Congressman-elect Steve Pearce (left, photo by Heath Haussamen) and Gov.-elect Susana Martinez (courtesy photo) were among the Republicans who won seats previously held by Democrats while Yates was chairman.
Harvey Yates Jr. chaired the Republican Party of New Mexico during what was arguably its most successful election cycle in decades, but he says much of the credit for that goes to Democrats.
“I think the party is in better shape than it has been in in a long time,” he said in an interview. “Perhaps some of that is because of things I’ve done, and of course a lot of it has to do with the help that we’ve received from Mr. Obama and Mr. Richardson.”
“When I first started, the wind was in our face. It was a difficult time,” he said. “The wind shifted and the wind was at our back during the election.”
Yates, who became GOP chairman in January 2009, leaves the position at the end of the month. Republicans are set to pick a new chairman on Saturday.
Certainly, GOP gains this year were largely due to voters being upset with the president and tired of business as usual in Santa Fe. But the fingerprints of Yates, an oilman, are undoubtedly all over the 2010 election.
- As chairman, he stepped into a nasty gubernatorial primary battle between Susana Martinez and Allen Weh, calling Weh out for running “misleading” ads. It was a move some saw as an attempt to help Martinez, but Yates insisted that he was just trying to ensure that his party’s candidates ran honest campaigns.
- Yates personally and through his business helped fund Republicans in a big way. His company, Jalapeno Corporation, gave nearly $80,000 to Gov.-elect Susana Martinez and the state GOP, according to FollowTheMoney.org.
- Yates brought in Ryan Cangiolosi, who has been the business manager for Jalapeno Corporation, to be the state GOP’s executive director. He later became Martinez’s campaign manager and is set to become a deputy chief of staff in her administration next month.
On Yates’ watch, Republicans ended up winning the governor’s race, the secretary of state race, the 2nd Congressional District race, and eight additional seats in the New Mexico House of Representatives.
Turning New Mexico around
Yates said he tried to focus on bringing civility to a party that was divided after the 2008 election, making sure Republicans were behaving honestly, and uniting republicans behind the mission of turning the state around.
“By no means do I suggest that the state is turned around, but now I feel that we have an opportunity to get at that job,” Yates said.
“Looking at the future, we have to realize that, though we did very well, the Republican Party has only been given an opportunity, nothing more,” he said. “If the voters do not see progress, than what we did is going to be for naught.”
That progress should come in two areas, Yates said – education and job creation. Democrats far outnumber Republicans in New Mexico, but Yates thinks that can shift over time if GOP officials focus on those two areas.
In GOP polling, Democrats continued to list education as their top issue during the election even as Republicans replaced it at the top of the list with corruption. Yates said if Republicans can “lead the state in the direction of greatly improving education, then I think that will be one of the things that will cause the folks that we’re talking about to begin to turn to the Republican Party as an alternative.”
Increasing “workforce participation,” Yates said, would also improve quality of life and reduce dependence on government programs such as Medicaid, and could help lead to a shift in party registration over time.
The party should also continue working to draw in Hispanics who are Democrats because of their parents, but who are “actually free-market oriented and pro-life,” he said.
‘I’m certainly available to help’
Yates said the fact that he chose to not seek a second term as GOP chairman doesn’t mean he’s done working to improve New Mexico. He said he wants to help create a climate that will allow future generations of New Mexicans to find jobs here.
“I am a business guy who took a furlough, a sabbatical, in order to do what I’ve done, and I’ve got to get back to business,” he said. “I’m certainly available to help.”
“I’m not sure that my best use at this point is to work through the party,” Yates said. “I’ve done what I feel I could do for the party. There are certainly other folks in the party who have a great leadership capacity and other qualities.”