After an unusually contentious primary involving races pitting party loyalties among Democrats and Republicans, the overall message from New Mexico voters Tuesday night (June 5) seems to be, “We’ll make up our own minds, thank you.”
Leadership from the governor’s office and from the outgoing Speaker of the House were rebuffed in very public ways and in a number of key Democratic Party races, attempts from the left — often from out of state progressives — to oust centrists were turned back.
We’ll start with Gov. Susana Martinez, who spent $7,300 in PAC money and made a couple in-person appearances on behalf state Senate candidate Angie Spears only to see Spears lose to farmer and rancher Pat Woods in eastern New Mexico.
In fairness to Martinez, past governors had also involved themselves in party primaries (Bill Richardson jumped into more than a dozen in 2004) and she had endorsed Spears before Woods had even entered the race but there’s no denying she spent political capital in the race and voters in the Clovis area seemed to resent the perception of an outsider telling them which way to vote.
Woods told Capitol Report New Mexico he has no hard feelings towards the governor — “I want her to succeed,” he said — and in a rock-ribbed Republican district like Clovis, Woods will almost certainly vote the same way as Spears would have so in practical terms the legislative impact is practically nil.
But politics is a zero-sum game and Gov. Martinez put herself out there in the Woods-Spears race and lost, simple as that and there were plenty of statewide Republicans who thought this was a battle that never should have been fought.
Meanwhile, Democratic Party leadership experienced their own version of political Waterloo when David Coss was handed a humbling defeat.
Despite $3,300 in PAC money from Speaker of the House Ben Luján and entreaties from Santa Fe politicos, Coss lost to Carl Trujillo in the very district that Luján has represented since 1975. Coss seemed to have every advantage — name recognition as the mayor of Santa Fe, union money, high-profile endorsements, etc. — but Trujillo overcame all that.
And the legislative impact could be wide as Trujillo could be a much more independent voice in the Roundhouse than a typical rank and file Democrat — although Trujillo doesn’t appear to be nearly as conservative as some Dems portrayed him. For example, he told Capitol Report New Mexico he’s resistant to retaining third graders who don’t read at a minimal level — one of the prize pieces of legislation that Gov. Martinez has tried to institute.
On a similar note, voters turned back appeals from the political left and sided with established centrists in a number of other races:
*An out of state liberal PAC from California named Progressive Kick spent thousands of dollars in selected races but didn’t get much bang for its buck. Lefty favorite Eric Griego lost in the fierce race for the Democratic Party nomination as Progressive Kick’s aggressive radio ads against Michelle Lujan Grisham didn’t work.
*Jack Sullivan took plenty of shots at sitting state Sen. Phil Griego, painting the longtime Roundhouse veteran as an out of touch corporate lackey who misspent campaign money but Griego not only won in a three-way race but won by 10 points.
*Progressive groups went after Democratic Party incumbents John Arthur Smith and George Muñoz but both of them survived and won going away. John Sapien also beat back a challenge from the left to keep his Senate seat by 10 points.
*Speaker Luján contributed $1,500 to Charles Long, who challenged independent Democrat Sandra Jeff in the House seat in the Four Corners area but Jeff won going away and could prove to be even more maverick-y given a third term.
*Eleanor Chavez has been one of the most outspoken liberals in the House of Representatives (she once said of Gov. Martinez, “We don’t need her or her hate filled rhetoric and immigrant bashing! Where should she go? How’s hell for starters”) but lost in her bid to win in the state Senate in Albuquerque’s District 14.
Liberals could point to a couple victories: Despite controversy in the months leading up to the primary Sheryl Williams Stapleton kept her House with a 14-point victory and teachers union leader Christine Trujillo won by a mile in an overwhelmingly Democratic district in Albuquerque.
And voters elected the first openly gay legislator when young Jacob Candelaria won the Democratic primary in Albuquerque’s Senate District 26 by a remarkable 38-point margin. There is no Republican running in the general so Candelaria has a free path to the Roundhouse.
Aside from the Spears-Woods race, the Republican primaries were pretty quiet.
In Roswell’s District 66, Bob Wooley kept his seat, defeating Dennis Kintigh who saw his old district disappear due to redistricting. Although a friendly guy, Kintigh won’t be missed by many Democrats as he often was willing to tangle over such issues as state funding for the movie industry and bringing back the death penalty.
A number of incumbents lost:
Environmentalists were happy to see Democrat David Ulibarri go down in Senate District 30 (they thought he sided too often with oil and gas interests), despite having a family name long associated with New Mexico politics Democrat Richard Vigil lost his House seat up in northern New Mexico, Antonio Lujan lost to fellow Democrat and former Roundouse member Jeff Steinborn in Las Cruces, and Lynda Lovejoy lost her state Senate seat to Benny Shendo Jr. in a district largely made up of Native American voters.
That’s four incumbents who bit the dust. Add that to the 22 Roundhouse members who have already announced they’re retiring and that’s a turnover of 26 of 112 members of both chambers of the legislature — and we still have a general election coming in November.
And judging by Tuesday’s results, voters across the state will have their own ideas on whom to keep and whom to discard.
