Jose de Wit
SUN Staff Writer
Published 10/30/08
Northern New Mexico Democrats gathered in the hundreds Oct. 25 one last time before the Nov. 4 general elections for three campaign events in Pojoaque, Okhay Owingeh and Taos.
The day started with a hurried round of speeches over frito pies in Pojoaque at the Roadrunner Cafe, where State Rep. Ben Lujan (D-Nambé) asked the crowd to persuade anyone they know to vote straight Democratt.
“We all have friends, relatives who might support other candidates,” Ben Lujan said. “I’m going to ask you, please, to not just simply go along with them. Convince them.”
Lujan is running unopposed but his son, Third Congressional District candidate Ben Ray Lujan is facing Republican Dan East and Independent Carol Miller in the general election.
U.S. Rep. Tom Udall (D-NM) made Lujan’s message even more clear at a well-catered reception at the Okhay Owingeh Conference Center, where the group rode in a caravan flanked by a dozen or so motorcycle-riding labor organizers calling themselves Bikers for Obama.
“We can’t get done all the things you want, unless you vote all the way up and down the Democratic ticket,” Udall said.
Ben Ray Lujan is trying to replace Udall, who is running against Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM) for the senate seat being vacated by long-time Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM).
Optimism ran rampant at the events, with attendees predicting a clear victory for Democrats and gushing about the large number of volunteers campaigning for presidential candidate Barack Obama compared to past elections.
“The good and bad of it is that the economy dictates. Folks are hurting, and they’re going to exercise their pain through that vote,” a leather-clad state Sen. Carlos Sisneros (D-Questa), who had earlier joined the Bikers for Obama motorcade, said.
Like most others at the event, Sisneros doubted Miller will draw enough votes away from Ben Ray Lujan to keep him from taking the third congressional seat over East.
Judy Cata, of Okhay Owingeh, said she and her relatives are supporting Obama not just because of his positions on health care and education, but also because of his race, and because he has met with Native American leaders.
“If he does win, because he’s a minority, he can reach out to more people,” Cata said. “Look at here, with us: I don’t think anyone has ever come to Española to ask for our votes.”
If that optimism wavered on the odds for any of the Democrats up for election, it was for Public Regulation Commission Distric 3 hopeful Jerome Block Jr., the only candidate absent at the first two of the day’s events. Though attendees by and large said they are still voting for him, many said his victory over Green Party candidate Rick Lass would come only by riding on the coattails of other candidates and from loyalty some voters still have for his father, Jerome Block, a former commissioner who comes from a politically powerful family.
Earlier this month, Block Jr. was fined $11,000 and asked to return $10,000 in public campaign financing by the Secretary of State’s office for campaign expense violations and is under investigation by the Attorney General’s office.
“That one’s going to be a tough race,” Pojoaque resident and Biker for Obama Ross Sanchez said. “But you know, everybody’s got a downside, everybody’s made a big mistake at some point. We’ll see, but I think he’ll be fine.”
One Block supporter who declined to give her name said Block Jr. would attend the campaign event later that day in Taos. At the reception at Okhay Owingeh were his father, Jerome Block Sr., and his uncle, Jackie Block, who characterized complaints against Block Jr.’s campaign for alleged misspending as the “media waging campaign against him.”
“Newcomers come into town and they believe everything the paper says. So now he’s up against two campaigns, one from the other candidate and one in the media,” Jackie Block said. “But I’m confident he’s gonna win.”
Also tangible among attendees was a backlash against conservative clergy trying to tip the election in favor of Republicans in the election. Roger Montoya, director of Moving People Dance Company, complained about a group led by Rock Christian Outreach Pastor Michael Naranjo, whom Montoya said tore down Obama signs and banners and confronted Democratic supporters.
“Pastor Naranjo came over screaming with a dead baby sign,” Montoya said. “It’s sad to see the religious right latching on to those issues. It just shows ignorance.”
Arsenio Martinez, of Española, went on to criticize San Juan Parish pastor Father Terry Brennan, who defended a sign Naranjo erected in front of Rock Christian Outreach that associated Democratic candidates with a photo of a presumably aborted fetus and Republican candidates with a smiling baby.
“I just don’t think there should be a melding of church and state,” Martinez said. “Roe v Wade came to be because of many people, not just because of one person or candidate. It’s the voice of the people that decides those things.”