It’s been more than 25 years since New Mexico’s congressional delegation was all Republican, and more than 40 years since Democrats held all the seats, but both occurred before the era of three districts. Until Tuesday night, never has any party held all five of New Mexico’s seats in Congress.

But there’s a flip side to that clean sweep. Three freshmen in the U.S. House and another in the Senate are starting from scratch on the long road toward congressional seniority, with all its perks and advantages for the congressmen and their constituents.

Sen. Pete Domenici had been in office a single term when the stars aligned and New Mexico elected a full slate of Republicans to the 97th Congress. It was November 1980, and astronaut Harrison “Jack” Schmitt of Silver City won the other U.S. Senate seat by defeating two-term Democrat Joseph Montoya.

At that time, New Mexico was small enough that it had just two seats in the U.S. House. One was held by longtime Republican Rep. Manuel Lujan. The other, representing southern New Mexico, had been held for five terms by conservative Democrat Harold “Mud” Runnels. He was so popular that Republicans couldn’t find a candidate to run against him in 1980.

But Runnels died of cancer less than three months before the election. Democrats were allowed to put someone else on the ballot, but the state attorney general said Republicans could not. After Democrats chose a candidate, Runnels’ widow — also a Dem — initiated a write-in campaign. However, Republican Joe Skeen walked away with the state’s fourth congressional seat, winning his own write-in campaign with 38 percent of the vote.

That Republican slate lasted only two years, when Silver City Democrat Jeff Bingaman defeated Schmitt.

Holding all the seats was old hat to New Mexico Democrats, who ran the table from the mid-1930s through 1969 with one short-lived exception — a single House term won by former Gov. Ed Mechem in 1962.

The last time Democrats controlled all the seats was 1966-68, when Joe Montoya and Clinton P. Anderson were in the Senate and Thomas G. Morris and E.S. Johnny Walker sat in the House. And since the 3rd Congressional District was formed in 1982, no party has had a monopoly until now.

Nor has there ever been a year in which New Mexico had so many freshman congressmen— two appears to be the previous record. Come January, the only member of the state delegation with seniority is Bingaman. Had Domenici not resigned and all three House members who wanted his Senate seat stayed put, their seniority would have totaled nearly a century.

Bingaman currently ranks 17th in seniority in the Senate. But with the retirements of Sens. Domenici and John Warner of Virginia and Sen. Joe Biden’s election as vice president, New Mexico’s new senior senator moves up a few notches — and perhaps one more if Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens loses his razor-close election or, if elected, resigns following his recent convictions.

Regardless, Bingaman will be eighth in seniority among Democrats, and sixth if Sens. Robert Byrd and Ted Kennedy leave office because of health concerns.

Unless, of course, Bingaman opts for a job in the Obama administration. Pundits have named him as a possibly Secretary of Energy, though he tells The Albuquerque Journal today he’s not interested in leaving the Senate.

Seniority is how Congress divvies up juicy committee appointments, chairmanships and consequently all the attendant perks. But freshmen don’t get seats of power, said University of New Mexico political science professor Michael Rocca. First-year senators remain largely on the periphery of the action, though they’re better off than their peers in the House, he said.

“Freshmen in the House are expected to sit down, be quiet and follow their leaders,” Rocca said.

Martin Heinrich, Harry Teague and Ben Ray Lujan will be among more than 50 freshmen in the House, 31 of whom are Democrats and all of whom will be scrambling to get their bearings and start paying their dues. But unlike some congressional newbies, New Mexico’s three lawmakers have the unenviable prospects of following three experienced, resourceful veterans — Reps. Tom Udall, Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce.

“They’re going to have trouble keeping up with the expectations that Wilson, Peace and Udall have established among New Mexico voters,” said Rocca.

Even in a normal year, freshman House members do little but co-sponsor legislation, give speeches and return home often to meet with constituents, Rocca said. New Mexico constituents hoping for the familiar flow of pork-barrel projects and jobs from their delegation may be disappointed by Heinrich, Teague and Lujan. “They’re out trying to do a lot of things,” Rocca said of the trio, “but they’re freshmen — they just can’t do much.”

First-year members of Congress can only hope for good committee assignments, said UNM political science professor Lonna Atkeson. And in that respect, the New Mexico freshmen may be in luck. The House leadership will likely do all it can to help Democrats in the Class of 2009 look as good as possible to the folks back home, she said.

“There’s an incentive to help these people get off the ground so they can keep these seats for the long term,” Atkeson said. The Democratic House leadership is likely to assign the freshmen to committees that resonate well in their districts, even if they can’t accomplish much, she said.

Given the financial pressures on President-elect Obama and the 111th Congress to reel in federal spending, there may not be a lot of pork to go around anyhow. But Rocca said New Mexico still could benefit from its votes Tuesday.

“Nancy Pelosi wanted these victories,” he said, plunking more than $1 million in Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee money into the New Mexico races. “She’s going to want to protect those seats,” Rocca said, and one of the best ways is to assure that the new delegation keeps voters happy by bringing home more bacon than, say, a Republican freshman from Arizona.

Udall’s five terms in the House representing CD3 should provide firm footing when he arrives for work in the Senate in January, Atkeson said. “At least Udall is not quite in the dark,” she said. “And being a senator is a more powerful position, whether you’re a freshman or not.”

He will be one of six freshmen Senators in the 111th Congress, but Senate seniority rules give him a leg up  — his 10 years in the House move him ahead of several incoming senators on the seniority list. Ironically, his cousin, Senator-elect Mark Udall of Colorado, also has a decade in the House and could outrank the New Mexico Udall by virtue of Colorado’s larger population.

Like all freshmen in Congress, Tom Udall, too, will be hoping for good committee assignments, but he has big shoes to fill. Domenici was well known for protecting federal spending in New Mexico, whether it was funding for the national laboratories or removing jetty jacks from the Rio Grande bosque.

“It’s not clear who (on the Senate delegation) has the same passion for that,” Atkeson said of Domenici’s drive to keep the money flowing, particularly on the crucial issue of funding Sandia and Los Alamos laboratories. The eyes of New Mexico will be on Udall and Bingaman to see if either takes on the mantle of “St. Pete,” she said.

While Udall isn’t likely to control many purse-strings, he should, like his fellow freshmen in the House, expect preferable treatment from Senate leaders for having taken a long-held Republican seat, Rocca said. “This is a seat they’re going to want to hold onto for a long time, and they’ll do whatever they can to help Udall keep it.”

But committee assignments, bringing home the bacon and thinking ahead toward re-election are still a ways off for New Mexico’s freshman congressional delegation. Said Atkeson, “I think they’ll enjoy themselves the next couple of months.”