New Mexico governor approves 3-district congressional map
New Mexico State Senators George Muñoz, left, and Shannon Pinto speak after the passage of a $478 million spending bill on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Both Democrats, who represent districts in rural northwestern New Mexico voted for the bill, which passed in a bipartisan vote of 34-4 that would fund broadband and highway projects across the state using federal pandemic relief money. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)
A choir group from Eastern New Mexico University performs at the Capitol Rotunda in Santa Fe, N.M., on Nov. 17, 2021. New COVID-19 restrictions will ban unvaccinated members of the public from the building during legislative session that take place over the next three months. Performances, presentations, and massages common place before the pandemic with also be prohibited by building official. Separately, Democratic lawmakers have recently banned guns from the building citing security concerns. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)
Protesters rally outside the state Capitol in support of a federal congressional redistricting proposal on Monday, Dec. 13, 2021, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Democrats who control both chambers of the state Legislature have endorsed much of the map, but the Senate drew fire from progressives for tweaks that would dilute the voting power of Native Americans some local districts district. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)
FILE - People gather outside the state capitol building on Tuesday, March 30, 2021, in Santa Fe, N.M. Political boundaries are being redrawn by New Mexico’s Democrat-led Legislature in a sparsely populated state where Hispanics and Native Americans account for roughly six in 10 residents. The Legislature convenes Monday, Dec. 6, 2021, to forge new district boundaries for three congressional districts and 112 seats in the state Legislature, along with a Public Education Commission that oversees charter schools. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio, File)
New Mexico State Senators George Muñoz, left, and Shannon Pinto speak after the passage of a $478 million spending bill on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Both Democrats, who represent districts in rural northwestern New Mexico voted for the bill, which passed in a bipartisan vote of 34-4 that would fund broadband and highway projects across the state using federal pandemic relief money. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)
New Mexico State Senators George Muñoz, left, and Shannon Pinto speak after the passage of a $478 million spending bill on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Both Democrats, who represent districts in rural northwestern New Mexico voted for the bill, which passed in a bipartisan vote of 34-4 that would fund broadband and highway projects across the state using federal pandemic relief money. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)
A choir group from Eastern New Mexico University performs at the Capitol Rotunda in Santa Fe, N.M., on Nov. 17, 2021. New COVID-19 restrictions will ban unvaccinated members of the public from the building during legislative session that take place over the next three months. Performances, presentations, and massages common place before the pandemic with also be prohibited by building official. Separately, Democratic lawmakers have recently banned guns from the building citing security concerns. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)
A choir group from Eastern New Mexico University performs at the Capitol Rotunda in Santa Fe, N.M., on Nov. 17, 2021. New COVID-19 restrictions will ban unvaccinated members of the public from the building during legislative session that take place over the next three months. Performances, presentations, and massages common place before the pandemic with also be prohibited by building official. Separately, Democratic lawmakers have recently banned guns from the building citing security concerns. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)
Protesters rally outside the state Capitol in support of a federal congressional redistricting proposal on Monday, Dec. 13, 2021, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Democrats who control both chambers of the state Legislature have endorsed much of the map, but the Senate drew fire from progressives for tweaks that would dilute the voting power of Native Americans some local districts district. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)
Protesters rally outside the state Capitol in support of a federal congressional redistricting proposal on Monday, Dec. 13, 2021, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Democrats who control both chambers of the state Legislature have endorsed much of the map, but the Senate drew fire from progressives for tweaks that would dilute the voting power of Native Americans some local districts district. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)
FILE - People gather outside the state capitol building on Tuesday, March 30, 2021, in Santa Fe, N.M. Political boundaries are being redrawn by New Mexico’s Democrat-led Legislature in a sparsely populated state where Hispanics and Native Americans account for roughly six in 10 residents. The Legislature convenes Monday, Dec. 6, 2021, to forge new district boundaries for three congressional districts and 112 seats in the state Legislature, along with a Public Education Commission that oversees charter schools. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio, File)
FILE - People gather outside the state capitol building on Tuesday, March 30, 2021, in Santa Fe, N.M. Political boundaries are being redrawn by New Mexico’s Democrat-led Legislature in a sparsely populated state where Hispanics and Native Americans account for roughly six in 10 residents. The Legislature convenes Monday, Dec. 6, 2021, to forge new district boundaries for three congressional districts and 112 seats in the state Legislature, along with a Public Education Commission that oversees charter schools. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio, File)
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s Democratic governor signed legislation Friday to redraw the state’s three congressional districts and divide a conservative stronghold into multiple districts over the objections of Republicans.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a former three-term congresswoman, on Friday said the new congressional map establishes a “reasonable baseline for competitive federal elections, in which no one party or candidate may claim any undue advantage.”
Republicans disagree, calling it a power grab by Democrats who have long dominated state politics.
“These maps are far from fair representation, and they are a disservice to constituents,” said Steve Pearce, chair of the Republican Party of New Mexico. “The real losers are the rural voices of New Mexico, conservative Democrats, Republicans and independents. Democrats have deliberately carved up and extended areas in order to have an advantage. ”
Consultants to the Legislature say the new congressional map gives Democrats an advantage in all three districts to varying degrees, based on past voting behavior.
Republicans need a net gain of five seats in 2022 to take control of the U.S. House and effectively freeze President Joe Biden’s agenda on everything from climate change to the economy.
Democrat-backed redistricting plans for the House and Senate also were on their way to the governor’s office Friday after a final House vote. Both plans embrace recommendations from Native American communities for shoring up Indigenous voting blocs in New Mexico’s northwest corner.
Under the new congressional map, the traditionally conservative-leaning 2nd District would incorporate heavily Hispanic neighborhoods of Albuquerque and cede portions of an oil producing region in southeastern New Mexico. GOP U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, won the district in 2020 by ousting a one-term Democrat.
The changes also hold political implications for first-term Democratic U.S. Reps. Melanie Stansbury of Albuquerque and Teresa Leger Fernandez of Santa Fe.
Republicans have warned that the congressional map is aimed at imposing political representation that is hostile to a thriving oil and natural gas industry in the southeast.
State Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth said the districts each bring together urban and rural residents.
“The new congressional map creates districts where we have to work together — rural and urban, north and south, and Democrats, Republicans and independents. That is a good thing,” Wirth said in a statement.
Republicans unsuccessfully fought provisions of the state Senate redistricting bill that would pit two incumbent Hispanic Republican senators against each other in the same district for the next election cycle.
Republican House minority whip Rod Montoya of Farmington said the Senate map placed Democratic and Native American priorities over the interests of other communities, including politically conservative Latinos.
“I think if you are a New Mexico Hispanic with certain priorities, you have a target on your back,” said Montoya, a Latino legislator whose wife and children are Native Americans of Navajo descent.
Democratic State Rep. Anthony Allison, a member of the Navajo Nation from Fruitland, on Friday commended colleagues for adopting detailed Native American recommendations.
He said the painstaking, eight-month process of consultation among Indigenous communities on redistricting priorities was like assembling a well-balanced ball of yarn.
“What I have witnessed ... is a resilience of people who have been here since time immemorial,” Allison said.