(Photo by Sergio Salvador)

ALBUQUERQUE — Like New Mexico often does, the 1st Congressional District seat followed the national zeitgeist Tuesday, sweeping Martin Heinrich into office on the crest of a Democratic tidal wave.

Heinrich, 37 and a former Albuquerque city councilor, beat Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White convincingly in a 10-point victory. It was a historic win. With his victory, Heinrich becomes the first Democrat ever elected to represent Albuquerque in the 1st Congressional District.

The race, marked by a litany of negative television advertisements launched by both campaigns, turned out to lack any late-night election drama.

Following the announcement of Rep. Tom Udall’s election to the U.S. Senate and Barrack Obama’s presidential victory, Heinrich was greeted by partisan roars from the crowd at Albuquerque’s convention center just before 10 pm. Following an introduction by his wife Julie, his acceptence speech was interrupted by Democrat Barack Obama’s televised moment as the president-elect.

As Obama took the stage in Illinois, Heinrich paused to announce, “We’re all going to watch the next president of the United States.” The crowd roared once more and following Obama’s pronouncement that “Change has come to America,” Heinrich followed with chants of “Si se puede!”

Although White’s campaign described Heinrich as “extreme, dishonorable and despicable” in a TV spot repeated up to election day, Heinrich never mentioned his opponent in his victory speech, instead saying, “crazy groups from out of state say anything under the sun … but we prevailed.”

Across town at the Albuquerque Uptown Marriott, Darren White announced, “A few minutes ago, I called Martin Heinrich (to concede). I also told him I would ask each of you to get behind him. We pledged we would never quit and hopefully at the end of the night we would prevail. We did not. That will not stop my spirit to fight for this community because it is worth fighting for, that’s for sure.”

Referring to the race as “a spirited contest,” White joked that his pitbull Trixie had begun growling at him from watching “the negative ads.”

“I think Martin embodies the spirit of a larger movement,” said Javier Benavidez, a volunteer for the Heinrich campaign and former policy analyst for Heinrich when he was on the Albuquerque City Council. “It’s people demanding more of their leadership.”

Benavidez attributed much of Heinrich’s success to the turnout of the “millennium generation,” or the youth-vote, that he said supported Heinrich en masse.

“It’s great because it’s better democracy to have high expectations of your leadership,” Benavidez said. “Our country is in a place where people are not willing to settle for elected officials that are unresponsive to everyday working people’s struggles.”

City Councilman Don Harris, a Republican who spent the evening at the GOP election gathering at the Uptown Marriott, said Heinrich’s victory was a result of national angst over the economy and the war in Iraq, both attributable to the Bush Administration, combined with a formidable “ground game” led by the Obama campaign.

Harris called the local Republican Party’s mood “somber and humbled.”

“Being a minority party in the state, we’re kind of used to getting kicked around,” said Harris. “The feeling was—we’ll be back in another year.”

Billy Sparks, former deputy chief of staff for Gov. Bill Richardson, said Heinrich’s victory was a sign of the times. “With an open-seat election, it followed the trend of the country,” said Sparks, adding that without an incumbent running for re-election the seat was ripe for a change in party affiliation.

“The interesting thing will be to see how long he can hold it,” said Sparks.