Guest Blog by Alex Flores: Marty's At It Again

This is a guest post by Alex Flores, who blogs at Alex on Politics. Alex is from Corrales, NM and will start work on a Master's at Princeton this Fall.

I've only been in politics a short time but it hasn't taken long to start associating Martin Chavez with Joe Leiberman. Both are the type to disparage other Democratic candidates for personal gain. A few days ago, the always-excellent web reporter Heath Haussamen wrote a piece quoting Martin Chavez - here are my favorite excerpts:

1. "The real question in my mind is whether Senator Obama is going to be able to capture Hispanics by a significant margin," Chávez was quoted in the article as saying. "That's a big 'if,' because he's clearly an urbanite."
2. "(Obama) walked into the Flying Star and did an event with the latte crowd," the magazine quoted the mayor as saying. He added that Obama needs to "get outside Albuquerque."
3. He pointed out to the news magazine that, when Obama recently visited Albuquerque, he met at a coffeehouse with working women but didn't reach out to Hispanics. Chávez said Obama probably has the edge in New Mexico but has yet to make his case with Hispanics.

Let's address these in order!

1. First of all - how is being an "urbanite" relevant to public policy and running for office? It's not. It has nothing to do with being President of the United States and it has no place in the ongoing discourse. But I'll play anyway: Mayor Chavez - he's an "urbanite" too! Here's what I found on his upbringing:

Born in Albuquerque and of Hispanic heritage, Chávez attended both parochial (St. Charles Borromeo and Holy Ghost) and public (Van Buren Junior High and Manzano High) schools. After graduating from Manzano High School, Chávez earned a Bachelor's Degree from the University of New Mexico and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University, following in the footsteps of his father.

Well, the Mayor should know that Albuquerque isn't the smallest town in the west. In fact, we're a huge city! It wasn't always this big, due in some part to his leadership, but he's still not exactly a country bumpkin. Albuquerque currently ranks around 34th in US cities with about 520,000 people - making us bigger than Sacramento, Omaha, Miami, Oakland, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Pittsburg, Newark, and Orlando - just to name a few (data as of ). Wasn't it under Mayor Marty's leadership that Albuquerque was named to Forbes magazine's list as the number-one place to do business?

Mayor Chavez grew up here - and he governs here. He also spent a few years, like me, in Washington DC. So let's stop calling the kettle black and own up to our own identities. This attack angle just isn't going to work for him.

2. Obama needs to get outside Albuquerque? That's advice to someone about how to win a statewide election. But the history isn't really on the Mayor's side (we'll tie number 3 back into this one, too). In 1998, he ran against Gary Johnson to be Governor of the state and lost, 55-45. Recently, he considered running for Governor but decided he couldn't beat Lt. Governor Diane Denish. So he switched over to the Senate race, and before the Primary ever got under way - was already losing to Tom Udall - an undeclared candidate - by 30 points.

Marty has been a great Mayor - his biography on the Albuquerque website and the tangible benefits of growth we see all around us are testaments to that. He's just not the authoritative source on statewide elections or how to win them.

3. Obama has yet to make his case with Hispanics. Really? Ok, let's go back to number 2. In 1998, Chavez was the Hispanic who ran against Republican Johnson. He was the de facto Hispanic candidate against Denish for 2010. Chavez was the headline Hispanic candidate against Don Wivviot and Tom Udall for the Democratic nomination for Senate this year. Every time, he lost - as the sole major Hispanic candidate in the race. The 98 race was lost by 10. The 08 Senate race is more recent - here are the 5 polls I remember:

• SurveyUSA Poll #12737, between 10/05-10/07, 2007, commissioned by KOB-TV, shows Udall beating either Republican candidate for Senate and Chavez only competitive.
• SurveyUSA Poll #12878, between 10/27-10/30, 2007, commissioned by Roll Call newspaper, Washington DC. Chavez beats both Rep. Wilson and Rep. Pearce but within the margin of error.
• Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates, between 10/23-10/27, 2007, shows Chavez losing to Udall in a 3-way race, 50%-30% with Udall winning Hispanics by 8 points.
• Research 2000, between 11/05-11/07, commissioned by DailyKos, shows Chavez losing to both Pearce and Wilson but within the margin of error.
• SurveyUSA Poll #12979, between 11/16-11/18, 2007 commissioned by KOB-TV, shows Udall over Chavez for the Democratic Senate nomination, 62%-32%. In this poll, Chavez tied Udall among Hispanics.

So maybe Mayor Chavez isn't the biggest authority on how to reach Hispanic voters, either. Especially not after this:

According to a nationwide survey by the reputable Pew Hispanic Center of 2,015 Latinos in June and July, registered Latino voters support Barack Obama for President over Republic John McCain by 66%-23%!

Want more? Here's more of my analysis from when the poll was released. More numbers about Obama and Hispanics follow later in this post. Let's not forget that Senator Obama is spending more money and resources to register Latinos to vote and get them to the polls than any other candidate in HISTORY. Period. Let's not forget that back in September of 2007, Obama appointed former Denver Mayor and Clinton Cabinet Secretary Federico Pena to be national co-chair of the campaign. Or that in February of 2007, when the campaign began, Obama appointed Cuauhtemoc "Temo" Figueroa to be the NATIONAL Field Director. Previously, you may recall, Temo was the Administrator of AFSCME Council 18 - RIGHT HERE IN NEW MEXICO!

And lastly, let's not forget Senator Obama's commitment to do more in the Latino community than any other Presidential candidate in history; in July, the campaign launched a massive $20 million Latino Vote program. The program will greatly benefit New Mexico and a number of other states. After all of that - here's why I'm really angry with Mayor Chavez. This kind of underhanded attack against members of his own party rings all-too familiar. Remember that article in The Politico from November 10, 2007? Jog your memory:

In an interview with Politico on Saturday, Chavez said his achievements as mayor would compare well with what he called Udall's lackluster record in the House. [You can read why this simply isn't true here.]

And this from Steve Terrell, a New Mexico reporter, on November 8, 2007:

"Philosophically, he's so far to the left," Chávez told Las Cruces political blogger Heath Haussamen last month. In an interview with the Washington, D.C., publication Roll Call published Thursday, Chávez said, "The contrast in records between me and the Congressman won't situate him well for the general election."

Well Mayor Chavez might have been right - Udall was farther left, but the voters approved of it. Now, the Mayor is falling back into his same old habits - attacking those who he doesn't support or agree with - even if they all call themselves Democrats. So Mayor - please stop spending time attacking Democrats who aren't voting against our Party's values. Please stop attacking Democrats for personal gain. And please stop speaking as an authority where you haven't thought it all through. Here are more numbers from the Pew Poll:

Three times as many respondents said being black would help Obama (32%) with Latino voters than said it would hurt him (11%); the majority (53%) said his race would make no difference to Latino voters.

Obama is rated favorably by 76% of Latino registered voters, making him much more popular among that voting group than McCain (44% favorable) and President Bush (27% favorable). Hillary Clinton's ratings among Latino registered voters are 73% favorable and 24% unfavorable; Obama's are 76% favorable and 17% unfavorable. Also, more than three-quarters of Latinos who reported that they voted for Clinton in the primaries now say they are inclined to vote for Obama in the fall election, while just 8% say they are inclined to vote for McCain. That means that Obama is doing better among Hispanics who supported Clinton than he is among non-Hispanic white Clinton supporters, 70% of whom now say they have transferred their allegiance to Obama while 18% say they plan to vote for McCain, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

Latino registered voters rank education, the cost of living, jobs and health care as the most important issues in the fall campaign, with crime lagging a bit behind those four and the war in Iraq and immigration still farther behind. On each of these seven issues, Obama is strongly favored over McCain--by lopsided ratios ranging from about three-to-one on education, jobs, health care, the cost of living and immigration, to about two-to-one on Iraq and crime. In addition to their strong support for Obama, Latino voters have moved sharply into the Democratic camp in the past two years, reversing a pro-GOP tide that had been evident among Latinos earlier in the decade. Some 65% of Latino registered voters now say they identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared with just 26% who identify with or lean toward the GOP. This 39 percentage point Democratic Party identification edge is larger than it has been at any time this decade; as recently as 2006, the partisan gap was just 21 percentage points.

This is a guest blog by Alex Flores of Corrales. He currently is a member of the Platform and Resolutions Committee of the Democratic Party of New Mexico. He'll serve the New Mexico delegation as a page at the Democratic National Convention in Denver on August 25-28. Also check out Alex's previous guest blog on DFNM.

Guest blogs provide our readers with an opportunity to express their opinions on pertinent political issues. If you'd like to submit a piece for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page.

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