Diné voters ponder Udall's successor

The decision by long-time New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici to step down has had a domino effect in all three of the state's congressional districts, with the current office-holders competing to replace him in the U.S. Senate.

Domenici, a Republican, who is being forced out due to health problems, has been the state's senior senator for more than a quarter century.

Democrat Tom Udall has his party's nomination sewed up, while Republicans Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce are tearing each other up for the chance to face Udall in November.

Pearce is favored with the state's Republican Party base in southeastern New Mexico - sometimes called "Little Texas."

Meanwhile Wilson has won four elections by portraying herself as a "common-sense conservative" to independents in Congressional District 1.

For northern New Mexico, the big question is who will replace Udall. Five people, including one Native American, are seeking the Democratic nomination, which is tantamount to winning the race in heavily Democratic District 3.

Udall has been a major supporter of Navajo rights with a special sensitivity to the Navajo Nation, where his mother's family has roots and his father spent decades fighting for people who had been harmed by the U.S. nuclear program.

Navajo officials are hoping that whoever is elected will continue Udall's example if he is elected to the Senate, which seems likely since Democrats have a 3-1 edge over Republicans in voter registration statewide. Udall, a former state attorney general, also is running well ahead in the polls.

But none of those running have strong ties to the northwestern corner of the state.

The Native in the race, former state Indian Affairs Secretary Benny Shendo Jr., has visited northwestern New Mexico several times - more than any other candidate for Udall's seat - trying to get Navajo support.

He said one of the things most important to him is to "support the same initiatives that Udall has been very effective with."

Shendo, a member of Jemez Pueblo, shares at least the Native connection with Navajo residents of CD-3, but he and the other candidates are all from the Rio Grande Valley, where most of the voting power also is concentrated.

There have been no official polls so far but news reports say that Don Wiviott, a Santa Fe real estate developer, has spent more than all of the other candidates combined in his pursuit of the nomination, almost all of it his own money. He has done a couple of fundraisers in northwestern New Mexico but has not attracted many endorsements from key Democratic constituencies.

With more than a million dollars in media ads through mid-May, Wiviott has been saturating the airwaves, much of the time in an effort to discredit the perceived front-runner, Ben Ray Lujan Jr.

Lujan, the son of state House of Representatives Speaker Ben Lujan, is a member of the Public Regulatory Commission and has garnered endorsements from the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, and several other core Democratic groups.

Lujan has visited northwestern New Mexico, where 20 percent of the district's voters are located, several times. He touts alternative energy development and generally supports a progressive Democratic agenda.

Also running are Jon Adams and Rudy Martin, both Albuquerque attorneys who haven't done a lot of campaigning on the reservation.

Martin is advocating a so-called Hero Card, which would enable veterans and their families to get any kind of health care at the health facility closest to their residence. Adams wants to take on oil company profits.

Harry Montoya, a Santa Fe County commissioner, has also been to this area a couple of times. He said he plans to spend his campaign bucks on Navajo-language ads promoting his support of Native issues.

The two Republican candidates for Udall's seat are Don East, a Rio Rancho, N.M., contractor, and Marco Gonzales, a former Domenici aide who has the senator's endorsement. Neither has campaigned actively in this area.

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