New party hopes to grow with true-blue Democrat

New Mexico’s version of the liberal lion, state Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, is a candidate in demand. Ortiz y Pino, 77, is a Democrat, but the newly minted Working Families Party wants him on its ticket, too.

Just certified as a minor political party in New Mexico, the Working Families Party hopes to establish a cross-nomination system with Ortiz y Pino as the pioneering candidate.

If it gets its way, Ortiz y Pino would be listed on the general election ballot as the candidate of both the Democrats and the Working Families Party. Ortiz y Pino is seeking a fifth term to represent Senate District 12 in Albuquerque.

The Bernalillo County clerk rejected petitions from the Working Families Party for the double listing. Eric Griego, state director of the Working Families Party, said his organization will appeal that decision in state District Court.

Griego said his party believes the New Mexico Constitution provides leeway for dual candidate nominations, sometimes called fusion voting.

Two parties nominating Ortiz y Pino for the Senate might sound redundant, bureaucratic, even silly.

But Griego sees it as important to the nascent Working Families Party and its base, those at the lower end of pay scales and without much clout at the state Capitol.

“We think it would increase voter participation and bring more people into the party,” Griego said. “We also believe the major political parties will oppose it.”

Democrats control both chambers of the New Mexico Legislature. They wouldn’t want to see Ortiz y Pino or any other Democrat elected under the banner of the Working Families Party.

As for the Republicans, the Working Families Party is a familiar adversary. Before it was sanctioned as a political party, the Working Families Party operated as a social movement in New Mexico. Its members mobilized during

the last four years to campaign against Republicans in targeted races.

The Working Families Party didn’t spare certain Democrats, either.

It set out to defeat five conservative Democratic state senators in last month’s primary election. Four of them lost to liberal challengers backed by the Working Families Party.

Griego said the Working Families Party also wanted to work for the ouster of Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Ojo Caliente, but it lacked the resources to take on another campaign. Martinez, convicted in December of reckless driving and aggravated drunken driving, lost his primary election anyway.

John Arthur Smith, one of the Democratic senators Griego’s group helped defeat, might have been the most powerful lawmaker in New Mexico.

Smith, D-Deming, chaired the Senate Finance Committee. No one except the governor had more influence over the state budget. If Smith didn’t want a program funded, he might hold it in purgatory without a hearing.

Griego said Smith looked out for the wealthy with maneuvers such as corporate tax cuts but turned into a Democrat at election time.

Smith, 78, told me he tried to be fair to the countless groups that sought state funding. He was never close to Griego, himself a former Democratic state senator.

The Working Families Party gathered more than 6,000 signatures as part of the process to be designated by the secretary of state as a minor political party.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation also has received minor-party status. It has a presidential candidate, Gloria La Riva.

The Working Families Party in New Mexico hopes to build its brand in the trenches with Democrat Ortiz y Pino. He is a retired social worker who sees the world much as Griego does.

Ortiz y Pino represents the district where the Working Families Party has its office. More important to the Working Families Party, Ortiz y Pino has been a loud voice at the Capitol on bills such as raising the statewide minimum wage.

He battled a fellow Democrat, Sen. Clemente Sanchez of Grants, on that issue.

Sanchez was one of the other Democrats ousted in the June primary election.

“I guess the Democratic Party is not a big enough tent anymore,” Sanchez told me after his defeat.

He said the movement against moderate and conservative Democrats could open the way for Republicans to win swing Senate districts in the fall.

Griego has never concerned himself with that possibility.

He viewed Smith, Sanchez and the rest of the senators he opposed as Democrats in a Trojan horse. Once they reached the Capitol, Griego said, they might as well have been Republicans.

Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.