Marty Chávez (Courtesy photo)
Democratic 1st Congressional District hopeful Marty Chávez has significant name recognition and can point to lots of accomplishments, but he also has lots of baggage.
This is the first of three profiles of the Democratic 1st Congressional District candidates.
Marty Chávez is a well-known public figure in Albuquerque. The former mayor is now trying to leverage his name recognition and record in public office to win this year’s Democratic primary in the race for the open 1st Congressional District seat in the U.S. House.
Many Albuquerque voters likely still remember him as Mayor Marty. That may be a “double-edged sword,” according to UNM Political Science Professor Timothy Krebs, who said Chávez “can point to a lot of accomplishments; he’s certainly got wide name recognition, but there’s also a substantial amount of baggage there as well.”
One negative may be that Chávez lost his re-election bid for mayor in a three-way race in 2009. The Democratic vote was split between Chávez and State Senator Richard Romero. Republican Richard Berry avoided a runoff election by garnering 40 percent of the citywide vote.
Krebs said some Democratic primary voters might come to the polls with a bad memory from when the city tilted politically to a Republican the last time Chávez was on the ballot.
During the CD1 Democratic primary, Chávez has also been criticized by his opponents for some of the achievements he touts – like increasing infrastructure development on the edges of the city and focusing on business development.
He also has received negative media scrutiny since his girlfriend, Loretta Mares, was indicted on charges of embezzlement at Christus St. Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe earlier this year. Chávez told NMPolitics.net he cares deeply about Mares and said she has the right to defend herself in court, adding that he has maintained a focus on his campaign and has no connection to any of the allegations.
When asked about the current status of their relationship, he said, “She has her job to do, I have mine, and we’re no longer together.”
Chávez said name recognition and even close scrutiny in the primary makes him a stronger candidate, because, “everything good or bad that can be said about me has been said. I’ve been vetted.”
D.C. is ‘more broken than they can imagine’
The decision to run for the U.S. House this year goes directly against what Chávez told NMPolitics.net in 2007, when he said he would never run for the House because it was a “vile” place and he didn’t want to face a campaign fight every two years.
But Chávez said his time in Washington D.C. after leaving the Albuquerque mayor’s office changed his mind. He was working on sustainability issues as the executive director of ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, and said both Republicans and Democrats were not making progress on the issues he cares about like alternative energy and green development:
“People think Washington is broken. They’re right, but it’s more broken than they can imagine.”
Instead of turning cynical, the career politician said he started to see ways he could bring his experience as the mayor of New Mexico’s largest city to address those issues in Congress.
A three-way primary
Chávez faces two strong opponents in the final weeks of the Democratic primary campaign – State Sen. Eric Griego and Bernalillo County Commissioner Michelle Lujan Grisham. Polls released by each of the three campaigns on Tuesday make it difficult to determine the status of the race, but his opponents’ polls show them gaining voters and Chávez losing them.
Each has been successful in fundraising and gaining significant endorsements, though the others have outraised Chávez.
It appears that attention from national progressive groups has helped Griego in both endorsements and financial contributions. Chávez has secured some high profile endorsements, including those of former President Bill Clinton, actor and environmentalist Robert Redford and Chicano activist Dolores Huerta. Grisham has been endorsed by the Albuquerque Journal and The Weekly Alibi, along with former Lt. Gov. Diane Denish.
All three candidates’ campaign stances are strikingly similar except for the nuances that each might add from personal or professional experience. Like his opponents, Chávez says he would make jobs, education and the environment some of his top priorities in office.
Krebs, the associate professor, said it’s not uncommon for there to be several good candidates for an open seat in Congress and “split hairs on issue positions” as they try to convince voters to nominate them.
Chávez’s focus has been on his record in office and the argument that he would be a strong candidate in the general election. The Democrat who wins the primary will face Republican Janice Arnold-Jones, a former state representative who has no primary opponent, in the general election.
‘A hard one for Democrats to win’
The 1st District includes Albuquerque and parts of Torrance and Valencia counties. The seat is open because current Rep. Martin Heinrich, a Democrat, is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Jeff Bingaman.
Before Heinrich was elected in 2008, Republican Heather Wilson held the CD1 seat for five terms, though she won by very narrow margins in 2004 and 2006.
“This is a Republican seat, and it’s going to be a hard one for Democrats to win,” Chávez said.
Sarah Gustavus is a freelance reporter based in Albuquerque. She’s currently finishing up a master’s degree in media and communication in London. E-mail her at sarahgustavus@gmail.com.