Coss To Run For House Seat

Santa Fe Mayor David Coss, a veteran of state and city government, said Friday he will run for the state House seat now held by Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Nambé.

Coss said Lujan’s planned retirement and the recent redrawing of House district boundaries that put him in Lujan’s District 46 prompted his decision.

Coss, a Democrat, said Santa Fe has long benefited from a strong presence in the state Legislature.

“I think I have the experience and the background to continue to make it a strong delegation,” he told the Journal.

Coss would run in the Democratic primary against at least one other candidate, Carl Trujillo of Nambé, who nearly defeated Lujan in the 2010 primary.

Lujan announced at the beginning of this year’s legislative session that he had advanced lung cancer and would not seek re-election after 38 years in the House.

Coss was elected mayor in 2006 and re-elected in 2010, so he’s halfway through his second term. He said if he were elected to Lujan’s seat, he would remain on the job as mayor.

He said the city is emerging from the recession and is in good shape, with a good City Council, manager and other top officials.

Coss retired from the state, where his work included 12 years in the Environment Department — including as director of the Environmental Protection Division — and six years in the State Land Office. He is a former local union president for the Communications Workers of America.

He was the city’s public works director and, briefly, city manager. He served as city councilor from District 3 for four years, where he co-sponsored living wage and affordable housing measures and worked on the Buckman regional water project.

Trujillo, who trailed Lujan in the 2010 primary by just 84 votes, works at Los Alamos National Laboratory and has a home-building business.