albuquerque, N.M., where he completed a degree in health sciences at a satellite campus of Chapman University and began a 15-year career as an administrator of federal health care programs for Blue Cross Blue Shield.

In his early 40s, Burciaga decided to change direction and enrolled in the University of New Mexico School of Law. "I really had no intention of litigating," he says in a recent interview. "I was more interested in policy work, and I just thought the law was a good discipline to do that from."

Shortly before graduating in 2000, he had an on-campus interview with Paula Tackett, then director of the Legislative Council Service, and landed a job as a bill drafter. After passing the bar exam, he served as the agency's legal counsel and rose to become assistant director for drafting services. In 2010, he was selected to replace Tackett when she retired.

By all accounts, it was a perfect fit.

"As the director of LCS, Raúl has given us the strong leadership and steadfast dedication required to keep the Legislature running smoothly," Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart (D), wrote in a statement issued after Burciaga announced his plan to retire. "From providing us with superb legal guidance to managing everything from bill drafting to building services, he and his mighty team have really delivered for New Mexico."

Former Rep. Daymon Ely (D) calls Burciaga a "very smart lawyer" with great analytical skills. "Probably the most important quality of a director is to be even-tempered because you're going to be in high-stress situations and you have to keep your cool, and you also have to keep the respect of [lawmakers] who disagree with one another. Raúl was able to pull that off. That is not an easy thing to do, and he made it look easy."

On the other side of the aisle, recently retired Sen. Stuart Ingle (R), whose 39 years in the New Mexico Senate included 20 as minority leader, calls Burciaga "fair-minded, thorough, impeccably honest and straight as an arrow." Ingle says he particularly appreciates that Burciaga, in his research, "always made sure to look at and call your attention to the experiences of other states in dealing with this or that issue."

Missing the Roundhouse

Looking back, Burciaga says that among the most treasured and rewarding elements of his job was stewardship of the New Mexico Capitol, its grounds and the $6 million collection of contemporary art that it houses.

Commonly known as the Roundhouse, the building is unique as the nation's only circular state capitol and one of the few not capped with a dome. Built in 1966 and extensively renovated in the 1990s, it's a four-level structure faced with stucco and blending New Mexico Territorial style, Pueblo adobe architecture and Greek Revival adaptations.

Lining the walls of the rotunda, which is finished in travertine marble, and displayed throughout the 225,000-square-foot building are paintings, sculptures, tapestries and furniture-more than 600 pieces in all-donated by or on loan from regional artists.

"One of the things I'm going to miss most is being in that building every day. It's a special place, and you get attached to it," Burciaga says.

Surrounding the Capitol is a lush 6.5-acre garden boasting more than 100 varieties of plants, including roses, plums, almonds, nectarines, Russian olive trees and sequoias, and studded with statues of native Pueblo peoples. The garden is named for Homer Clay Buchanan, one of Burciaga's predecessors as LCS director.

Burciaga, who says he loves to drive, will kick off his retirement in the fall with a monthlong trip with his wife through several Western states, traveling on back roads and "staying off the interstates." In January, he will begin teaching a class at UNM School of Law, and maybe take some courses in subjects that interest him.

As for his future travel plans, he's thinking about a trip to Boston next summer-the site, not coincidentally, of the 2025 Legislative Summit. "Who knows? I've got some friends in the area I'd like to see, and I think it might be fun to drop in."

Suzanne Weiss is a Denver-based freelance writer.

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