Progressives prevail in legislative primaries
Whether election results indicate larger shift to left in N.M. remains to be seen
If there was one big winner in Tuesday’s primary elections for legislative seats, it was the Democratic Party’s more progressive wing. For years, many on the party’s left have watched with frustration as some more moderate Democrats in the Legislature scuttle priorities, from gun control to cracking down on the lending industry. This year might mark the backlash. There was the Northern New Mexico legislative district where political novice Susan Herrera unseated one of the longest-serving members of the state House of Representatives, Debbie Rodella. And then there was the neighboring district where a progressive, Andrea Romero, unseated Rep. Carl Trujillo.
The hope for many of the activists who dove into those races is that these Democrats can better clear the way for some of the party’s most progressive goals, from raising the minimum wage to passing gun control measures.
Unclear is whether these seats will be enough and if these same candidates can win not just this election but races in the future.
“That term ‘progressive’ is subject to interpretation,” said Eric Griego, executive director of the New Mexico Working Families Party, a group that supported progressive Democratic candidates this year. “Everyone in the Democratic Party wants to call themselves a progressive.”
But this year, members of the left wing of the Democratic Party have made it clear what “progressive” does not mean. They went after moderate or conservative members of their party in some of the most explosive races anywhere in the state.
Griego argued that the Democrats
could hold a majority in the House, as they do now, but that it would not necessarily mean the party could advance legislative priorities.
“It’s not enough to have a D by your name,” Griego said.
Griego’s group targeted Rodella because it viewed her as leaning too far right, from supporting legislation that would cap interest rates on small loans at 185 percent when progressives wanted a 36 percent limit to voting to restrict late-term abortions.
“We saw her as the head of the beast, this powerful, frankly very ruthless, leader,” he said of Rodella, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday and generally has shied from the media.
And he argued that Herrera’s victory runs counter to a perception that Rio Arriba County and the rest of Northern New Mexico are too conservative to elect someone who campaigns for abortion rights and supports gun control.
Asked if the election results could signal that Democratic voters wanted more progressive legislators, House Speaker Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, cautioned that a range of other factors could be at play in any one district. Maybe voters simply want a change or, in some districts, were more inclined to support a woman on the ballot. (Moreover, scandal loomed over some races, such as allegations of sexual harassment against Trujillo).
“It’s too hard to say broadly this is a progressive shift,” Egolf said.
Down in Doña Ana County, Micaela Cadena, a successful House candidate who works at the nonprofit Young Women United, said she does not describe herself as a progressive, though she won the backing of the progressive groups such as OLÉ. But more moderate or conservative Democrats made a push for the district, which has been represented by Bill McCamley, who gave up a re-election bid to run unsuccessfully for state auditor.
In the end, Cadena won about 50 percent of the vote in a threeway contest.
It was not a complete sweep for progressive candidates. Paula Garcia, director of the New Mexico Acequia Association, had won the endorsements of groups such as OLÉ in running for outgoing Rep. Nick Salazar’s seat representing parts of Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Colfax and Mora counties. But she lost to Joseph Sanchez, the former head of the Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative.
And the Republican primary arguably saw a similar shift but in the opposite direction on the political spectrum, with Dr. Gregg Schmedes running to the right to win the GOP’s nomination for Rep. Jim Smith’s old district in the East Mountains.
Meanwhile, some candidates, like Cadena, face a Republican in the general election.
Still, the election Tuesday means a few moderate Democrats will be missing come the next legislative session in January. And this election could help set an agenda that is somewhat more to the left.