Save these dates: January 16 and 23, February 6 and 13, to meet with NM congressional district 3 Democratic contenders.
We all want to be informed voters. Congressional District 3 (CD3) is one of the largest congressional districts in the country, reaching down to Rio Rancho and Clovis and up to the Colorado border.
There are ~700,000 residents and 15 pueblos; one-third of the population speaks Spanish at home. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a ratio of 2 to 1.
CD3 congressman since 2009 Ben Ray Lujan is now running for senate. There are 9 Democratic primary candidates and 4 Republican primary candidates who would like to replace him. With the exception of 1997-8, when Republican Bill Redmond finished Bill Richardson’s term and was then defeated by Tom Udall, the district has been “blue” (Democrat or D) since it was created in 1983. It is very likely CD3 will continue to be a stronghold of Democrats. Hence, SFMEW has chosen to offer the top four D candidates an opportunity to meet with our members to discuss their views on Israel, anti-Semitism, Iran, the Middle East, and other issues of interest to the pro-Israel community.
Because there are no polls of the district at the time of this writing, we are assessing the viable leaders by the proxy of how much money they have raised based on FEC filings. As of the end of September, the following amounts have been raised (rounded to the nearest thousand):
- Valerie Plame $686,000
- Teresa Leger $398,000
- Marco Serna $352,000
- John Blair $148,000
John Blair got into the race later than the other three, hence his relatively lower amount. The other D candidates still in the race (Rob Apodaca has dropped out) had raised less than $100,000 by the end of September.
Some will ask, “why not also arrange for Republican (R) candidate coffees?” Because of the low likelihood of an R success, we didn’t think it would make sense to arrange for an R coffee at this time. Further as of the end of September, the fundraising top R candidate, Audra Brown, had raised only $7,000, an inauspicious start. We will wait until the R candidate is chosen in the primary, and will then ask her (all candidates are female as of this date) to meet with our community.
Save these dates: January 16 and 23, February 6 and 13 – all Thursdays at 5:00 pm. Candidates are being scheduled now. Their Middle East position papers will be available in advance. These meetings will be open to individuals already registered on the SFMEW membership roles. Locations and directions will be provided to those who RSVP (info@sfmew.org) that they’d like to attend once the candidate’s are scheduled.
SFMEW is non-partisan and does not rate or endorse candidates. SFMEW is a beneficiary organization of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico.
