Don’t look now, but Los Alamos has gone blue
There was a time in the recent past when Los Alamos County was considered a Republican stronghold plopped down in the middle of the hardcore Democratic communities of north central New Mexico, from Santa Fe up to Taos and from Española across the mountains to Mora and Las Vegas.
A couple of decades ago, the Democrats in charge elsewhere made it clear they recognized the GOP-ness of the Atomic City by dividing tiny Los Alamos County among three state Senate districts. At one point, various sections of Republican Los Alamos were represented by three different Senate Democrats — a Santa Fe-area liberal, a classic political patron from Rio Arriba County and a Native American from far away Crownpoint. Now that’s effective gerrymandering!
But take a look at Tuesday’s election results. Los Alamos no longer needs to be forced to live under a Democratic yoke. Capping a trend that’s been developing for a few election cycles, Los Alamos did not go for a single Republican this election day.
Christine Chandler, the Democratic nominee for the state House seat in Los Alamoscentered District 43, blew out Republican Lisa Shin, taking 61 percent of the vote in the county. In the governor’s race, Michelle Lujan Grisham got more than 58 percent. Democrats easily carried Los Alamos County for every statewide office and all the state judgeships.
Perhaps the most telling result came in the voting for the Los Alamos County Council.
The way this works in Los Alamos, candidates don’t run for specific seats, but as a group for all the seats available. On the general election ballot this year, eight candidates — four Democrats, three Republicans and a Libertarian — ran for four seats. The top four vote-getters would take the council positions.
The top four on Tuesday were all Democrats, who also won elections for county sheriff — a vestigial job with not much to do in a county with a police department — and for municipal judge.
It would be great to see some polling or detailed analysis on why Los Alamos has gone blue, joining up with the surrounding Democratic coalition that includes the wealthiest Santa Fe neighborhoods, tiny rural villages in poor counties and some people who want to see Los Alamos National Laboratory and its nuclear weapons work to go away altogether.
Maybe one reason is science. Los Alamos is a science town.
In August, five former lab directors and then-director Terry Wallace spoke at a forum that was part of the lab’s 75th anniversary events. Asked to address about their worries for the future, they talked about misinformation and misunderstanding.
John Browne, LANL director from 1997 to 2003, said: “Just think of how many times you look at social media today and someone thinks something is true because someone has put something out there. I think that threatens our way of life.”
Wallace, whose mother Jeannette Wallace is a big part of Los Alamos’ political past — she was a tough, independent GOP state representative for 20 years before she passed away in 2011 — was worried about the American education system. “Participation in democracy and the values that we have require that you’re well grounded in education,” he said.
“So when you look at a website that tells us that there’s a conspiracy in a pizza parlor, that everyone goes there for pedophile activities, you should be able to apply scientific principles to that to understand that it’s not (true).”
And so when we have a Republican president who famously called climate change a Chinese hoax, that just doesn’t seem like something that would go over well in Los Alamos. President Trump these days has disavowed the Chinese hoax theory, but continues to portray science as more or less a political game. The Union of Concerned Scientists features a report about Trump on its web page called “Sidelining Science from Day One” and a regular blog titled “Attacks on Science.”
Chandler’s opponent in the state representative race this year has an impressive professional background and appealing personal history. She also is an unabashed Trump supporter. She got 39 percent of the vote in Los Alamos County.
Los Alamos’ political shift, of course, may be about many factors — including social issues where Los Alamos’ generally affluent, highly educated population may identify more with the proverbial coastal elites than with heartland conservatives.
But antagonism toward science is not going to help many candidates get a positive vote in Los Alamos.