N.M. Democrats pick Santa Fean to lead party
Ellenberg beats out 25-year-old from Belen on 200-120 vote in chairmanship race
ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico Democrats have elected Santa Fean Richard Ellenberg as their state party chairman while they seek to mend divisions from last year’s presidential election and parlay opposition to President Donald Trump into electoral success in 2018.
Factionalism still shaped the leadership race, however, with a progressive firebrand dropping out Saturday at the last moment and endorsing Ellenberg in an effort to block a younger party leader from winning the chairmanship.
Ellenberg, 69, drew support from different corners of the party. With a record as chairman of the Santa Fe County Democratic Party, he pledged to turn the statewide organization into a fundraising, campaigning powerhouse as it works to win the Governor’s Office next year and hold on to a seat in the U.S. Senate.
“In Santa Fe, we ended up with Bernie people and Hillary people working together. That’s the way it should be,” Ellenberg told members of the party’s central committee during a Saturday meeting in Albuquerque. He was referring to the top candidates for the Democratic nomination during the 2016 presidential primary.
The committee of party leaders from around the state voted 200-120 to elect Ellenberg over outgoing Vice Chairman Juan Sanchez III, a 25-year-old from Belen. Sanchez’s supporters argued he would have brought youth and energy to the job that they say the party will need to broaden its base in a diverse state.
Sanchez pledged to recruit more young people, people of color and women to run for office.
And he touted his work for the state party over the last
two years, when it retired debt and saw New Mexico buck a national trend by voting against Trump and giving Democrats a majority in the state House of Representatives.
Sanchez also boasted an endorsement from U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who ran for chairman of the Democratic National Committee as the progressive favorite.
But Sanchez drew opposition from some Democrats who supported U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders for president.
Rusty Pearce, a third candidate for party chairman, had even sought to remove Sanchez from his leadership post last year over allegations of bias against Sanders and his supporters.
Pearce, 31, campaigned for chairman by pledging to reform the party’s governance and end what he argued are advantages that give too much power to political insiders and, in turn, shut out left-wing candidates such as Sanders.
But after pressing those points in a speech during Saturday’s central committee meeting, Pearce urged his supporters to vote for Ellenberg.
“It was more about not voting for Juan [Sanchez],” Pearce said shortly after his speech, standing in the wings of an auditorium at Atrisco Heritage Academy High School.
Pearce said he did not have enough support to win the chairmanship and decided, instead, to back a candidate he believed would be more supportive of reform.
Pledging to run the party “fairly and neutrally,” Ellenberg said Pearce is hardly alone in raising concerns about the organization’s rules and governance, suggesting a debate stirred by Sanders last year will continue.
But Ellenberg won support from leading Democrats, too, such as House Speaker Brian Egolf of Santa Fe.
New Mexico Republicans were quick to declare that the “Bernie Sanders wing” had taken over. Party spokesman Tucker Keene issued a news release shortly after the election, declaring, “Democrats have once again looked toward Santa Fe liberals for their party leadership.”
A lawyer who retired to Santa Fe about 16 years ago, Ellenberg has said he will collaborate more closely with county parties around the state and deploy more resources to campaigns, such as by hiring and dispatching field organizers.
Ellenberg will have to steer the organization not only through the 2018 election but also through an era when the very relevance of political parties is in question as political action committees, flush with cash, wield growing power.
And while some progressives like Pearce called for opening New Mexico’s primary elections to independent voters as a means of engaging more young people, Ellenberg was noncommittal. The new chairman said he will consult with county parties around the state and leave the central committee to decide whether to support changing New Mexico’s primary election process.
The central committee also elected Neomi Martinez-Parra of Lordsburg as vice chairwoman and Katharine Clark of Santa Fe as secretary, and re-elected Robert Lara of Las Cruces as treasurer.
The party’s outgoing chairwoman, Debra Haaland, did not seek re-election. She is weighing a run for Congress to succeed gubernatorial candidate and U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Despite the tensions of the leadership race, the meeting had a pep rally feel, with party leaders whipping up the crowd by railing against Trump and Gov. Susana Martinez.
And in a show of unity, Sanchez joined Ellenberg on stage to make the motion declaring him chairman.
“We will take advantage of this huge energy,” Ellenberg said.
Contact Andrew Oxford at 505-986-3093 or aoxford@sfnewmexican.com. Follow him on Twitter @andrewboxford.