Bedeviled New Mexico GOP finally makes a smart move

Mar. 29—What should have been a race turned out to be no contest. The last gubernatorial election in New Mexico was for an open seat.

Republicans lost it in a landslide.

Then-President Donald Trump performed just as badly in November. Networks declared Trump the loser in New Mexico as soon as the polls closed.

Republicans are weak minorities in both houses of the state Legislature. The main reason is they often nominate poor candidates.

The GOP had a shot last year to defeat Democratic state Sen. Liz Stefanics of Cerrillos. Her jagged six-county district is built for a conservative Democrat or reasonable Republican.

With opportunity knocking, the Republicans nominated Joey Tiano to challenge Stefanics. He had once filed for bankruptcy to hold off creditors. But Tiano campaigned by saying the Legislature was full of "communist socialists" who were wrecking the state. He lost by a decisive margin, 11 percentage points.

After all the defeats, blunders and self-inflicted wounds, there was no reason to believe Republicans would do any better in choosing a candidate for the open seat in the 1st Congressional District.

But in a surprising move over the weekend, the GOP gave itself a chance to win the race by selecting state Sen. Mark Moores.

Moores, 50, was the only Republican candidate with a track record in government service and a winning streak in elections.

His first campaign for the Senate was in 2012, a race where his opponent threw around money like green confetti.

Democratic Sen. Lisa Curtis, the incumbent by appointment, spent $346,000 but still lost to Moores by 13 percentage points. Moores' expenditures totaled $149,000 for a contested primary and his general election campaign against Curtis.

Moores has been reelected to the Senate twice. He entered the Republican congressional race only two weeks ago. Despite the late start, Moores won the nomination in an atypical process.

Members of the Republican state central committee chose Moores as their candidate.

The Democratic central committee will select its nominee Tuesday. Moores and his Democratic opponent will be the leading contenders in the June 1 special congressional election to succeed Deb Haaland.

Haaland, a Democrat, resigned from Congress this month to become secretary of the interior.

Moores knows the odds are against him. A Republican last won New Mexico's 1st Congressional District in 2006. He calls the losing streak irrelevant.

"I'm a football player, so it's game on," Moores said in a phone interview.

He grew up in Bethesda, Md., where he attracted notice as a massive lineman at Walt Whitman High School.

The University of New Mexico's football coaches were able to recruit Moores in 1988 mainly because he had strong family ties to the state.

"He spent many summers and holidays in New Mexico on the family farm in Lower San Pedro and in the mountains in the Coyote area," said Moores' mother, Julia Maestas.

Moores started on the offensive line for the Lobos. He stayed in the state after graduating from UNM with a bachelor's degree in political science.

Moores eventually went to work in the Albuquerque office of a politician he calls "my hero and my idol," the late Congressman Steve Schiff.

Schiff, a Republican, represented New Mexico's 1st District from 1989 until his death in 1998.

"I think of Steve all the time," Moores said. "If there's a difficult issue, I'll ask myself what Steve would do."

Moores now makes his living outside politics. He and his wife, Lisa, are partners in a laboratory that has provided coronavirus testing.

Blunting the virus and improving the economy it mangled will be two of Moores' issues in the congressional campaign.

"I'll also be focusing on crime. It's out of control in Albuquerque and CD 1," he said.

His voting record in the state Senate is generally conservative, but Moores has a history of sponsoring select bills with Democrats.

He and Sen. Bill O'Neill, D-Albuquerque, this year carried a bill that would allow collegiate athletes to receive compensation from the use of their name, image or likeness. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is considering whether to sign the measure, Senate Bill 94.

Like every other Republican in the Senate, Moores voted against a proposed state constitutional amendment to expand education programs with funding from the $22 billion Land Grant Permanent Fund. Voters will make the final decision on the amendment.

The Democratic congressional contenders favor the proposal, and the nominee is sure to criticize Moores for his stand.

He will be ready with a counterattack built on what he calls irresponsible spending by the Democrats.

Moores, 6-feet-7 and still as wide as an offensive tackle, knows he's the biggest candidate as well as a big underdog.

From the bleachers, rank-and-file Republicans see him as something else — the candidate of hope for a bruised party.

Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.

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