New Mexico House Speaker Brian Egolf, an architect of the state\u2019s progressive Democratic wing, made the announcement Wednesday after GOP nominee Yvette Herrell beat Democratic U.S. House Rep. Xochitl Torres Small in part because of a Republican turnout surge in the 2nd Congressional District.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo this is the last election for New Mexico\u2019s 2nd Congressional District with a map that looks like it looks now,\u201d Egolf said. \u201cSo next time it\u2019ll be a different district and we\u2019ll have to see what that means for Republican chances to hold it.\u201d<\/p>\n
State Republican Party Chairman Steve Pearce criticized the plan and suggested that Egolf should instead focus on New Mexico\u2019s dismal educational outcomes, lack of jobs and economic opportunities, crime rates and other problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll he can think about are political tricks to make sure his weak candidates can win a district where Republicans are already outnumbered,\u201d Pearce said.<\/p>\n
The sprawling district borders Mexico, stretches from remote western ranches to oil pump jacks near Texas and has been won by Democrats only twice in four decades. The Democratic incumbents failed both times to win reelection.<\/p>\n
Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in the district, but Herrell unseated Torres Small as Republicans cast ballots at far higher rates. In Lea County, about two-thirds of registered Republicans voted in Tuesday\u2019s election. Fewer than half of Democrats did so.<\/p>\n
The outcome put a wrinkle in the Democrats\u2019 sweep of other top ticket New Mexico races and the narrower margins of victory for those Democrats who were successful showed that the \u201cblue wall\u201d in northern New Mexico isn\u2019t a factor beyond the 2nd district\u2019s largest urban area in Dona Ana County.<\/p>\n
Democratic Sen. John Arthur Smith, one of the state\u2019s most influential lawmakers, lives in the 2nd District. He was a target of the progressive movement in the primary and lost his reelection bid to Democrat Neomi Martinez-Parra.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Republican Crystal Diamond defeated Martinez-Parra to take the seat for the GOP \u2014 something Smith said hasn\u2019t happened in 65 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that tells you what\u2019s happening in the area,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Smith said Egolf likely has the political clout to push for transforming the district through redistricting.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s districts were drawn in 2012 by a state district court after former Republican Gov. Susana Martinez vetoed a plan from a Democratic-led Legislature. The court\u2019s goal was to minimize partisan leanings and keep intact communities with similar cultural, economic or geographic concerns.<\/p>\n
But a Democratic governor is now in office, Democrats hold super majorities in the statehouse and Democrats dominate the state Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
So that could create an opportunity for gerrymandering by the party in the upcoming round of redistricting \u2014 and political experts have said that when the executive and legislative branches are of the same party, there\u2019s more temptation to pass a partisan plan.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s little recourse in federal court to challenge plans that blatantly shape districts to help a certain political party.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 ruled that partisan gerrymandering of congressional and legislative districts is none of its business.<\/p>\n
However, Justice Elena Kagan in a dissenting opinion quoted retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, saying partisan gerrymandering at its most extreme \u201camounts to \u2018rigging elections.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Following Herrell\u2019s win, Egolf dismissed suggestions that Democrats are out of touch with rural residents.<\/p>\n
House Republican Leader Jim Townsend said progressive Democrats spent hundreds of thousands of dollars over the election cycle trying to oust moderate Democrats.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe invite the speaker to meaningfully visit our southern New Mexico communities to learn why his party\u2019s ever shifting progressive policies do not resonate with the hard working people of this congressional district,\u201d Townsend said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mexico House Speaker Brian Egolf, an architect of the state\u2019s progressive Democratic wing, made the announcement Wednesday after GOP nominee Yvette Herrell beat Democratic U.S. House Rep. Xochitl Torres Small in part because of a Republican turnout surge in the 2nd Congressional District. \u201cSo this is the last election for New Mexico\u2019s 2nd Congressional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50581"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}