400 Years of Santa Fe Politics: Where Power, Influence Collide

SANTA FE (By Julie Ann Grimm, The New Mexican) October 14, 2010 ― "It's easy to put Santa Fe on an island," says Javier Gonzales. "It's easy to say, 'That's where those guys can make those crazy policies.'"

As state Democratic Party chairman, Gonzales sees that the rest of New Mexico cannot disassociate Santa Fe from the exercise of political influence and power. But to Gonzales, Santa Fe is more than the state capital. It's his hometown.

"Those of us here in Santa Fe, we are very proud of it," he said. "This community has been defined by so much more than politics. And sadly, what the rest of the state sometimes does is to define us as a community that is just purely politically driven rather than a community built on family and culture and diversity."

It is undeniable, he said, that Santa Fe is the political center of New Mexico. Any survey of history or the many government buildings would show that. Throughout 2010, Santa Fe has remembered and honored its 400 years of history, including the fundamental fact that the city has been a seat of government since its founding.

"Government — that is your dominant industry out there," economist Larry Waldman said matter-of-factly.

Political insiders like Gonzales see daily what it means for Santa Fe to be the capital city. The city always has been a place of conventions, rallies and protests — reasons for activist Santa Feans to act on the impulse to question authority. From its early days, Santa Fe has been at the intersection of money and influence, serving as a magnet for bankers, lawyers and developers. The struggle for power has turned deadly serious at times, to the point that assassinations were part of the political history.

Today, government is known largely as the economic engine for Santa Fe, said Waldman, an analyst with the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at The University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

"It's a major, well-paying employer," he said, noting city data that show government workers in Santa Fe make an average of 21 percent more than all other workers in the county and 27 percent more than workers in all other industries statewide.

But beyond jobs, there also is a long tradition of activism on a personal level, said Gonzales, who is both a member of a public-spirited family and a political-party pragmatist. There are families, he said, "who have, within their own structure, placed public service of high value, and that has been consistent over generations."

As a party chair, Gonzales enjoys a political process that accommodates progress while respecting tradition. In a month, New Mexico will see its latest key moment in political history. For the first time, New Mexico will elect a female governor when it chooses between Democrat Diane Denish and Republican Susana Martinez.

Whole family involved

Gonzales' own family tree is full of people who left lasting impressions on Santa Fe politics. His father, George, was mayor and a candidate for Congress; his godfather, Johnny Vigil, was the county Democratic chairman for six years in the 1960s; and a more distant ancestor on his mother's side was the state auditor.

It seemed natural, almost expected, that Javier Gonzales would make his mark.

At 26, he challenged and defeated an incumbent Santa Fe county commissioner, won re-election four years later and in 2002 left office because of term limits after eight years. During that time, he considered running for Congress, and he served during his final term as board president of the National Association of Counties.

"We worked really hard," he said of his entrance to elected office. "But there is no doubt that my family name, my dad's name, and certainly the (family's) radio station helped. There were a lot of contributing factors that allowed me to win outside of just me.

"I think that's part of the whole 400 years of Santa Fe, through the generations. Family plays a role, not just for those in government, but also in business or in the nonprofit world. With the Northern New Mexico family, when an individual gets involved, the whole family gets involved."

Still, Gonzales was reluctant to attribute power to any particular family or families. He said that even though voter participation is low, the government structure gives people a loud voice if they use it.

"I don't know that I would call them powerful families," he said, referring instead to families that value service — people like Bruce King, a county commissioner who went on to serve three terms as governor, whose son Gary is now the attorney general and whose niece Rhonda is a state senator.

"I think it's more of a testament to the values that families have about public service and the obligation that we have to it more than an accumulation of power," Gonzales said. "I don't think that we live in a day where just one family by its existence can single-handedly influence."

Personal campaign style

One successful politician who grasped the nature of personal politics was former Gov. David Cargo. In the 1960s, his four years as an Albuquerque legislator followed by two terms as governor allowed him to witness what he said was a drastic change in the way things were done in New Mexico.

Cargo, 80, an attorney, still works on labor issues. He is proud of his role as governor in filing a successful lawsuit that resulted in redrawn legislative districts in which Hispanics, Native Americans and women could compete as candidates.

As a Republican in a Democratic stronghold, Cargo benefited from the help of "potent Northern New Mexico politicians." Before the New Deal, Republicans held many statewide offices and a majority in the Legislature, but urban population surges during and after the Depression favored the Democrats.

So how did Cargo win the hearts of Democrats in 1966 to become, at 37, New Mexico's youngest governor? Part of his success, he said, came because as a young attorney, he shared an office with a brother-in-law to Dennis Chavez, the Democrat who held a U.S. Senate seat from 1935 to 1962. Although Chavez died four years before Cargo ran for governor, his influence persisted.

"He was an old-style politician," Cargo recalled. "He would name off the list of people, and he would say, 'You go campaign for Dave Cargo,' and they would."

Cargo said he carried Northern New Mexico by campaigning the old way.

"I would go out into personal campaigning," he said. "I didn't have any money. I spent about $16,000 getting elected governor. Richardson spent $16 million and Susana Martinez is spending money till it doesn't quit. ...

"During the whole campaign for governor, I don't think I ever stayed in a hotel or motel. I stayed in the homes of people supporting me and usually they were people who Dennis Chavez recommended."

Backroom politics

Chavez also was the reason Cargo won support in Santa Fe County, where during a series of meetings in smoke-filled rooms at La Fonda, leading Democrats threw their support to Cargo. He recalled witnessing stacks of cash and wine and whiskey donated by liquor mogul George Maloof being delivered to political leaders who needed encouragement.

The intimacy of New Mexico's politics and the red-carpet treatment Santa Fe gives politicians make New Mexico unique, Cargo said.

"You have a state government that is really much more influential here than in other places," he said.

Even as he chuckled at "the way things were" during his campaign, Cargo said he tried to change the way state officials handed out jobs. His predecessor, Jack Campbell, had set up the state's first personnel act, but Cargo said hiring as he took office still wasn't based on merit.

"It was all political," he said. "I wanted to reform it because it was a horrible system."

Cargo's record reflected the times. He served at the height of the civil-rights movement, and some schools in New Mexico were still segregated.

He helped pass the state's first human-rights legislation and set an example for crossing long-established lines by appointing Hispanos to his cabinet and funneling public-works projects to an all-black community south of Las Cruces. Cargo's late ex-wife, Ida Jo Robeson, was the state's first Hispanic first lady since 1918. When Taos Pueblo fought the federal government over its sacred lands at Blue Lake, Cargo recruited President Richard Nixon to help.

Cargo found minority groups at a disadvantage. "There was not a single Indian in the Legislature, and the Anglos really did control things," he said.

400 years of power

How particular racial, ethnic or demographic groups have used power has been an issue in Santa Fe for four centuries. Today, representation of women and Native Americans in positions of leadership seems disproportionately small.

Founded as a colonial capital, Santa Fe sprung up in a region that had been home to Indian people long before the Spanish arrived to put the territory on Europe's map.

The first two capitals of the colony of New Spain were to the north, at present-day Okhay Owingeh and San Gabriel, both settled and abandoned by members of Oñate's exploratory party in the last years of the 16th century.

When Pedro de Peralta arrived in New Mexico as the first colonial governor, he established the capital in a strategic location. In 1610, construction began over the ruins of Tanoan Indian village, and Peralta formally named it Villa Real de la Santa Fe, or Royal City of Holy Faith.

After decades of oppression, Native Americans exerted their own power by overthrowing the colonial government in what's known as the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. The Spanish returned 12 years later.

New Mexico was part of Mexico after independence from Spain in 1821. U.S. troops entered Santa Fe in 1846, and New Mexico was governed as a U.S. territory from 1848 to 1912.

Washington appointed territorial officials in Santa Fe, but voters chose local office holders through elections. After a 64-year quest for statehood, New Mexico in 1912 joined the union and won, among other things, the right to elect its leaders and representatives.

First female governor

The latest major change will come next month with election of the first woman as governor. The Santa Fe mayoral election earlier this year also featured a rare female candidate, former City Manager Asenath Kepler, who lost to incumbent Mayor David Coss.

Women haven't appeared in Santa Fe political offices or statewide elected roles as often as their male counterparts. The reasons aren't that different from what happens across the nation.

Women are burdened by the inability to raise money and by family responsibilities, explained Rebecca Frenkel, a member of the League of Women Voters. Nonetheless, women have been influential, she said, and league members plan to use the organization's 60th anniversary in 2010 to publicize the role of women.

"We've found out about women in New Mexico who participated in the women's suffrage movement and who were instrumental in establishing the League of Women Voters nationally," she said.

"There have always been women in Santa Fe who have been involved in some aspect of political action. ... They have been very active, but not always in the role of elected officials."

Statistics from Emerge New Mexico, a group that recruits and trains women to run for office, put New Mexico 12th in the nation for its number of women serving in the Legislature. Still, the state House and Senate remain 70 percent male.

Reena Szczepanski, Emerge director, said women don't run as often as men, research shows, because they are less likely to feel qualified.

"It's not that voters don't want to see women in office or that there are more barriers for women who decide to run," said Szczepanski.

"What we have seen in the research is that women are less likely to decide they want to run."

After the November election featuring two women as candidates for governor, patterns might change, Szczepanski said.

"Having at least four years of a woman governor should serve to inspire women that they can get to elected office, that they can serve their community," she said. "Whoever wins needs to take seriously her responsibility as a role model, particularly for those young girls."