MORE FUN & FAMILY AT ABQ CIVIC PLAZA
Corrales resident will try to flip governor’s office, congressional seat
The $6.5 million renovations at Downtown plaza will include an interactive fountain and a playground designed to look like a prickly pear cactus with ropes.
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES — Seeking stability in a critical election year, Democratic Party leaders elected Marg Elliston on Saturday to serve as chairwoman of the state party.
Elliston, a Corrales resident and retired state employee, vowed to help turn New Mexico blue, as voters fill two open seats in Congress and pick a new governor and state land commissioner — all wide-open campaigns with no incumbent.
“I think it’s time we change New Mexico,” she said Saturday, “and I think the Democratic Party is the engine for this change.”
Elliston said her own experience as a youngster in Houston underscored the importance of political change. Her mother worked as a voter registrar at a time when Texans had to pay a “poll tax” to make it on the rolls — a system that wasn’t abolished until the 1960s.
Elliston takes over the Democratic Party of New Mexico after a turbulent few months.
The previous chairman, Richard Ellenberg, resigned in March amid criticism over his response to sexual misconduct allegations levied against a prominent union leader, Jon Hendry, and a former Doña Ana County commissioner, John Vasquez.
The Democratic Party also faced internal criticism during the pre-primary convention in March, when rivals of gubernatorial candidate and U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham accused some party insiders of rules violations and a breach of neutrality. Her competitors for the nomination include former media executive Jeff Apodaca of Albuquerque and state Sen. Joseph Cervantes, a Las Cruces lawyer.
Saturday’s three-hour meeting was a raucous one — filled with booing, cheering and the occasional shout as participants argued over proposed
resolutions and planks in the party platform.
About 270 members of the State Central Committee filled an auditorium at the Truth or Consequences Civic Center, not far from Elephant Butte Lake State Park.
But there was no dispute over the election of Elliston. She was the only candidate nominated, and she was chosen on a voice vote.
She will serve for about a year, the remainder of Ellenberg’s initial term.
Her election comes as Democrats try to reclaim the governor’s office and win a traditionally Republican congressional seat in the southern part of the state. There are also open races for land commissioner — now held by a Libertarian — and an Albuquerque-based seat in Congress, now held by Lujan Grisham.
All 70 members of the state House are also on the ballot this year, as Democrats try to grow their 38-32 advantage in that chamber.
Democrats are coming off some wins in nonpartisan municipal races — including the election of former State Auditor Tim Keller as Albuquerque mayor — and the party in control of the White House tends to lose strength at mid-term elections, a potential challenge for Republicans.
Elliston’s husband is former U.S. Sen. Fred Harris, a professor emeritus at the University of New Mexico.