Sen. Eric Griego

State Sen. Eric Griego, D-Albuquerque, announced Saturday that he will be running for the open 1st Congressional District seat. Griego has served in the state Senate for three years.

“The conservative Republicans running the U.S. Congress have declared war on working families,” Griego said in a statement announcing his decision. “They want to privatize and ration Medicare for seniors, gut Medicaid for the most vulnerable children and families, and change the promise of retirement with dignity for Americans who have worked their whole lives. We need a Congressman to be their voice and champion on Capitol Hill.”

Griego also announced his candidacy through a video.

Griego currently is the executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, a nonprofit research, policy and advocacy organization. Before this, Griego was an Albuquerque city councilor as well as assistant secretary for economic development and chairman of the State Economic Development Commission.

Griego made the announcement almost a month after forming an exploratory committee looking at a run for Congress.

The seat is open after Rep. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., announced that he would instead run for U.S. Senate.

Griego is the second candidate to officially say that he will be running for the seat. Republican Dan Lewis, an Albuquerque city councilor, announced in April that he will run.

Former state Rep. Janice Arnold Jones, a Republican, has formed an exploratory committee while she considers whether to run for the seat. State Rep. Anthony “Moe” Maestas has said that he is considering a run as well.

Roll Call cited an adviser to Balderas responding to chatter from “state insiders” that Balderas might run for the seat that will be open as current Rep. Martin Heinrich runs for the open U.S. Senate seat.

The thinking was that Balderas, who is seriously considering a Senate bid, might instead run for the open Albuquerque-based seat now that Heinrich is running for Senate. Roll Call mentioned this possibility in an extensive primer on the New Mexico and other Senate races published Tuesday.

But the adviser says that is not an option.

The report says that Balderas is still considering a run at the Senate seat that will be open following the retirement of Sen. Jeff Bingaman. Balderas will make a decision within the next month according to Roll Call.

On the Republican side, former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, businessman Greg Sowards and columnist Bill English are running for Senate. The Democratic side of the race is headlined by Heinrich with political activist Andres Valdez also running for the seat.

Albuquerque city councilor Dan Lewis announced this weekend that he is forming a congressional exploratory committee to potentially challenge Democratic incumbent Martin Heinrich in 2012. The release says that the Republican is “seriously considering” a run at the 1st Congressional District seat held by Heinrich since 2008.

“I’ve heard from many people who believe we are not well represented in Congress. They want and we need a better choice than what we have right now. We need someone who understands the people who live, work, raise families, and go to school in our district,” Lewis said in a statement.

Lewis cited the health care bill and the recent vote on extending the Bush-era tax cuts as reasons why he will run.

“In his first major vote since the November 2010 election, the incumbent congressman voted against extending critical tax cuts for New Mexican workers,” Lewis said. Heinrich voted against the package but had earlier said that he supported tax cuts for all those making under $250,000.

Lewis currently represents District 5, or Northwest Albuquerque. Before becoming a member of Congress, Heinrich served as a city councilor.

Heinrich defeated then-Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White in 2008 and businessman Jon Barela in 2010. Heinrich is the first Democrat to serve in New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District.

U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich

Congressman Martin Heinrich, NM-CD1, won his first bid for re-election tonight. Polls showing his Republican challenger, Jon Barela, pulling ahead in the final weeks added an edge to the race, but Heinrich prevailed in the end. A primary reason, he told supporters during his victory speech, was that he didn’t hide from his record.

“We had the courage of our convictions,” Heinrich said.  “Unlike a lot of folks this year, I never shrank from the fact that I was proud to have voted for health care reform.”

That statement elicited a massive eruption of cheers and applause from the late night crowd of Democratic party faithful at the Hotel Andaluz in Downtown Albuquerque.

The race between Heinrich and Barela was notable for the degree to which the two debated the issues, in an election season marked by sharp negativity in the governor’s race and massive amounts of third party dollars pumping negative ads onto the airwaves.

Barela, a former Intel Corporation manager and Albuquerque School Board member, vigorously argued that the country is off track economically. But Heinrich defended the historic legislation passed by Democrats during his first term, including health insurance reform legislation, regulatory reform of the U.S. financial sector, and an economic stimulus package designed to shore up an economy teetering on the edge of economic recovery.

Back in 2008, Martin Heinrich threw his hat in early to challenge Republican Heather Wilson, before she announced she’d give up her seat to run for the Senate seat vacated by long-time New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici. Going up against Republican Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, the political winds were in his favor, with a popularity already established among the constituent base he served as an Albuquerque City Councilor, and a Democratic Party on the rise. Heinrich became the first Democrat to hold the congressional seat that represents Albuquerque, the metropolitan center of the state.

Once elected, Heinrich became part of a Democratic majority that held both Congressional chambers as well as the White House. Just two years later, high unemployment numbers and an intransigent Republican base led the Republican Party to retake control of the U.S. House of Representatives tonight.

A member of the Democratic progressive wing, Heinrich survived the resurgence of the Republican Party tonight despite common wisdom that the reform measures and the stimulus package his party passed  are unpopular. Rather than distance himself, he took credit for the votes he cast.

The bulk of the money spent in the past few days has gone toward the race between Martin Heinrich and Jon Barela, likely signaling that the Albuquerque-area race is the most competitive of all the House races this year. Over a half-million dollars has been spent in the past few days by outside groups in New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District, most of which came from the DCCC’s expenditures opposing Republican Jon Barela.

Still, nearly 60 percent of the money spent in New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District has been spent opposing Martin Heinrich and just 30 percent has gone opposing Barela. Just over ten percent has gone in support of either candidate.

Just $60,500 in new money has been spent in New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District since The Independent’s last report.

Most of the money, over 55 percent, has gone towards opposing Steve Pearce. Just 38 percent has gone to oppose Harry Teague and about five percent has gone toward supporting either candidate.

The latest cash infusion, which goes through Oct. 25, continues the trend of out-of-state interests swooping in to New Mexico‘s two hottest congressional contests.

So far, the money spent in opposition to one of the four candidates in the two races easily outpaces the dollars meant to support the candidates, with nearly 90 percent, or more than $4.3 million, spent in opposition TV and radio attack ads as well as direct mail advertisements, records show.

The emphasis on negative campaigning seems to point to studies that show such efforts are more effective than positive messages.

Former congressman Steve Pearce, who hopes to unseat first-term Democratic Congressman Harry Teague in the 2nd Congressional District race, has the biggest bullseye on his back, attracting more than $1.5 million in opposition money, records show. The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund has led that opposition effort, spending nearly $800,000 to oppose the Republican, records show. Meanwhile Teague has been the subject of more than $1 million in money opposing his candidacy, with the largest portion of that effort coming from the National Republican Congressional Committee, records show.

In the 1st Congressional District race, first-term Democratic Congressman Martin Heinrich has attracted $1.3 million in opposition money, while his Republican opponent, Jon Barela, has had more than $525,000 spent against him.

Like Teague, the biggest spender opposed to Heinrich’s re-election is the National Republican Congressional Committee. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee meanwhile is responsible for nearly all of the money spent against Barela.

Only about $410,000 has been spent in favor of one or more of the candidates.

The amount of money coming from out-of-state groups have functioned almost as a shadow campaign, with the spending from these groups largely keeping pace with the spending of the candidates’ campaigns themselves.

The organizations in question,  which vary from  the Democratic and Republican congressional committees to advocates of all political stripes, have paid for everything from TV and radio ads to voter surveys and direct mail campaigns, records show.

The 3rd Congressional District race in which first-term Democratic Congressman Ben Ray Lujan is facing a challenge from Republican Tom Mullins has largely missed out in the spending bonanza by out-of-state groups.

The last independent poll, from nearly a month ago, showed that Heinrich lead Barela by 9 percent. This internal poll is the first to show Barela in the lead, or even within 6 percent, since July.

The poll showed that just 3 percent in the district are undecided and 1 percent refused to say which candidate they would vote for.

“We’ve said from the beginning that this was going to be one of the most competitive races in the country, and with one week to go, these numbers prove exactly that,” Barela said in a press release announcing the numbers.

The poll was conducted by the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies which recently released a poll that showed Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez leading by 8 percent in that race.

The poll was conducted from October 24-25. The polling memo did not indicate that the pollster called cell phone numbers as it had in the gubernatorial poll.

A study by the Pew Research Center found that there is a bias towards Republicans in polls that do not include cell phone numbers.

We, like most other news outlets, take internal polls with a grain of salt.

Heinrich finished the period (pdf), which ended on October 13, with nearly $605,000 cash on hand. Barela finished the same period with just under $430,000 cash on hand.

Barela raised $73,000 between October 1 and October 13 and spent $214,000. Heinrich raised $113,500 and spent over $560,000 in the two-week period.

The most high-profile name that donated to Heinrich was “R.E. Ted Turner” of Alanta, Georgia. This is the founder of CNN who owns Vermejo Park Ranch near Raton. It is the largest tract of land owned by Turner.

Heinrich also received the maximum donation of $2,400 from James Collie of Albuquerque and Alice Russell-Shapiro of San Francisco.

The Laborers’ Political League-Laborers’ International donated $5,000 to Heinrich, bringing the total to $10,000 from that organization. The National Emergency Medicine PAC donated $4,000 to Heinrich for a total of $9,000 this cycle; this is the PAC of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Allen Weh donted $2,400 to Barela’s campaign, bringing his total for the cycle up to $4,800. Weh ran an unsuccessful run for the Republican nomination for governor this year.

Weh was joined by Dorothy Wickens as another donor who contirbuted the maximum of $2,400. Richard L. Wickens donated $2,200, bringing his total donated up to the maximum $4,800. Brenda and Samuel Blankenship donated $900 and $1,400 to Barela’s campaign bringing their totals up to $4,800 and $2,400 respectively.

Barela received just $9,000 from PACs, the majority of which came from a $5,000 donation from the National Association of Home Builders PAC.

Barela paid SRCP Media $151,596 for media buys in the two week period.

Not surprisingly, Heinrich’s largest expenditures came for media buys. In two separate disbursements, Heinrich spent $462,163.76 on media from “Buying Time, LLC.” Heinrich also spent more than $35,000 on polling from Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research.

The tsunami of cash is part of a growing trend nationally in which outside groups swoop in to hot congressional race to run what are usually attack ads, pay for mass mailings or conduct surveys. And it has election and campaign finance reformers concerned.

“It should trouble people to see this amount of money spent on political campaigns,” said Steven Robert Allen, executive director of New Mexico Common Cause. “People and entities spend money for reasons. It could be that they love the candidate. The more troubling aspect in some cases is that entities or individuals want something in exchange for that money. And that’s where the whole situation becomes troubling. Is that access? Is that influence? In some cases it certainly is.”

All told, organizations as varied as the Democratic and Republican congressional committees to advocates of all political stripes, have spent as little as $4 to as much as $459,000 in hundreds of transactions in recent months, according to the Federal Election Commission.

The amount of money flowing into New Mexico is enough that it appears to have kept pace with candidate spending in the 2^nd Congressional District through the last reporting period, at around $2 million, according to Opensecrets.org, a website run by the Center for Responsive Politics.

In the 1^st Congressional District the rate of spending by outside groups is smaller, but not by much. Candidates have spent $2 million, compared to $1.9 million from outside groups, records show.

Steve Pearce has a big bulls-eye on his back

Former Republican Congressman Steve Pearce is one of the biggest targets in this war of deep-pocketed interests, records show.

More than $1.25 million in money spent by outside groups has flowed into New Mexico to oppose Pearce’s attempt to knock off freshman Democratic Congressman Harry Teague in what has been billed as one of the most hotly contested House races across the country, records show.

The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund plunked down $459,000 for a TV ad buy targeting Pearce earlier this month, the largest single transaction in the New Mexico congressional races, Federal Election Commission records show.

The Defenders of Wildlife, a left-leaning organization advocating a pro-conservation agenda, opposed Pearce’s 2008 run for U.S. Senate. This year the organization appears to be the biggest spender among the outside groups that have parachuted in to square off over New Mexico’s congressional races, spending more than $700,000, records show.

The outside money isn’t confined to Democrats or their allies.

The 1^st Congressional District’s freshman Democratic Congressman Martin Heinrich has seen his re-election effort attract nearly $1.4 million from outside groups opposed to his re-election, according to Opensecrets. That includes $316,306 spent on Aug. 27 by the American Future Fund for TV ad production, according to the Federal Elections Commission records. Heinrich faces Republican challenger Jon Barela.

The American Future Fund is a conservative organization advocating free-market ideals.

As troubling as the eye-popping numbers are to campaign finance reform advocates, 2010’s figures pale next to the sums spent during the 2008 election cycle by outside groups.

The Democratic and Republican congressional campaign committees alone spent $3.7 million in the 2^nd Congressional District race in 2008, according to Opensecrets. Similarly, the two party committees spent more than $4 million in the 1^st Congressional District race that year, records show.

But this year’s totals for outside spending could eclipse 2008’s totals, given that the last two weeks of an election season are when groups spend the most money, said University of New Mexico political science professor Lonna Atkeson.

“Both (races) can reach” the 2008 totals, but “CD 2 is very likely,” Atkeson said, citing the battle between Pearce, a former three-term congressman, and Teague, who won the seat in 2008 when  Pearce ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2008.

Unlike the 1st and 2nd districts, the 3^rd Congressional District race has largely been ignored by outside interests, barely registering any influx of money, records show.

Big spending by outside groups nationally

This year has seen an influx of outside-spending in congressional races across the country; $225 million so far, according to Opensecrets.org. And many observers attribute that infusion to a controversial Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, United Citizens v. Federal Elections Commission.

That ruling struck down a provision of the McCain–Feingold Act that prohibited all corporations, both for-profit and not-for-profit, and unions from broadcasting “electioneering communications

Some had predicted that the ruling would unleash a flood of corporate and union money into a political system already awash in money.

While  acknowledging the ruling is a factor, Allen, the Common Cause New Mexico executive director, said it doesn’t explain everything.

“To an extent, Citizens United has allowed for some new creative avenues for wealthier interests that want to get involved in influencing the electoral interests,” Allen said. “But with or without Citizens United this has been a long time trend. It’s almost an arms race.”

The amount of money flowing into New Mexico’s congressional races from outside groups has grown year after year, Allen said — a sentiment that Atkeson shares.

A rundown of help for candidates

Each of the four candidates in the two congressional races has been aided by outside spending, which allows organizations to support or oppose a candidate, records show.

While Heinrich has drawn a lot of opposition, he’s also come in for some major help – nearly $149,000, including $75,000 from Defenders of Wildlife, records show.

Jon Barela, Heinrich’s Republican opponent, has received nearly $65,000 in support from business groups and the National Right to Life PAC, FEC records show. Meanwhile, he’s attracted the attention of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has spent more than $350,000 opposing his candidacy, according to OpenSecrets.

The DCCC, as it is known, also has put a bulls-eye on Pearce, spending nearly $500,000 to oppose his candidacy, including a $234,000 media buy purchased earlier this month, FEC records show.

Pearce has received less than $30,000 from outside groups supporting his candidacy..

Teague meanwhile has attracted the notice of the National Republican Congressional Committee. The NRCC has spent $378,000 of the $700,000 of the outside groups opposing Teague’s re-election bid, according to Opensecrets.

Meanwhile Teague has received around $15,000 in aid from outside groups supporting his re-election, OpenSecrets shows.

In that same time, Heinrich spent about $830,000 while Barela spent about $400,000.

Despite spending more than twice as much as Barela in the third quarter, Heinrich still maintains a hefty cash on hand advantage. Heinrich has slightly more than a million dollars cash on hand while Barela has about $570,000.

Today is the deadline for filing campaign finance reports for the period between July 1 and September 30. This includes all donations and expenditures from the candidates’ campaign committees.

Barela has been aided by spending from outside groups, however. Outside groups have spent more than $750,000 in independent expenditures opposing Heinrich. Outside groups have spent just $116,000 opposing Barela.