http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/07 ... _28_06.txt

Friday, July 28, 2006
Last modified Friday, July 28, 2006 8:49 PM PDT

In New Mexico election, gas prices beat immigration as an issue

By: JENNIFER TALHELM - Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- Immigration might seem like a natural campaign topic in this state where the Democratic governor last year declared an emergency along the U.S.-Mexico border because of illegal immigration.

But the candidates in one of the country's hottest political contests -- the race for the Albuquerque-area 1st Congressional District -- say they have no plans to bring it up.

While immigration has become a red-meat debate topic in nearby Utah, Colorado and Arizona, both New Mexico candidates say that in Albuquerque, which is 40 percent Hispanic, there's little advantage to raising the issue.

In New Mexico, "the Anglos are the newcomers," explained Rep. Heather Wilson, the five-term incumbent Republican fighting to hold onto her Democratic district. "This was a Spanish state."

The state's Spanish and Mexican heritage is celebrated and evident in everything from the Spanish-built San Felipe de Neri church in the city's Old Town Plaza to the Avenida Cesar Chavez, a thoroughfare through town named for the Mexican-American labor leader. The state constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of inability to speak, read or write English or Spanish.

Wilson's opponent, Democratic Attorney General Patricia Madrid, grew up in a Hispanic household near the border, surrounded by farms that long have depended on migrant labor.

New Mexicans are used to Spanish speakers and migrant workers, Madrid said. "They're not hysterical about it," she said. "Many people in this state speak Spanish. It's not a threatening thing to speak Spanish."

The debate in Congress -- and now scores of House and Senate campaigns -- has centered on how to secure the border and whether to grant citizenship to the 11 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. now.

But Albuquerque voters haven't latched onto the issue the way voters in other states have, said veteran New Mexico pollster Brian Sanderoff.

"It's not nearly as salient as core issues such as education, recently, the price of gas, and water," Sanderoff said.

University of New Mexico political scientist Lonna Atkeson said the reason has partly to do with the state's history.

One of the last states to enter the union, but among the first regions of the New World to be settled by Europeans, the Spanish founded their first permanent colony in New Mexico in 1598. Santa Fe, established in 1610, is the oldest state capital in North America.

The United States won the territory from Mexico in 1848, but New Mexico didn't become a state until 1912.

Unlike many other western states, Hispanics have long been part of the social and political elite in New Mexico, Atkeson said.

"In other states where this is a burgeoning problem, race and class are involved," she said. "We don't have those same sorts of conflicts because race and class aren't so connected."

The other members of New Mexico's congressional delegation have taken a similar approach. During the contentious immigration debate this year, they avoided the get-tough positions pushed by many conservatives.

Sens. Pete Domenici, a Republican, and Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat, have advocated adding resources to secure the border. But they also supported a bill this spring providing a way for illegal immigrants now in the country to become citizens.

All three New Mexico House members rejected legislation in December that called for building a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson has been the most vocal on the issue. Last summer, he joined Arizona's Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano in declaring an emergency in border counties to free up money for law enforcement and other services.

A potential 2008 presidential candidate, Richardson has played a prominent role in the immigration debate by appearing on national news shows arguing that Congress must address the issue and that the U.S. should work with the Mexican government on anti-smuggling efforts, patrols and job creation.

Throughout their campaign, Wilson and Madrid have instead focused on hometown issues: Gas prices, veterans' needs and health care.

While lawmakers in the House and Senate bitterly argued over immigration policy this spring, Wilson visited an Albuquerque food distribution company to talk about a bill she sponsored to fight gas price gouging.

Before the event, the company's executives told a reporter that Albuquerque has plenty of jobs to go around, and there is little reason to worry about competition from immigrants.

"That's not an issue that's going to affect us like fuel costs," said Brent Jones, executive vice president of ZaniosFoods.

Still, after several weeks of TV coverage of the congressional debate and protests, immigration jumped into the list of issues voters said they were concerned about, Sanderoff said.

Chimene Quillen, a Zanios employee, said she worries about the border. "There needs to be control," she said. Pro-immigrant rallies this spring also rubbed her the wrong way.

Immigrants "don't want to be in the U.S.," she said. "If they really did, they wouldn't be dragging our flag on the ground and refusing to learn English."

But Sanderoff said he didn't expect immigration to stay prominent in the polls.

More voters are like Jonathan Vigil, 20, a Zanios truck driver, who said he wants Congress to regulate immigration with a guest worker program or some other way.

Vigil would rather hear what politicians plan to do about Iraq, where one of his friends was recently injured by a mortar blast.

"We've lost a lot of good people out there both from here and all over the country," he said. "It's taking away money that could go to health care and education."