Presidential campaigns plot strategy for New Mexico primary.
Santa Fe supporters of Clinton, Sanders meet to brainstorm ahead of June 7 contest
It might have been a cold, drizzly day for most Santa Feans, but for supporters of the two Democratic presidential candidates, Saturday was a day to work.
Local campaign organizers for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders gathered in the city to launch their efforts, with just over a month before New Mexico’s June 7 primary.
Both candidates have dedicated supporters in the city of Santa Fe — a Democrat town — and in Santa Fe County, where 63 percent of registered voters are Democrats, according to the most recent statistics from the Secretary of State’s Office, compared with 16 percent Republicans and 19 percent registered as independents or third-party members. But the question is, does New Mexico’s Democratic primary really matter?
On April 20, the day after Clinton defeated Sanders in the New York primary, political scientist Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, told The New Mexican, “The Democratic contest has effectively been over for some time. So New Mexico won’t matter [for the Democratic Party].”
Since Sabato’s comment, the national political landscape is looking even less favorable for Sanders, with Clinton winning four out of five Eastern U.S. primaries, including Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Victor Reyes, a spokesman for Hillary New Mexico, said Saturday that Clinton has “a nearly insurmountable lead in pledged delegates.”
On the Sanders side, Paul Gibson, a coordinator for the Santa Fe for Bernie
Sanders campaign, told a crowd of about 60 supporters at El Museo Cultural that it’s still not impossible for Sanders to beat Clinton. But he also said it’s a long shot and “not a real likelihood.”
About 25 Clinton supporters met Saturday at the Center for Peace and Justice in the morning to hear a short talk by Mayor Javier Gonzales before hitting the streets to knock on doors for their candidate.
Meanwhile, the Sanders supporters met in the afternoon at El Museo to “brainstorm” and discuss their course of action in the coming weeks.
Both campaign events drew an older crowd made up mostly of people in the 50-plus range. There were a few more young faces in the Sanders group. But Gibson was frank with them, saying they had done “miserably” in attracting volunteers among young people and Latinos.
Even if Sanders falls short, Gibson told the crowd, supporters should work to help him win as many delegates as possible: “We’re building a base for revolution.”
With more national convention delegates for Sanders, supporters have a better chance of persuading the Democratic Party to “hold Hillary’s feet to the fire” on issues such as the minimum wage and strong regulations on oil and gas fracking, he said.
Continuing the Sanders fight and convincing young people to register to vote would not just help Sanders, but also would aid local progressive candidates, he said. As an example, Gibson pointed to former Santa Fe County Commissioner Paul Campos, a candidate for a state House seat in District 48, who attended the Sanders meeting.
In an earlier conversation with The New Mexican, Gibson also said that more Sanders delegates at the national convention could push for reforms within the Democratic Party, such as doing away with the superdelegate system, which reserves a number of delegate slots for party leaders and elder statesmen.
Although the last debate between Clinton and Sanders in April saw the candidates get relatively testy with each other — and there has been mounting Internet sniping between supporters of the two Democrats — Santa Fe’s Clinton supporters on Saturday expressed no animosity toward their primary opponent.
Gonzales said he enjoyed watching the Democratic debates because Clinton and Sanders talked about substantive issues and policy differences. But with the Republican debates, the mayor said, “I feel like I’m watching reality TV.”
Perhaps more significantly, Gonzales started off his short talk by speaking about what an important issue “income inequality” is and how Clinton would work to alleviate that problem. Income inequality has been Sanders’ trademark issue in his campaign. Gonzales’ speech was clear evidence of the impact Sanders has had on the Clinton campaign.
Gonzales praised Sanders but said he supports Clinton because he wants a candidate “who understands how to get things done.”
Marrianne Schneller, the local Clinton organizer, told those who were about to go canvass neighborhoods that the purpose of the activity was to identify more Clinton supporters — not to convert supporters of other candidates or to engage in politi- cal arguments.
Those who showed up for the Sanders event also talked about going door to door, but, at the direction of the national campaign, they haven’t started that yet. They’re waiting on a phone app that will identify Democrat households for Sanders or Clinton, as well as those who are undecided — which, Gibson said, will be the main targets for the local Sanders campaign.
Though they haven’t started canvassing yet, the Sanders campaign for months has been conducting phone banks. Earlier in the primary season, this effort was aimed at voters in other primary states, trying to get out the vote for Sanders.
The group also has been active in registering people to vote, operating tables at various public spots around town. At the meeting, organizers urged Sanders volunteers to become registrars so they can help with the registration effort.
The GOP presidential campaigns, meanwhile, have been basically invisible in Santa Fe and far less visible in New Mexico in general.
“To our knowledge, none of the three campaigns has an office set up in New Mexico yet,” said W. Tucker Keene, a spokesman for the state Republican Party. “I do know that the three candidates have been working hard on the delegate side of things, however.”
Last week, in a deal that sparked criticism by many Republicans around the country, GOP primary candidates U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Gov. John Kasich agreed that Cruz would not spend time or money campaigning in New Mexico and Oregon in exchange for Kasich not actively competing in Indiana, whose primary is Tuesday, May 3.