Published 10/30/08
Ben Ray Lujan isn’t just bringing a gun to a knife fight — he’s bringing a row of cannons.
The state Public Regulation commissioner and Democratic congressional candidate has raised over $1.2 million in his bid to head to Washington as Northern New Mexico’s representative. That’s seven times as much cash as his Republican opponent Dan East, who has pulled in $170,000 — still impressive for an avowed conservative in the heavily Democratic Third Congressional District.
Independent candidate Carol Miller, who has purposely eschewed campaign fund-raising activities, has raised a little over $15,000 but spent twice that; she lent her campaign $23,000 back in May.
Lujan said his campaign benefits from a large number of donors, which is true. But they’re wealthy donors — a lot of state employees, lobbyists and attorneys from Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Many of them are longtime supporters of Lujan’s father, state House Speaker Ben Lujan (D-Nambé), or have a stake in state legislative business.
Most significantly, the Lujan campaign has pulled in massive amounts of funding from unions — to name just two examples, $10,000 from the municipal and county employees’ union and $15,000 from teachers’ unions. Indian tribes have also been a lucrative source of campaign cash. The three tribes with land in Rio Arriba County have contributed $12,500 to Lujan, with more than half of that from the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo.
Lujan’s campaign also reached out to really wealthy donors inside and outside New Mexico. Two Hollywood producers from the Kennedy Marshall Company gave Lujan $4,600. Six members of the Maloof family, who own the Sacramento Kings and the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, Nev., together contributed $43,700. The Maloofs own distribution rights to Coors, Miller, Tecate and other beers throughout New Mexico.
East has relied on large individual contributions, mostly from contractors and business owners within the district. Española sand-and-gravel magnate Richard Cook ponied up $1,000 for East’s campaign.
East himself owns a construction company in Rio Rancho, and he’s made funding for infrastructure one of the cornerstones of his campaign.
Miller is a non-profit administrator and Ojo Sarco resident whose treasurer is Antonio Manzanares, of Los Ojos. Despite those Rio Arriba roots, Miller’s only contributions from within the state came from Santa Fe residents.
Whoever wins on Nov. 4 will replace outgoing Congressman Tom Udall (D-NM), who is running for the Unites States Senate. It’s the first time in a decade that the Third Congressional District has been incumbent-free, and because of that Lujan had to fend off five Democratic opponents in a bitter primary. That siphoned off about half of his total campaign war chest.
Of course, East had to get past a primary opponent of his own — attorney Marco Gonzales, who enjoyed support from retiring Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM).
Lujan and East both responded to the SUN’s pre-primary candidate questionnaire in May; what follows is a summary of their fundamental disagreements. Miller completed the questionnaire earlier this month (see related story). All three candidates also answered an additional question regarding the recent financial collapse.
Financial Crisis
The SUN asked all three congressional candidates which specific strategies they would support to address the current financial situation.
Miller and East both said they oppose the $700 billion bailout plan, which ballooned to $850 billion before it was passed by Congress.
“I really honestly think that was a bad decision,” East said. “In order to get this economy moving again, we need to get people working and the way you do that is you cut taxes. You cannot increase taxes — that’s just counter-intuitive.”
East said tax cuts would allow small businesses to hire more workers. He said he would also push for investing in America’s crumbling infrastructure.
“We’re going to put people to work at great-paying jobs, and those jobs are not going to be outsourced,” East said.
Miller called the bailout package “unbelievable” and said she would “never vote for something like that.”
“The idea of working people bailing out Wall Street, and we’re not even sure it’s going to work, is really offensive to me,” Miller said. “I think it was illegal. The Constitution says that Congress is the appropriating body, and they basically gave a credit card with no limit to the secretary of the Treasury.”
Miller said the first step is to actually diagnose the root of the problem, and she called for the establishment of a national affordable-housing trust and a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions, to allow people to renegotiate their mortgages.
“There’s so much blaming people for mortgages they can’t afford, but I know so many young people starting out that get a job and can’t find affordable housing in the community where they’ve been offered a job,” Miller said. “It’s a two-way street. We have stopped creating affordable housing in the United States.”
Asked the same question, Lujan pointed to a $60 billion economic-stimulus package which was passed in September by the House but died in the Senate. According to the text of the bill, it would have funneled federal money to airports, highways, railroads, clean-water and flood-control projects, school-building modernization, energy efficiency and renewable energy, job training and food stamps.
“I think that with the times we’re looking at, something along those lines to give immediate relief is something that needs to be considered and pursued,” Lujan said.
Iraq War
In their pre-primary questionnaires, Lujan and East both supported a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. But East noted that those troops may be going to other locations to fight terrorist groups.
“I believe we’re at war with a terrorist faction, and whether it’s in Iraq or Afghanistan or wherever, I do believe that we need to keep it in the forefront and keep it in their backyard,” East said.
Health Care
The two major-party candidates’ positions offered a stark contrast. East said he does not believe in “government-mandated or socialized medicine” and believes health care is a responsibility, not a right. He said he supports tax credits for individuals and corporations that purchase private insurance.
“I believe in more consumer choice, less regulation,” East said. “I think once we expand the choices that we have out there, the value of your care will go up and the costs will go down.”
Lujan said he supports a plan proposed by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) that would expand the Medicare program to include all Americans and allow citizens to opt into the congressional health-care plan.
The Lab
Udall angered a lot of Third District constituents when he voted for a preliminary appropriations bill that cut funding for the Los Alamos National Laboratory; the funding was restored in a later version of the bill. Although environmentalists and others have begun beating the drum of changing the Lab’s mission toward renewable energy, Los Alamos was recently chosen as the preferred site for plutonium pit production.
Lujan said he supports expanding the Lab’s research on fuel cells, solar energy and nuclear non-proliferation. He offered vague support for continued Lab funding.
“We need to make sure that we support funding for Los Alamos National Laboratory, to protect the jobs and bring in programs that are going to solve a lot of the nation’s problems,” Lujan said.
East was more adamant in his support for the current mission.
“I encourage additional funding to keep the mission in the direction they’re headed today,” East said. “Our labs and our bases are here for defense purposes.”