With names like O'Malley and O'Neill voters might think the Dem primary battle in state Senate District 13 is between two champions of the Irish. It isn't but ethnic politics could play a pivotal role in the outcome.
Former Bernalillo County Commissioner and City Councilor Debbie O'Malley is working to defeat Senator Bill O'Neill who has held the seat since 2012, but the district was radically redistricted.
While the ABQ North Valley and its Anglo Dems once dominated, the district now sprawls to downtown and other heavily Hispanic areas that over the years O'Malley has won.
That being said, the former commissioner's latest campaign piece rolls out her mother Lydia Romero Smith to remind the many old line Hispanic families of her connection o them:
I am the fifth generation of my family to grow up in the heart of our city. . . My mother, Lydia Torres-Romero. . .worked on an aircraft assembly line during World War II. When she and my father, Nick Werner-Smith, got married and moved into their first home at 15th and Sawmill, there was no running water. My mother grew so tired of rinsing her children’s diapers outside that she started a door-to-door petition drive to put in water and sewer lines in the Sawmill neighborhood — and it worked. Her victory has stayed with me, and I have worked for years at the grassroots level to redevelop the Sawmill area. In 1998, I founded the Sawmill Community Land Trust, a not-for-profit community development corporation. . .
Talk about all politics being local. Not that O'Neill is defenseless. He has fought some health battles but is known as an intrepid campaigner and is already burning up shoe leather.
Also, the "Fighting Irishman," as we nicknamed him from his days in the state House, can be soothed by knowing that the affinity between the Irish and New Mexico Hispanics is also sewn into the fabric of this historic district.
Still the redistricting is a daunting obstacle. Over half the precincts are new. O'Neill's North Valley stronghold is still intact but far away precincts in Wells Park, Downtown, Barelas and South Broadway are now the heart of the district where O'Malley, whose last name results from her marriage to Mike O'Malley, has chalked up many victories.
The winner of the June 4 primary is destined to win the November election. No Republican is running in the heavy Dem area.
O'Malley and O"Neill veer to the left so the race won't mean much to the ideological balance of the Senate. But O'Malley and Dem state Sen, Moe Maestas have turned into public arch-enemies so if O'Malley should get elected and Maestas wins election, Senate President Mimi Stewart would not want them seated next to each other--unless she's starving for entertainment.
THE BOTTOM LINES
(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2024