{"id":40257,"date":"2012-05-24T06:46:11","date_gmt":"2012-05-24T12:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=40257"},"modified":"2012-05-24T22:28:16","modified_gmt":"2012-05-25T04:28:16","slug":"grisham-has-already-defied-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/05\/grisham-has-already-defied-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"Grisham has already defied expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Michelle<\/a>

Michelle Lujan Grisham (Courtesy photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Democratic 1st Congressional District candidate Michelle Lujan Grisham has beaten fundraising expectations. Now in the midst of a heated three-way race, she\u2019s under attack over her past leadership of the N.M. Department of Health.<\/h4>\n

This is the second of three profiles<\/a> of the Democratic 1st Congressional District candidates.<\/em><\/p>\n

Michelle Lujan Grisham<\/a> has already defied expectations in her fundraising efforts for the open 1st Congressional District seat in the U.S. House. Now, she hopes to use her experience in both elected and appointed office to beat out two others in this year\u2019s Democratic primary.<\/p>\n

Grisham entered the race in August of last year later than her opponents \u2013 former Albuquerque mayor Marty Ch\u00e1vez<\/a> and State Sen. Eric Griego<\/a>. Grisham told NMPolitics.net one of the first challenges was raising enough money to be competitive, especially since, she says, some political watchers may have initially sold her short and \u201cdidn\u2019t assume it was going to be a three-way race.\u201d<\/p>\n

She received early support from the Women\u2019s Campaign Fund<\/a> (WCF), an organization that supports female candidates from both parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s the whole package,\u201d said Siobhan \u201cSam\u201d Bennett, President\/CEO of WCF and She Should Run Foundation. Bennett said the organization supported Grisham because of her experience and potential to effectively campaign in the primary race.<\/p>\n

Although women may face challenges getting elected to office, Bennett said they tend to do well as incumbents because, \u201cwomen legislators write more legislation, score higher on constituent service, bring more money home for their district.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grisham has been quite competitive in fundraising. At the end of March, the most recent reporting period, Grisham had raised<\/a> about $532,171 and had $344,496 cash on hand. Griego had raised more<\/a> \u2013 $709,795 \u2013 but had slightly less available \u2013 $321,831. Ch\u00e1vez had raised<\/a> $553,827 and had the least cash on hand with $201,433.<\/p>\n

Fundraising success makes any candidate more competitive, said Timothy Krebs, associate professor of political science at UNM, because \u201cfuture fundraising is a function of whether your previous fundraising beat expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defining Democratic values<\/h3>\n

While raising money, the three candidates have also debated who would best represent the values of the Democratic Party in a general election.<\/p>\n

Griego has often been touted as the progressive candidate in the primary race. He has received endorsements and support from progressive groups in New Mexico and national groups like Moveon.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Grisham rejected the idea that she is less progressive than Griego, saying, \u201cthe notion that one candidate is more progressive than another is really nonsense.\u201d She pointed to her support of women\u2019s reproductive health and advocacy for LGBT equality at the state level as examples of her progressive, or liberal Democratic, credentials.<\/p>\n

Candidate Ch\u00e1vez has also staked a claim for representing core Democratic values in his campaign, pointing to his endorsements from environmentalists and activists who support his record advancing sustainable development in Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

Health-care advocacy<\/h3>\n

Grisham is currently a Bernalillo County commissioner. She previously served as the N.M. Secretary of Aging and Long Term Services for 14 years and was head of the Department of Health during Bill Richardson\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

The candidate says she is a strong supporter of health-care access who can use her background negotiating health-care issues while dealing with federal reforms in Congress. When asked about recent debates on birth control and reproductive health on Capitol Hill, Grisham said reproductive health is tied to economic issues, because, \u201cif you don\u2019t address family planning, we are creating poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the primary, some have questioned Grisham\u2019s leadership\u00a0when Fort Bayard Medical Center, a state-managed nursing home\u00a0in Silver City,\u00a0was investigated\u00a0in 2005\u00a0by the Department of Justice. Federal\u00a0officials\u00a0found\u00a0that the facility was providing \u201cinadequate\u00a0medical care\u201d<\/a> and misusing \u201cdangerous psychotropic medication\u201d\u00a0in ways that did not meet guidelines\u00a0national guidelines. The federal government sued the state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Grisham said she started immediately working to address patient-care issues at Fort Bayard after taking over at the Department of Health. She said the state replaced staff and she got her nursing home administrator\u2019s license and directly took over the facility in the interim.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the Grisham campaign cried foul about a pamphlet<\/a> passed out to voters that was paid for by an out-of-state PAC, Progressive Kick<\/a>, that criticized her leadership of the Department of Health.<\/p>\n

Joshua Grossman, executive director of Progressive Kick, said he watches races around the country and has found that the two-party system in the United States means \u201cwe have diverse views smushed together under the banner of the Democratic party.\u201d Grossman says his organization decided to support efforts to push Griego forward in the primary because it believes Griego will best represent the interests of average Americans in Congress.<\/p>\n

Griego told NMPolitics.net he was not aware of Progressive Kick or the organization\u2019s activities. As an independent expenditure PAC, now commonly called a Super PAC, Progressive Kick is not allowed to coordinate with candidates but can spend money for or against candidates across the country.<\/p>\n

Grisham said she hopes voters will see that she has taken responsibility for \u201cdecades of government problems\u201d and she was \u201cnot afraid to be the name on that effort.\u201d The consent decree that outlined the investigation findings<\/a> at Fort Bayard did recognize that the state was making progress at Fort Bayard while Grisham was head of the department.<\/p>\n

The general election<\/h3>\n

The House seat is open this year because U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich<\/a>, a Democrat, is instead running for the U.S. Senate seat that was previously held for three decades by Democrat Jeff Bingaman<\/a>. The seat was previously held for five terms by Republican Heather Wilson, who is now running against Heinrich for the open Senate seat.<\/p>\n

If Grisham wins the Democratic nomination, she would face Republican Janice Arnold-Jones<\/a> in the general election.<\/p>\n

In the primary, Grisham has often spoken about the demands of caring for both her children and elderly parents after the death of her husband in 2004. She said the challenge of juggling both time and money are something that female voters can relate to and would set her apart in the U.S. House, saying \u201cIt\u2019s those realities that make you a very effective policy maker. I will be a very effective congresswoman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grisham predicted that in the general election she and Arnold-Jones would focus on the nation\u2019s spending and values in \u201csignificant debates about the power of women and families and making sure it\u2019s fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

The primary is June 5. Early voting is already underway.<\/p>\n

Sarah\u00a0Gustavus\u00a0is a freelance reporter based in Albuquerque. She\u2019s currently finishing up a master\u2019s degree in media and communication in London. E-mail her at\u00a0sarahgustavus@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democratic 1st Congressional District candidate Michelle Lujan Grisham has beaten fundraising expectations. Now in the midst of a heated three-way race, she\u2019s under attack over her past leadership of the N.M. Department of Health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2809,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[228,294,156,157,223,117,107,116],"class_list":["post-40257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-1st-congressional-district-race","tag-1st-district-profiles","tag-2012-election","tag-bernalillo-county","tag-campaign-finance","tag-health-care","tag-roundhouse","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2809"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}