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Last Updated: March 15, 2008 - 3:24 PM
Three generations of Democrats are ready to lead.
Sporting an arm-length tattoo and a backward baseball cap, 27-year-old Gideon Elliot may not look like a politician. But that hasn’t stopped the former Democratic Party of New Mexico staffer from running hard to be the state party’s next top dog.
“There’s a real demand for new blood in the party,” Elliot, a Santa Fe resident, tells SFR. He even ventures
a bold prediction: “I’m going to win!”
Elliot is squaring off against former seven-term Socorro County state Rep. Michael Olguin and Albuquerque lawyer Brian Colón for the unpaid but high-profile position. John Wertheim, a Santa Fe lawyer and the party’s current chairman, is not running for re-election.
The winner will be chosen by the 414 members of the party’s State Central Committee (SCC) on April 28 at a meeting in Las
Cruces. As the election approaches, the three candidates have been attending county Democratic Party meetings across the state, mailing out letters to SCC members and working the phones.
Olguin and Colón also have been trading barbs.
Colón tells SFR that Olguin’s status as a registered lobbyist represents a conflict.
“His clients are fundamentally in opposition to the tenets of the Democratic
(From top) Brian Colón, Gideon Elliot and Michael Olguin. |
Party of New Mexico and its platform,” Colón says, pointing to current Olguin client payday lender Cottonwood Financial and past client Wackenhut Corporation, a private prison corporation.
In response, Olguin says he’s due “a little credit” for the recent payday lending regulations passed by the Legislature, and says his lobbying experience is an asset and he won’t give up lobbying if he’s elected chairman. Olguin, in turn, also questions whether Colón will examine his client list for conflicts of interest. Colón says there is no parallel between the situations.
Olguin, 57, served in the Legislature from 1985 to 1999, including eight years as majority leader in the House. He’s also served as the party’s Socorro County chairman and, before that, had a brief stint as vice chairman of the state party.
“I have the experience and the proven leadership that the party needs,” Olguin says, adding that if elected he’d focus on improving “dialogue” between the state party and the various county parties.
Colón, 37, may be newer to the inner circles of the state’s dominant party, but that hasn’t stopped him from accumulating a long list of supporters, he says.
“One of the things that motivated me to run was all the phone calls I got. People were saying, ‘We need what you have,’” Colón says, citing first and foremost his ability to raise money, but also his efforts recruiting and training candidates. He says that work on behalf of Democratic candidates would accelerate if he’s elected state party chairman.
“With the title, I’ll have more capacity to make a difference in the party,” Colón says.
While she emphasizes that she hasn’t endorsed any of the three, Santa Fe County Democratic Party Chairwoman Minnie Gallegos sees Colón as the candidate to beat.
“I think Mr. Colón is the front-runner. He represents the youth,” she says. Told that Elliot is 10 years younger than Colón and also in the race, Gallegos amends her statement.
“I forgot about him,” she admits. “Well, he represents the youth, too.”
Elliot worked as deputy executive director for the state party under Wertheim for approximately one year and was in charge of building the party’s statewide voter file, among other duties. Disillusioned by a variety of internal disputes, Elliot quit in May 2005 and has since launched his own Web site, www.newmexicomatters.com, and a companion blog.
Elliot says he’s running to reverse Democratic losses among registered voters over the past 25 years, as well as provide rank-and-file Democrats with “more benefits,” such as informing them “how their elected representatives are voting, what is happening in their area or helping them provide events.”
Eli Lee, an Albuquerque-based Democratic strategist, says he thinks highly of all three candidates, but not necessarily of parties in general.
“It seems like they’re losing their relevance because most voters don’t see the party as their primary vehicle to carry out their political objectives,” Lee says, pointing to the rise of electronic organizing as well as the increasing propensity of new voters to spurn both parties and register instead as independents.
“It’s the candidates that are really driving the agenda, not something called the party,” he adds.
Still, Lee likens the state party as a “lump of clay” in need of a skilled sculptor who can shape something useful out of that which has seen better days.
© Copyright 2000-2008 by the Santa Fe Reporter
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