Commentary: For almost two years, political wisdom kept a single-minded focus on taking back the House of Representatives in 2018 mid-term election. They hammered the message that “If we don’t take back the House…” we’d face a most depressing outcome. “If, they warned “if we don’t register more voters, make more phone calls, knock on more doors, we won’t win.”
In the June primary we elected a slate of strong candidates up and down the ballot who would go on to compete against Republican opponents in the November mid-terms. The campaigns took on a hopeful energy. Still, a November victory in the House remained iffy.
Volunteers spent the hot summer and a cooling fall at their assigned duties, calling, walking, and getting out the vote. At the end of a long election night and into the next day, 701,654 people had voted—a respectable 56 percent voter turnout.
Our candidate for the House, Xochitl Torres Small, won the congressional district by a mere 2 percent. Regardless, the seat Republicans had held for most of 40 years, was now ours. The focused strategy had helped win that 2 percent and New Mexico was awash in Blue Wave victories. Every Congressional seat, the governor, secretary of state, attorney general, land commissioner, even our county sheriff—all blue.
At first, we were numbed by the victory. But by January, we had begun to see the promised results of being in the majority. In Washington, House Democrats used their majority position to spotlight the administration’s abuses of power. Democrats now set the agenda, and control committee assignments. The newly acquired power was especially evident when Rep. Torres Small, our district’s first Congresswoman was named to the House Homeland Security Committee. Not only that, she is the one and only Democrat on the committee to represent a district along the nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico. In a show of bipartisanship, she and a Republican colleague from Texas have partnered on a bill to address their common border issues.
New Mexico’s sixty-day legislative session recently closed with a win-some, lose-some outcome. It was a sweet victory for those bills that made it to the governor’s desk, but the rejection of others was as bitterly disappointing. Those that will become law with Governor Lujan Grisham’s signature include energy legislation, a higher minimum wage, two gun-control measures and an early childhood bill. A chunk of the $7 billion state budget that will go to increased spending on public education is also up for the governor’s approval.
Of note to southern New Mexico is a bill that increases the cap on tax rebates on film productions. On top of that the bill adds another 5 percent in rebates for films shot in rural areas.
Despite the governor’s pleas, lawmakers, including Deming Democrat John Arthur Smith, stubbornly refused to tap into the state’s $18 billion land grant fund to pay for pre-kindergarten programs. Also, eight Senate democrats helped defeat a proposed law that would have removed an archaic and unenforceable ban on abortion. A similar cadre of Democrats also helped defeat a proposed bill legalizing the sale of marijuana, although they did act to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
New Mexico’s sixty-day legislative session ended at noon on March 16, and lawmakers headed home, exhausted but mostly satisfied with their efforts. The governor has until April 5 to sign the bills into law.
Meanwhile, presidential candidates are popping up like daffodils, making early pitches for 2020 and Donald Trump’s job. To a person, they contend that if they are nominated, they can defeat him.
If the experience of these last two years has taught us anything, it is this: If we want a say in democracy, we’ll have to work for it. We just proved it. If we don’t stay informed, if we don’t nominate strong candidates, if we don’t vote—think November 2016 and weep.
Linda G. Harris lives in Las Cruces, NM. For the past two years she has volunteered in Indivisible LAS CRUCES. She is one of the founding members and served as chair in 2018.