Another 25-year-old of Santa Fe is running a campaign, except this time it's for a much higher office higher than city council.
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Sean Closson, a local artist who works the night shift at the Santa Fe Suites, declared his candidacy for Congress last Friday. He joins Houston Johansen, who's running for city council, in being a young, underemployed Santa Fean seeking professional political relevancy.
Closson's goals are more ambitious than Johansen's. He'll be challenging Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-Santa Fe, for the Democratic primary next June.
Just how far Closson, who spent much of last year unemployed, can progress in a race against a popular incumbent with bounties of connections and resources remains to be seen. But we'll at least expect some stellar artwork from him in the coming months (view his first campaign poster here).
SFR caught up with Closson, who rests during the day when he has overnight shifts, yesterday afternoon.
"My experiences are much more in line with what people have been going through these past couple of years," he tells SFR.
In 2010, Closson was on unemployment for six months, which he says helped shape his understanding of how important social programs are and how "out of whack" the debate over them has gotten.
His other top issues include keeping corporate money out of politics, ending the drug war and holding Wall Street accountable by breaking up big banks. Closson is active with Move On Santa Fe and Occupy Santa Fe, although he's cautious about appearing as if he's trying to exploit the Occupy movement.
"I don't want to look like this guy showing up trying to co-opt the momentum," Closson says.
Lujan is failing to address issues like ending privatized prisons and could do a better job with meeting constituents, Closson argues. But challenging Lujan isn't the only reason Closson is in the race.
"I've been interested in doing it for a few years now," he says. "It's the highest office I can run for at the moment."
