NEW MEXICO (KRQE) –  It's the first time in four years that every single seat in the state legislature is up for re-election; and, with nearly a dozen lawmakers retiring from the Roundhouse, KRQE News 13 spoke with outgoing Senators on both sides of the aisle. KRQE's Election Coverage Tuesday, both sides are hopeful they can pick those up for their party. "It's going to change how the Republicans and Democrats interact because we just got a whole bunch of different new people," said Senator Ron Griggs (R-Alamogordo). "The big thing that jumps out at me is there's going to be at least 16, 17 brand new Senators in a 42 Senate body," said Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino (D-Albuquerque). There are 42 seats in the Senate and 70 in the in the House in New Mexico. Currently, Democrats outnumber Republicans, holding nearly 55% of Senate seats and 65% of House seats. There are nine open seats in the Senate and six in the house, which both sides hope to pick up for their party. "If we don't, then what that does is it allows the majority party to run any piece of legislation they so choose with very very little opposition," Griggs said. Meanwhile, Ortiz y Pino said only a few races are actually in play: "There's a couple of races where the Democrat in the primary pulled such a small number of votes that it's hard to believe that they could beat the Republican; And similarly, there's several Republicans running almost in a, you know, just to make sure there's somebody on the ballot, they don't really have much of a chance." Griggs said his eyes are on races in Albuquerque and Silver City, which encompass six of those open-seat races: "Maybe we'll be able to pick those up. If we don't, if we don't, again, we become just more of a nuisance than anything else to the majority party." Ortiz y Pino is watching those too, and has his eyes on a newly created district on the west side of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho: "That I think is going to be a pretty tight race, at least the numbers of registrations seem to show it to be almost a 50/50 district." In the House, half of the open seats are in the metro as well.