Brown and Carter

Former President Jimmy Carter, who will be laid to rest this week, had more than passing ties with New Mexico. It could even be said that his presidency ('77-81) would not have been possible without a young dynamic duo from the Land of Enchantment,  

Political consultant Chris Brown was just starting his career following a big win running Jerry Apodaca's successful 1974 gubernatorial bid when he hooked up with the Georgia governor and became his NE and New Hampshire campaign manager for the 1976 campaign, a campaign most analysts expected to go nowhere but soon soared.

Brown and another political wunderkind, Tim Kraft, who came to the state in the mid 70's and became executive director of the NM  Democratic party, was named Carter's National Field Director and with Brown was instrumental in putting the unknown candidate on the radar and in the White House. 

Kraft died last year. Brown, who is attending Carter's DC services this week, lives in Santa Fe and has a remembrance with a New Mexico angle:

Jimmy Carter was the first president committed to forming a diverse and inclusive government truly representative of America. His strong connections to New Mexico, especially through Governor Jerry Apodaca whose 1974 campaign he had assisted, provided him a source of able women and men to fill executive branch positions, judgeships and even his ambassador to Spain, Ed Romero. 

Drawing heavily on New Mexico talent, Carter was proud to have appointed more Hispanics than any president. Jimmy Carter narrowly lost New Mexico to president Gerald Ford in 1976. Yet our state emerged a winner in his administration with numerous New Mexicans able to inform a range of policies beneficial to our diverse people, land and resources. 

1975

New Mexico was one of Carter's first campaign stops shortly after he announced his candidacy in December of 1975. We interviewed him several times. 

The news article posted here is of a Carter visit 50 years ago that we penned for the UNM Daily Lobo.

Another time we interviewed Carter with a fellow student reporter for an unheard of 45 minutes in a hotel ballroom following a campaign event.  

Being "Jimmy Who?" at that time we had no reason to think we were  tossing questions at the next president but we were earning our chops as a policy wonk and Carter was at the top of the heap in that category. The interview went well. 

We also remember that conversation fondly for the patience and respect the soon-to-be next president afforded two young reporters even though we were barely dots on the media map.

Later, in 1979, we would move to Washington to serve as a congressional aide only to witness close-up the Carter administration coming undone, but President Carter's outstanding character and sense of decency that served the nation so well never wavered.

The year was 1975. I was there and that's how I remember it.

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