This year's midterm elections caused a sea change in politics.
It was the shout heard round the world.
"It's a great night to be a Democrat!" US Rep. Tom Udall, D-NM, exclaimed during his victory speech in front of hundreds of party faithful packed into the Hotel Albuquerque ballroom on election night.
Nov. 7 was indeed a monumental day for Democrats. The blue-staters finally had their
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moment in the sun after being overshadowed by both the Bush administration and a Republican-led Congress for six tortuous years.
"The change of power in Washington, DC, is historic," Matt Farrauto, executive director of the New Mexico Democratic Party, says.
But while Democrats rode the midterm election wave of elation on the national level, New Mexico partisans merely stayed the course. A series of political scandals haunted the party for much of the year (see "Tainted Love," page 23), and
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while Democrats didn't lose any offices on the state level, they didn't gain any either.
"Any time you have a shift of power like this, it's huge," Whitney Cheshire, president of the Cheshire Communication Strategies political consulting firm in Albuquerque, says. "But that didn't translate this year in New Mexico. What amazes me is
that the Democrats weren't able to make any gains locally even though there was this big wave against Republicans nationally."
The midterm elections nonetheless dominated political discourse in New Mexico [Cover story, Oct. 4: "
"], from the primaries [Cover story, March 29: "
"] to the final outcome of the general election [Outtakes, Nov. 8: "
"].
In Santa Fe, the local elections were either yawners (Udall won re-election with more than 70 percent of the vote) or no-contests (state Rep. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano, et al.). But state races still dominated the headlines,
and no race received more ink than the fierce battle between US Rep. Heather Wilson, R-NM, and state Attorney General Patricia Madrid, D-NM, for the First Congressional District seat.
"It felt like I was in a Kafka novel," Madrid tells SFR. "It was the election that didn't end."
When the dust finally settled-nearly two weeks after election day-Madrid conceded to Wilson, who prevailed by a mere 861 votes. Despite the loss, Farrauto says that Madrid's campaign-once considered pivotal in the national race for control of Congress-still helped tilt the national balance of power in favor of Democrats.
"You have to look at that campaign in a larger context," Farrauto says. "The Republicans were stretched thin in terms of resources, and I think Patricia Madrid deserves some credit for keeping the pressure on Heather Wilson and, nationally, on the Republican Party."
While fellow Democrats like Gary King (attorney general) and Hector Balderas (state auditor) wait to take office in January, Madrid says she's focused on finishing her duties as AG before taking a sabbatical.
"My immediate plans are to get some rest," Madrid says. "For the past nine years, I have been in two statewide races and an extremely contested national race, all while being attorney
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general. It's been intense and I'm looking forward to taking it easy for a while."
But the outgoing attorney general can only read so many books and do so much fly fishing while spending time with family at her ranch in Mora. Madrid says she's looking at the possibility of teaching, resuming her law practice or moving into the corporate sector. But she hasn't dismissed another run for office down the road.
"I'm not ready to retire," Madrid says. "I have enjoyed public service immensely, and I will look to serve again."
For those remaining in public office, the tasks at hand are daunting even after the seismic political shift brought on by the midterm elections. While Gov. Bill Richardson mulls a run at the Oval Office, politicians like Udall have muted the giddiness exhibited on election night.
"I am encouraged by the change in leadership, but this is going to be a tough road," Udall says. "The policies of this administration and the previous majority in Congress have run the economy into the ditch. It's going to take discipline, bipartisanship and a concerted effort between the president and the Congress to solve this. There's not an easy way out."
