The Race to Replace Pearce

Here's hoping Progressives keep their eyes on the ball.

Steve Pearce, despite losing our county to less experienced candidates, has held Congressional District 2 for years, using it as a platform for spouting far-right ideology most folks here don't share.

We need to get the seat out of ReTrumplican hands. For everyone's sake.

We have some highly promising candidates. Xochitl Torres-Small is someone I've long thought has promise. Angel Peña comes highly recommended, and I look forward to meeting him. David Baake, a bright, committed environmental lawyer, campaigned hard, despite limited connections to New Mexico. (All three are professional environmental watchdogs.) I don't yet know Mad Hildebrandt, but she'll appear on my radio show soon.

I'm delighted Xochitl is in the race. She's a water lawyer who grew up among us and worked on public-interest matters here – as well as on statewide matters for Senator Udall. Her parents grew up here. One became a teacher and the other a social worker. She's a lifelong resident who went away to Georgetown, then UNM Law School, and chose to return. I know her to be capable, incredibly ethical, and deeply caring. Her candidacy has quickly generated a lot of excitement. 

 

Thursday I received an anonymous letter to Democratic leaders saying that Xochitl (whose work commitments delayed her announcement) met with David to tell him she would be announcing, and that the DCCC was (understandably) enthusiastic about her candidacy. The anonymous letter bashed the DCCC, which probably deserves some bashing for not having treated CD-2 candidates very well and not being much help to Merrie Lee Soules two years ago. The letter was obviously from people still bitter – and reasonably so – over the appearance of Democratic Party favoritism in the 2016 Presidential race. That concerns me too. 

 

Unfortunately, the letter seems to attack Xochitl as well. It snidely calls her “Mrs. Small,” presumably because her husband is State Rep. Nathan Small. It refers to her as “an assigned candidate,” suggesting that DCCC encouragement and financing equates to forcing us to vote for her.

The DCCC should concentrate most on helping the Democratic candidate win the general election. 

 

But make no mistake: Ms. Torres-Small's obvious appeal, and the longstanding local support for her, created the national party's interest – not the other way around. She's well-qualified. She's locally popular, for good reason. She has every right to run – as do the other candidates. She and Peña, and perhaps Hildebrandt, are promising. I hope and trust they won't do anything that prevents uniting behind the ultimate nominee. (At least one of the letter's authors is a serious progressive who'll work hard for whoever wins the nomination.)

The letter addresses continuing issues that the Democratic Party must deal with at some point.

But those issues should not be used to attack a local candidate who may be our best chance to get the congressional seat back into the hands of the people. As Baake said, “I don't blame Xochi at all for the way the national party handles its business.” He's a fine young man. I hope he'll stay in New Mexico and do good here. 

 

Still, the letter's suggestion that Baake was “the will of the people” was a little premature. (Ironically, one of its authors was voted out of local party office.) 

 

The people of the desert will make their will known in the usual way. In June and November.

                                                              -30-

[The above column appeared this morning, 21 January 2017, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and on KRWG's website.  A spoken version will air during the week on KRWG and on KTAL (101.5 FM).] 

[This column happened more rapidly than most: I had drafted a column on a different subject, but received on Thursday evening the anonymous letter discussed above.  Along with others, I received it from Marty Rennert, whom I know and respect, and inferred that he had probably helped write it.  I pointed out that the anonymity of the writers weakened its persuasiveness, and I wished they'd signed their names.  I quickly investigated a little and wrote the column.  

The following morning, Charlotte Lipson, another progressive I know and respect, sent around copies of the letter, adding that as a supporter of Angel Peña she was unhappy with the DCCC's reported favoring of Ms. Torres-Small.

Certainly the anonymous letter, despite its bitter tone and snide references to Ms. Torres-Small, raised a reasonable issue that reasonable people could differ on: how much and under what circumstances is it appropriate for the DCCC to encourage a particular candidate in a congressional primary?  My first reaction when I heard informally that the DCCC was excited about Xochitl's candidacy was, "Gee, so am I."  However, reading the letter, my first reaction was to question the propriety of the DCCC helping one candidate in a primary.  It's legal, but is it right?  Further reflection suggested that the DCCC is doing what it should do, as I discuss below in the response I sent Ms. Lipson.  It's mandate is to help take back the House.  If it believes Ms. Torres-Small is clearly more likely to prevail in CD-2 than anyone else seeking the nomination, shouldn't it act, within the relevant legal and ethical constraints, to make that happen?

On the other hand, I'd likely be irritated if I'd been out campaigning hard for Mr. Martinez, Mr. Baake, Mr. Peña, or Ms. Hildebrandt.  I'd be all the more irritated if I'd worked hard for previous candidates whom the DCCC hadn't even been courteous to.

Again, I hope this doesn't become a big deal or create disunity.  We have some great candidates.  The DCCC thinks Ms. Torres-Small is a great candidate.  I hope she doesn't use that as a big point in her favor, but she also doesn't deserve to be attacked for that.  I hope no voters vote automatically for or against her based on attitudes toward the DCCC.  It's a plus for her -- in the sense that the DCCC's historical stinginess toward candidates in this district has hurt, and its excitement about her is encouraging -- but a limited one.  We should each make up our own mind about the candidates.

(One local Democrat's response to Ms. Lipson's mailing was "I forwarded this to David. He said that he already ran out of money and was already set on dropping out before he met with Xochitl at the end of December. He reiterated that he withdrew because of lack of funds and he said that uncertainty made it hard for donors to commit to his campaign. (there were rumors of 1 to 3 new people entering the race soon, which 2 later did) People were even bringing up these concerns at his last fundraiser in December. I don't think he felt fully supported in the community, many Democrats were openly giving up on CD-2 when comparing Baake and Hildebrandt. He also told me when it first happened that he thought withdrawing was the best thing for party unity.")

Certainly my impression was that David is likely to endorse Xochitl.

My response to Ms. Lipson was:

Charlotte -

             I do not want to step into the middle of something or aggravate it, but several things are pretty clear:

1. Xochi Torres-Small is a great candidate;

2. From all I hear, so is Angel Pena.  If you're in touch with his campaign, let them know I'd love to have him on my show some time.  Baake and Martinez were on it, and I think Hildebrandt will be, and Ms. Torres-Small will be on January 31.

3. Marty Rennert is a committed progressive and a thoughtful and energetic person who, so far as I know, has no agenda except to move us forward in a positive way.

4. There are lingering pockets of bitterness over the national Democratic Party's handling of the 2016 Presidential Election.

5. We could have a fair and honest debate about the proper course of the DCCC.  I believe its primary task should be helping the Democratic candidate prevail in the general election, and that it has written this race off too easily in prior years; and I could reasonably argue that it ought not to tip the scales at all in favor of anyone in the primary OR could reasonably argue that it has a duty to do so.  To some degree, our perceptions vary with our positions.  We've seen Democrats who aren't progressive, and we've seen some Las Cruces people change from R to D in order to run for a judgeship or DA position.  If a prominent Republican turned Democrat today and started collecting signatures tomorrow, to run for the CD-2 position as a Democrat, I think both you and I would hope the DCCC could help oppose that.  On the other hand, if I were running for that seat, and was considerably to the left of the Clintons (or if Marty were), and the DCCC heavily funded someone more moderate who "has a better chance to win the general," I'd be annoyed.

6. I have no firsthand knowledge, but I do not know that the DCCC has helped fund Ms. Torres-Small at all, or intends to, although I suspect they've provided some advice and I infer that they've indicated they'd help in the general. 

7. I do not want to see anyone among several exciting or viable candidates do anything that will prevent us all from uniting behind whoever wins.  

8. I don't think past sins or perceived sins of the national party should be blamed on Ms. Torres-Small.

9. I think Mr. Baake will indeed endorse Ms. Torres-Small, enthusiastically.  He seems a very bright and energetic young man who was running a great campaign, but whose limited connection to New Mexico would have hampered him in the primary and, if he were nominated, the general election.

10. I think the DCCC has not treated candidates so well; but to the extent that the DCCC has been waiting to see whether or not Martinez or Baake generated huge local support, and who else might get into the race, that's not unreasonable -- although I'd likely be irritated if I were one of the candidates who's been trying to get the DCCC committed to support me.  (Come to think of it, if Mr. Pena has been talking to the DCCC about getting more help, his supporters can hardly complain that Ms. Torres-Small apparently did so, perhaps more successfully.)

11. I agree with Larry that authors or co-authors of the letter should own up to it, but I may help with that in my blog post supplementing Sunday's column.

12. Thanks, as always, for sending these pieces of important information around.  I think reasonable people could disagree with each other about this one, and I regret the anonymity of the authors.  I think there are legitimate issues here worth discussing, and that's easier to do if, say, I could invite the anonymous writers on my radio show to discuss it with others who might disagree with them. 

13. I look forward to hosting Ms. Torres-Small, Mr Pena, and Ms. Hildebrandt on my radio show at their convenience.  And/or to having coffee with any of them to discuss their campaigns. 

Thanks.

                        - peter goodman