Primaries are a battle for parties’ vision

Rural-urban divide a key issue; exit of moderates could reshape Legislature

Primary elections are often debates over a political party’s direction, as former Republican state Rep. Jim Smith discovered this year when he called an end to his career in the Legislature.

Once known as one of the more bipartisan members in the House of Representatives, Smith now sits as an appointed member of the Bernalillo County Board of Commissioners. The primary for the legislative seat he had held since 2011 pits a newcomer who is more conservative than Smith against a more moderate member of the GOP.

“It’s unfortunate,” Smith says of candidates’ focus on the more conservative or liberal ends of their parties. “The constituents will tell you: You should be reaching across the aisle.”

Tuesday’s primary election seems to have tugged particularly hard at the rift among Democrats and among Republicans.

In Northern New Mexico, for example, progressives are taking on more conservative legislators in the Democratic Party and raising questions about who really belongs in what has been a big tent with wildly different factions. Republicans are grappling with some of the same issues.

All of this comes at a time when the divide between rural and urban voters is widening. While this primary may be just one more dust-up among parties characterized by infighting, it could instead portend a reshaping of New Mexico’s political landscape.

Democrats have been getting smaller and smaller shares

of their votes in statewide elections from outside New Mexico’s four biggest counties — Bernalillo, Doña Ana, Sandoval and Santa Fe.

When Bruce King ran for a third term as governor in 1990, half his votes came from outside those counties. In fact, he got more votes from rural counties than his Republican opponent, Frank Bond. But when King’s son, Gary, ran for governor in 2014, only 35 percent of his votes came from outside the state’s four biggest counties.

A couple of years later, 33 percent of Hillary Clinton’s votes would come from those areas when she ran for president. Those counties are where Donald Trump would find half his votes. But Clinton still won New Mexico.

The flip side may be that Republicans risk boxing themselves into a corner by relying on rural voters for support. New Mexico’s population is increasingly concentrated in the cities and suburbs like the rest of the country.

And while the Republican primaries have been more staid this year, they too has shown signs of the changing political landscape.

Two relatively moderate Republican legislators from Albuquerque announced earlier this year they would not seek re-election — Rep. Sarah Maestas Barnes and minority leader Nate Gentry.

But nowhere has party infighting played out more loudly than in Democratic House races in Santa Fe and Río Arriba counties.

In Santa Fe County, liberal political action committees have poured money behind Andrea Romero’s campaign to unseat Rep. Carl Trujillo in House District 46. In turn, the oil and gas industry has thrown money behind Trujillo.

Running as a progressive, Romero has argued that Trujillo is out of touch with the party’s values.

“We’re seeing some unfortunate difficulties in engaging him on certain issues that were capital-D Democratic issues when it came to women’s rights and advocacy on access to reproductive health rights to gun safety and gun legislation,” Romero said in an interview.

Trujillo has countered that he is representing his district and argued that the campaign to unseat him is driven by special interests from outside the communities he serves.

A similar fight is playing out in Río Arriba County, where Susan Herrera is challenging longtime legislator Debbie Rodella in District 41. Progressive groups are backing Herrera, but the oil and gas industry is trying to shore up support for Rodella.

Elsewhere, environmental groups have launched broadsides against state Sen. George Muñoz of Gallup, who is running for the Democratic nomination for land commissioner. They have accused him of being too cozy with the oil industry. Meanwhile, the oil industry has launched ad campaigns supporting Muñoz and attacking his opponents, particularly Garrett VeneKlasen.

“We are really seeing an urban-rural split,” says Lonna Atkeson, a professor of political science at the University of New Mexico.

This could give Republicans an opening in long-held Democratic districts, she suggests.

“If you lose Trujillo, you lose Rodella, do the Republicans let that go or say, ‘There’s a conservative seat here?’ ” Atkeson says.

This year, the Republicans have a relatively small bench. But if the GOP can get past identity politics and reach more Hispanic voters as George W. Bush managed to do when he was governor of Texas, the state’s political map could look very different, she says.

Meanwhile, Albuquerque is becoming more Democratic, Atkeson says.

For the most part, Republicans have avoided bruising primaries there, but the quiet departure of Gentry and Maestas Barnes signals the party could be struggling to hold on to moderates. And plenty view holding on to their urban, relatively moderate districts as key to ever winning back the state House — which would be a rare feat. In the meantime, fewer moderates means the Republican caucus in the state House may move further to the right.

So, come the next legislative session in January, both sides of the Roundhouse could look very different.