No shortage of contenders as Jim Smith vacates state House seat

Feb. 18--A race is brewing in the East Mountains.

Jim Smith, a Republican who is known for working across the aisle and has represented District 22 in the state House of Representatives since 2011, said during this year's 30-day legislative session that he did not plan to run for re-election.

Several of his constituents have wasted no time jumping into the race to succeed him.

While Smith's chair was probably still warm, Dr. Gregg Schmedes announced just a few hours after the legislative session ended at noon Thursday that he would seek the GOP's nomination for the seat.

Public relations executive and Navy veteran Merritt Allen has confirmed she is running for the Republican nomination, too.

Meanwhile, a Democratic schoolteacher turned small-business owner, Jessica Velasquez, has been in the running for a few months.

Stretching from Edgewood to Placitas and Tijeras, the district leans to the right. There are more voters registered as Republicans than Democrats. Smith won re-election in 2016 with 56 percent of the vote. President Donald Trump won nearly 47 percent that year, while Libertarian Gary Johnson picked up about 10 percent.

But whatever happens, it appears voters will at least have a choice when they head to the polls later this year.

Allen, who lives in Tijeras, said Friday that Smith had called her about running for the post when he was thinking about forgoing re-election. With his endorsement, she decided to give it a shot.

"A lot of the priorities I have, both sides of the aisle are going to have," she said.

The difference, Allen added, will be how to address those issues.

"Voters are tired of gridlock and backbiting and refusal to cooperate. I think the Legislature really heard the voters this time," she said, referring to the relative political peace of the recent session.

The daughter of former House member Dianne Hamilton, Allen was born and raised in Silver City, attended the University of Notre Dame, served in the Navy and owns the public relations firm Vox Optima. She also sits on the board of East Mountain High School and Adelante, a nonprofit organization in Albuquerque serving people with disabilities.

Allen said her priorities will be tax reform, infrastructure in rural areas and education.

Though he's a political novice, Schmedes was a familiar sight around the Roundhouse during hearings on a bill that would have allowed medically assisted suicide, which he opposed.

The doctor said he has a more conservative platform than Smith.

And if elected, Schmedes said, "I would have a health care focus."

Indeed, he might be the only physician in the Legislature. No medical doctors are currently serving in the House or Senate.

Schmedes lives in Tijeras and is an assistant professor of surgery at The University of New Mexico, specializing in ear, nose and throat. He graduated from the University of Texas, where he studied electrical engineering and ran track. He earned his medical degree from Texas Tech University.

Before moving to Albuquerque, he worked in Cameroon for two years.

Velasquez is also a political newcomer.

She is a native of Pennsylvania who graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor's degree in English. She moved to New Mexico in 2000 and attended graduate school at UNM.

Her family moved to the East Mountains in 2013 and left teaching in 2015 to support their electroplating business in Albuquerque.

Velasquez, who lives in Sandia Park, said she was motivated to run after the 2016 election.

"I realized that unless more of us get involved, we end up with divisiveness," she said.

Running as a Democrat, she said her own politics are relatively progressive. But she describes her husband as a moderate Republican. And Velasquez said she has focused her campaign on listening to and advocating for the district's rural communities on issues ranging from education to water and public safety.

"When you peel back the political rhetoric," she said, "people want the same things."

Contact Andrew Oxford at 505-986-3093 or aoxford@sfnewmexican.com. Follow him on Twitter at @andrewboxford.

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