A fairy tale: Gabriel’s fellow politicians ousted him

Even a sore loser can come out on top once in awhile. Gabriel Ramos, again a candidate for the state Senate, is delivering the most hysterical pronouncements of the young campaign season.

For starters, he claims politicians in Santa Fe removed him from office. Ramos was an appointed state senator for two years, starting in 2019. Then he had to stand for election, a circumstance he tries to distort with preposterous verbiage.

“A Hispanic Catholic, Ramos was pushed out of his seat by radical Santa Fe politicians after he not only refused to back down from his values of life, freedom, and opportunity, but also rejected their agenda of power and control,” Ramos’ publicist wrote in a campaign handout.

Ramos’ sense of entitlement is apparent. Lacking is any truth to his claim of being ousted by politicians in Santa Fe.

State senators didn’t expel Ramos from the chamber. And not a one of them could cast a vote against Ramos in a public election.

He was removed from office by a collection of his neighbors, acquaintances and other dissatisfied constituents — the Democratic voters of Catron, Grant and Socorro counties.

Siah Correa Hemphill trounced Ramos 64% to 36% in the 2020 primary election. Correa Hemphill went on to win a close race in the general election to become the senator in District 28.

Ramos is attempting a comeback this year. He has a different strategy, one apparently aimed at spiting imaginary tormentors in Santa Fe.

Knowing he could never defeat Correa Hemphill in a primary, Ramos bolted the Democratic Party and became a Republican.

What hasn’t changed is Ramos’ reliance on the blame

game. In his writings, he attributes common sense to himself and ineptitude to politicians who supposedly removed him from power.

Ramos frets about public schools while ignoring the historical record. “We know that students perform better when parents are involved, yet Santa Fe politicians insist on edging them out of the classroom.”

In fact, Democratic lawmakers blocked legislation supported by then-Gov. Susana Martinez to hold back thousands of third-graders without any input from parents. Martinez, a Republican, wanted to rely on standardized test scores to retain kids en masse. Her initiative failed for eight consecutive years, 2011 to 2018.

Ramos uses generalities intended to mislead voters. “The politicians and lobbyists in Santa Fe have attempted to kill our local industries that our Southwest New Mexico families depend on,” he wrote. “We have a unique job market that includes tourism, mining, lumber, farming and ranching.”

The economy of his district is not unique. It’s not even unusual. Beyond that, his broad allegations about politicians undermining rural businesses are similar to the Republican Party’s false claims that Correa Hemphill tried to damage the mining industry.

Republicans in 2020 mailed an ad stating: “Siah Hemphill stands with the radical Sierra Club that wants to abandon the Copper Flats mines and put thousands of people out of work.”

Every part of the Republicans’ ad was wrong, including the name of the mine. It’s Copper Flat, not flats. The mine in Sierra County operated for four months before closing in 1982.

Demand for copper was poor, making the mine unprofitable. As for Correa Hemphill, she was all of 10 years old when Copper Flat closed. She had no more sway over copper markets than did sitting politicians in Santa Fe.

Ramos knows his claim of a conspiracy against him by other politicians has no factual basis. He and four other Democratic senators were targeted for defeat by their constituents and advocacy organizations based on their records, particularly on one issue. They voted to keep on the books a 1969 law criminalizing abortion.

Four of those five senators lost in primaries, the lone survivor being Sen. George Muñoz of Gallup.

Attention Ramos received for supporting the anti-abortion law hurt him in the Democratic primary. Fallout from that vote probably will be less significant if he advances to a general election against Correa Hemphill.

As for Ramos’ wild statements, they might not hurt him, depending on the popularity of another displaced politician with a long history of spreading false claims.

Ramos has to hope former President Donald Trump runs well in southwestern New Mexico, and that Trump’s coattails stretch far down the ballot.