![\"Voting\"](\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/12208770_10100935118073171_6580962201182162759_n-336x223.jpg\")
Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>
Early voting continues through Nov. 4 in the Las Cruces municipal election. Nov. 7 is Election Day.<\/p><\/div>\n
“We haven\u2019t seen any increased registration or anything else in our office indicating a higher turnout,” said Do\u00f1a Ana County Clerk Scott Krahling, whose office handled voter registration in advance of the\u00a0Nov. 7 Las Cruces municipal election<\/a>.<\/p>\n Early turnout has been slow. As of Saturday, 906 people had voted\u00a0— about 1.5 percent\u00a0of the 57,808\u00a0city residents who are eligible to vote in the election. Early voting continues through Nov. 4 at the City Clerk’s Office<\/a>.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, 29 percent<\/a> of registered voters cast ballots in Albuquerque, making\u00a0it the highest turnout\u00a0in that city since 2001.\u00a0Turnout\u00a0was driven in part by a multi-candidate mayoral contest and a controversial ballot question\u00a0that would have required employers to provide paid sick leave to workers. A\u00a0surge of voters showed up to support\u00a0progressive-backed mayoral candidate Tim Keller<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other elections in New Mexico<\/a> and nationwide have seen increased turnout<\/a> since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January.<\/p>\n But in Las Cruces, there’s no mayor’s race and there are no ballot questions. Three city council seats are up for grabs, as is a municipal judgeship.<\/p>\n The lower profile of Las Cruces’ election\u00a0isn’t stopping candidates and groups from trying to turn out voters. Gabe\u00a0Vasquez, a progressive-backed candidate running for the open District 3 seat<\/a> on the city council, said he’s talked with hundreds of people.<\/p>\n “I started campaigning in June, which some considered too early for the municipal elections — but for the numbers of doors I wanted to personally knock on, it was the only way to get it done while working a full-time job,” Vasquez said.<\/p>\n His\u00a0opponent, conservative Bev Courtney, has been working hard too.<\/p>\n “Some days I’m exhausted — but none of my helpers slow down and expect me to keep working,” she said. “I’m talking to everyone.”<\/p>\n The two are battling to replace Olga Pedroza, who isn’t seeking re-election. Courtney challenged the progressive-backed Pedroza four years ago and lost 38 percent to 62 percent.<\/p>\n Independent groups are working to turn out voters as well. The progressive\u00a0organization ProgressNow New Mexico is backing<\/a> Vasquez in city council District 3, incumbent Gill Sorg in District 5 and challenger Yvonne Flores in District 6.<\/p>\n People backed by progressives\u00a0have held the majority of elected seats in city government in Las Cruces for a decade. Ceil Levatino, who Flores is attempting to unseat<\/a>\u00a0this year, is the only Republican on the city council. Progressives have built such power by\u00a0consistently organizing and getting out their voters — and their influence has been felt beyond city government in school board, soil and water district, and state-level elections.<\/p>\n Left-leaning activism has also spiked in Las Cruces this year. It has been visible in events including the women’s march in January that drew 1,500 people<\/a>.\u00a0Thus far in the Las Cruces election, progressive-backed candidates lead in fundraising in all three council races.<\/p>\n All of that has progressives sounding confident about the city election.<\/p>\n “Voters have turned out more and more to support good progressive candidates by wide margins at all levels in recent elections in Do\u00f1a Ana County,” said ProgressNow’s Lucas Herndon. “We\u2019ve seen the progressive base grow and empower leaders, which in turn builds wider support and solid infrastructure.”<\/p>\n Herndon’s group hasn’t yet filed a finance report indicating how much it’s spent on the election.<\/p>\n On the conservative side, the political action committee Advance Las Cruces<\/a> is backing Levatino and Steve Montanez, one of two candidates trying to unseat Sorg in District 5. In a recent fundraising email, the group referred to progressive control of Las Cruces as a “dire” situation, stating that “despite their continued claims of ‘progress,’ we haven’t been able to recover from the Great Recession like all of our neighboring states have done.” That’s a reference to high unemployment in Las Cruces and statewide.<\/p>\n Advance Las Cruces\u00a0didn’t respond to requests for comment for this article. As of Oct. 23, the group reported spending about $7,500<\/a> on its efforts, much of it on postcards.<\/p>\n The greatest activity thus far appears to be in the District 6 race. Progressives are\u00a0attempting to expand their power by unseating Levatino. Flores has outraised Levatino and all other council candidates thus far — raising\u00a0more than $23,000<\/a>\u00a0as of Oct. 23, while Levatino had raised just under $18,000<\/a>. Vasquez, in the District 3 race, was next among council candidates, having raised just over $9,000<\/a>\u00a0to Courtney’s $2,600<\/a>.<\/p>\n City elections are officially nonpartisan, but Flores, a Democrat, referred to the registration statistics in District 6, which she said is\u00a0roughly 42 percent Democrat, 42 percent Republican and 16 percent independent or minor-party.\u00a0Flores said she is often\u00a0asked at doors about her party affiliation, and sometimes that’s all voters want to know. Other times, voters are more willing to share their concerns when she explains it’s a nonpartisan race.<\/p>\n Flores said the general response she’s received is that voters “would like to see change because the District 6 councilor has not been responsive.” She said she’s optimistic.<\/p>\n Levatino said she’s generally not seeing higher interest among voters than in past years, but it’s\u00a0difficult to gauge. “I hope I am given the opportunity to serve another term, but in the end that’s in the hands of the voters,” she said. “I’m proud of my record.”<\/p>\n Four years ago, Levatino won a three-way race\u00a0to take the council seat, getting 43 percent of the vote to Mark Cobb’s 36 percent and Curtis Rosemond’s 21 percent. With all the money Flores has raised this year, and progressives focused on backing a single challenger to Levatino, the incumbent could have quite a battle on her hands.<\/p>\n In the District 5 race<\/a>, meanwhile, incumbent Sorg said he’s finding that voters are “concerned more than ever,” particularly about national politics and education. He said he\u00a0sees\u00a0“some higher interest” than in past elections and has more volunteers willing to help,\u00a0but agreed with Levatino that it is difficult to measure.<\/p>\n Challenger Montanez said he’s aware of the “control” progressives have on local elections, “and I’m not afraid of that.”<\/p>\n “The families and children in my district mean more to me than any special interest groups ever will,” he said. “Hopefully they remember this on Election Day and get out and vote.”<\/p>\n Sorg’s\u00a0other challenger in\u00a0the District 5 race, Bill Fuller, said he’s encountered people while campaigning who won’t speak with him unless he states his party affiliation (he’s a Republican), people who aren’t registered to vote, and others who “just do not care.”<\/p>\n Fuller\u00a0said he’s not sure about his chances because he’s not backed “by any money or ‘groups’ or political committees,” but that’s the way he wants it. He said he’s “trying to give the voice back to the community.”<\/p>\n Sorg\u00a0faced one opponent four years ago, David Roewe, and won re-election 55 percent to 45 percent. This year he had outraised Montanez as of Oct. 23, collecting $7,750<\/a> to Montanez’s $7,175<\/a>. Fuller reported raising no money<\/a>.<\/p>\n Voter turnout had generally been declining in\u00a0elections in the Las Cruces area and nationwide for years before Trump’s victory — though Las Cruces held the line in terms of voter turnout in its last municipal election in 2015. That election, which included a mayor’s race, saw\u00a0about 19 percent<\/a>\u00a0of voters turn out, which was roughly equal to turnout in 2011, another year there was a mayoral race.<\/p>\n In 2015, turnout was driven in part by well-funded negative attacks against progressive candidates by political committees. Voters largely rejected those attacks by electing the targeted candidates<\/a>.<\/p>\n In other words,\u00a0those trying to counter progressive\u00a0dominance in Las Cruces worked hard in 2015, but their attacks\u00a0may have backfired by\u00a0energizing\u00a0progressives.<\/p>\n In 2013, the last time the council races that are up for grabs this year were on the ballot, turnout was 8.19 percent. Some 4,925 out of 60,140 eligible voters cast ballots. Given that progressives have reliably turned out to vote in the last several elections, it would likely take a surge of new voters with different views\u00a0to effectively counter progressive dominance in the city.<\/p>\n There’s still time to vote, and anything is possible. The Las Cruces Sun-News gave a boost to Advance Las Cruces’ efforts on Sunday by\u00a0endorsing<\/a>\u00a0Levatino and Montanez, along with Vasquez.<\/p>\n Still, given the lack of signs of increased turnout, there’s reason to suspect that progressive-backed candidates will do well in next month’s election. That’s Herndon’s goal.<\/p>\n “All the work being done by the volunteers and citizens who care deeply about their community are helping other voters realize the value in local elections,” he said, “and with the help of tools like voter guides that ProgressNow New Mexico publishes<\/a>, voters feel more comfortable and confident about decisions they\u2019re making at the ballot box.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Progressives have dominated city elections for a decade and sound confident again this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3334,145,3351],"class_list":["post-451659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2017-election","tag-las-cruces","tag-voter-turnout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451659","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}