With election season heating up, many incumbent lawmakers have free ride to victory

SANTA FE — For the last several decades, Albuquerque’s House District 15 seat has been a key legislative battleground.

The district, which encompasses a swath of the North Valley, has been held by three different Republicans and three Democrats since 2001.

But this year, Rep. Dayan Hochman-Vigil has a free ride for another term.

“It’s definitely less stressful,” acknowledged Hochman-Vigil, a Democrat and licensed attorney who faced general election battles in 2018, 2020 and 2022 to represent the district.

“All the feedback that we’ve gotten is that people are pretty happy with my service,” she added.

It’s the first time since 1990 that both traditional major political parties haven’t fielded candidates in the district, which was redrawn during the 2021 redistricting and is now a more Democratic-leaning seat.

However, it’s hardly the only legislative race in New Mexico featuring only one candidate on the ballot, as both Democrats and Republicans have essentially conceded dozens of races.

During a recent legislative committee hearing, House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, said the hard work and long hours of legislators make the job unappealing to many would-be candidates.

“I would argue way too many of us are unopposed,” Martínez said.

Hochman-Vigil said she doesn’t disagree.

New Mexico is the only state that does not pay its legislators a salary, though lawmakers do get daily per diem payments — currently set at $231 per day —intended to cover food and lodging expenses. They can also qualify for a legislative pension plan.

“It’s just a really, really hard job for most New Mexicans to do,” she told the Journal. “These should be competitive positions. Democracy is not a spectator sport.”

Free ride for many incumbent lawmakers

The road to re-election will certainly be an easy one for many lawmakers this year.

With all 112 legislative seats up for election, 51 incumbent lawmakers — out of 85 total incumbents seeking a new term — do not have opposition in the November general election.

In the Senate, 19 of the 26 incumbents seeking re-election do not have general election opponents.

The percentage of unopposed lawmakers is slightly lower in the House, as 32 of the 59 incumbents who are running to keep their seats are unopposed.

One of the reasons for the lack of contested races could be New Mexico’s increasing political polarization, as Democrats have claimed nearly every legislative seat in the state’s urban centers of Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Santa Fe over the last decade.

Republicans, meanwhile, have won several rural seats long held by Democrats, including Senate seats in Roswell and the southwest New Mexico Bootheel.

Redistricting could also be a factor, as lawmakers at times protect incumbents during the once-per-decade task of redrawing political boundary lines to reflect population changes.

“When you create a safe Democratic seat, you’re often creating a safe Republican seat next to it,” said Brian Sanderoff, a longtime New Mexico political observer who works as a consultant to legislators during redistricting.

But Sanderoff also said it’s become increasingly difficult to create swing districts in many parts of New Mexico, due to political shifts and redistricting protections for minority groups in the federal Voting Rights Act.

“The easiest place for decades to build swing seats in New Mexico was Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights and the West Side,” Sanderoff said.

With Democrats winning many Republican-held seats in the Albuquerque area over the last decade, however, some of those traditional swing districts have lost their competitiveness, he said.

Some unopposed candidates still hitting campaign trail

In southwest New Mexico, Crystal Brantley of Elephant Butte won a Senate seat in 2020 that had been held by Democrats for decades.

Four years later, Brantley is running unopposed for re-election but said she’s helping fellow Republicans in the area with their campaigns.

“We’re counting on Democrats to vote red in order to win, just like I had to do four years ago,” she told the Journal.

Brantley said her district, which stretches from the outskirts of Las Cruces to the state’s border with Arizona, might have gotten more conservative during redistricting.

But Senate District 35 is still not a “hard red” district like those found in some other parts of the state, she said.

Similar to Hochman-Vigil, Brantley said part of the reason she did not draw a Democratic opponent this year could be due to her work as a legislator.

“I’m relieved I don’t have the workload of a campaign this year, but I think that’s because of my workload as a legislator,” she said.

Brantley, a business owner who grew up in a ranching family, also said she has no plans to get too comfortable despite her free ride to re-election.

“I know how hard I had to work to win the district, and I’m prepared to defend it,” she said.