Vast wilderness part of district that three vying to represent
Plenty separates Española and Angel Fire. Mountains, for one thing. And demographically, the Northern New Mexico communities are almost opposites.
But both are linked by what may be one of the state’s more curious examples of gerrymandering — a legislative district that stretches across parts of four counties, including a swath of what is quite literally wilderness.
And this year, that district is up for grabs.
State Rep. Nick Salazar, 89, is retiring from the House of Representatives after serving in the chamber since 1973.
Three candidates are running in the June 5 primary for the Democratic Party’s nomination to succeed him — Mora County Commissioner Paula García, former electric co-op general manager Joseph Sanchez and Rio Arriba County Commissioner Barney Trujillo.
They all have a lot of ground to cover, and the factor that decides this race may be who in this sprawling district turns out to vote. Which candidate can pull together such a disparate group of communities? Can anyone?
The conventional wisdom has been that the candidates from Rio Arriba County have an advantage. That is where most of the voters are, the thinking goes.
But in the last Democratic Party primary election just under half the voters came from the western nub of the district that stretches over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains into Rio Arriba County. A little more than half came from the eastern counties — Colfax, Mora and San Miguel.
That is García’s end of the district. The 46-year-old has been a well-known advocate on issues involving water and rural communities as head of the New Mexico Acequia Association.
“What sets me apart is my experience doing advocacy, and specifically, going to the Legislature and engaging in advocacy for the acequias,” she says when asked what distinguishes her from the two other candidates. “… I’ve been working directly with communities for so long. I have a really good understanding of what the needs are.”
García says she supports expanding funding for early childhood education by using a greater share of the Land Grant Permanent Fund. And she supports raising the minimum wage.
She sees the campaign as not necessarily coming down to which candidate can raise and spend the most money but as hinging largely on who can knock on the most doors and cover the most ground.
Sanchez, who lives in Alcalde just north of Española, says he wants to appeal to the whole district, too.
Now working as an engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sanchez was general manager of Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative until last year.
Sanchez, 39, describes himself as having put the co-op on steadier financial footing after talk of bankruptcy — no small feat at the largest electric co-op in the state.
“At this point in my career, I’ve been successful professional-wise and now it’s time to give back and I’d really like to see Northern New Mexico move ahead and do better than we’re doing,” he said.
Sanchez, who has master’s and bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of New Mexico as well as a master’s in business administration from New Mexico State University, is making his first run for government office.
Sanchez said his big issue is what has at times seemed like an intractable problem: the area’s heroin epidemic.
“I know the last year the state has focused on law enforcement but there’s the three feet of the stool,” he said, arguing he would like to work on expanding prevention and treatment efforts.
Trujillo, 37, is finishing his second term on the three-member Rio Arriba County Commission, to which he was first elected at age 29. A Chimayó native from the far western corner of the vast House district, Trujillo’s “home chile farm” is a biographical detail his campaign signs make use of — with the ‘J’ in Trujillo taking the shape of a red chile pepper.
Trujillo, a graduate of St. Michael’s High School, has varied experience in state and local government, according to his campaign website. He spent a brief time at the Legislative Council Service and then a decade at the State Land Office, a period during which he says he says he dealt with budget management and funds procurement from Washington and the state Legislature.
He did not return messages left Friday at two phone numbers listed for his campaign.
It’s his second consecutive bid for the seat: Trujillo challenged its longtime occupant, Salazar, a Democrat from the Española Valley, in the 2016 primary
in a race that was notable for its strange originating factors.
In launching his candidacy that year, Trujillo said he was under the impression Salazar would retire rather than seek a 23rd consecutive term; he said Salazar had encouraged him to run. Salazar disputed that and ran for re-election.
In the end, Salazar, with 57 percent of the vote, beat Trujillo soundly.
In that race, Trujillo accused Salazar of seeking to disrupt his candidacy by asking the state Attorney General’s Office to look into Rio Arriba County projects Trujillo had led, a charge Salazar denied. The Attorney General’s Office did request documents from the county including those detailing several years of Trujillo’s expenses. And in early 2017, investigators raided Trujillo’s home.
On Friday, a spokesman for Attorney General Hector Balderas, asked about the status of any possible investigation of Trujillo, said in a statement, “This is a highly active investigation, however I cannot provide any other updates at this time.”
Asked whether the active investigation was specifically centered on Trujillo, the spokesman, James Hallinan, declined comment and referred back to his statement.
By the end of the latest campaign finance reporting period on May 7, Sanchez was lapping García in fundraising and spending. He had raised nearly $50,000, mostly from individuals but with some larger donations from Ohkay Owingeh, Santa Clara Development Corp., the tobacco company Altria and the alcoholic
beverage distributor Premier Distributing. He had spent nearly $33,000.
Meanwhile, the García campaign had raised about $25,000 by the end of the same period and spent nearly $15,000. Again, much of the money came from individual donors. But her largest single contribution was a $1,250 contribution from Enchantment PAC — a political action committee linked to the liberal group OLÉ.
Trujillo has raised nearly $4,200 and spent nearly $2,000.
Salazar has left a mark on the race, though.
Sanchez says the elder lawmaker has been very supportive.
And compared to the contests in some other Northern New Mexico districts, such as the slugfest for the Democratic nomination in northern Santa Fe County’s House District 46, this contest has remained relatively staid.
“I learned a lot from him,” García said of Salazar. “He always told me: Never go negative. I really appreciate that about him.”