Ben Ray Gets Dem Challenger

Sean Closson

A 25-year-old Santa Fe artist and hotel worker is challenging incumbent Democrat Ben Ray Lujan in next year’s Democratic primary.

Sean Closson, a political novice is challenging Lujan, currently serving his second term in Congress, announced his candidacy in a column published in the well-known national liberal website The Daily Kos.

“I'm here to represent the people who don't have lobbyists,” he said in the Nov. 5 column. “People who are struggling just to make rent and feed their families. People who get foreclosed on, even when they did everything right. People who's job gets sent overseas, or can't afford gas to heat their homes, or who have to hide in the shadows of society because they don't have the right paperwork. The people who, up to this point, have borne all the consequences of the recession, while those who are the best off reap record profits and enjoy unparalleled freedom to buy our elections.”

On his website he wrote, “They’ll try to smear me, destroy me personally, convince people I’m a bad person, a socialist, a hippy, a nut job, whatever will stick. Come at me, bro. I don’t care.”

Closson, who now works at a local hotel, was unemployed for several months after his temporary job with the U.S. Census ended.

He says that his experience being unemployed gives him a good perspective for representing the district. “I'm not someone who at some vague point in the distant past experienced some economic hardship. I'm someone who was on unemployment in 2010,” he said in the column.

Closson also criticizes Lujan for co-sponsoring the Stop Online Piracy Act. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, would give the U.S. Justice Department and copyright holders more power in fighting intellectual property theft. Supporters say it’s needed to stop theft. Critics say the bill could lead to censorship of the Internet.

“Under this act, sites like Google, YouTube, and Twitter could all be shut down by the Department of Justice for linking to infringing content,” Closson said in a statement. “... It's too broad, it's draconian, and it would destroy the Internet as we know it today.”

Defeating an incumbent is rarely easy. Lujan, who faced no primary opposition in 2010, already has amassed more than $280,000 in campaign contributions, according to his latest report filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Closson said he comes from a military family that moved several times during his youth. He went to high school in North Carolina and college in Florida, where he  graduated from the Ringling College of Art & Design.

He moved to Santa Fe in the summer of 2008. He said he chose this town because it's the second largest art market in the country.

While Closson is attacking from the left, Lujan also got a Republican challenger recently Businessman Rick Newton of Taos, whose career has included high-profile deep-sea recovery projects, announced his candidacy late last month.

Republican to Challenge Ben Ray

Although the Third Congressional District generally is considered to be a "safe" Democratic seat, a Republican who recently moved to Taos will announce Tuesday that he's challenging incumbent Dem Ben Ray Lujan next year.

Rick Newton is a businessman whose career has included high-profile deep-sea recovery projects. According to his campaign website, Newton was involved in the recovery of a nuclear-powered Soviet submarine in the Pacific Ocean, the SS Central America, a steamship that sank in 1857 with an estimated $1 billion in gold, and other underseas projects.

He also helped prepare Soviet nuclear threat assessments for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT).

Newton currently owns a small security technology company with patents applied for, his campaign manager Ken Scarborough of Taos said in an email today.

Newton has been living in Albuquerque but recently signed a contract for a lease to purchase on a home in Taos, Scarborough said. He has owned other property in the Taos area, Scarborough said.

According to his website and a campaign brochure, Newton not only advocates changing some existing laws, but also amending the U.S. Constitution. He says the 16th Amendment should be repealed to get rid of the IRS, and replace the personal income tax with a flat tax.

He also wants to amend the Constitution to prohibit Islamic Shariah Law and "clarify" the separation of Church and State. Newton would insert language saying “No religion shall advocate the violation of any law found to be constitutional nor engage in any sedition to disobey any such law."

Newton also favors changing the equal protection clause of 14th Amendment to apply on to U.S. citizens, not "any person" as the amendment reads. This is to prevent "anchor babies" -- children born of foreign parents in the U.S. automatically becoming citizens.

In the last election, Lujan’s opponent Tom Mullins raised controversy when he joked in a radio interview about using land mines along the border to stop illegal immigration.

Newton is taking a different approach to that issue. “I have experience in new border security technologies that detect tunnels and safely ‘repel’ those attempting to cross illegally,” his brochure says. “Without harming anyone, my plan treats border crossers with respect and directs them to Points of Entry where they can enter legally. We need and want legal guest workers with specific education and skills. Drug transporters and terrorists can be detected at (points of entry) and dealt with forcefully.”

Lujan is serving his second term in Congress. Newton will be his first challenger, Republican or Democrat, in the 2012 race.

Pelosi in Santa Fe

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who still is the leader of House Democrats in Congress, appeared this morning at Mary Ester Gonzales Senior Center in Santa Fe.

Pelosi was accompanied by Congressman Ben Ray Lujan.

Both spoke about protecting Social Security and Medicare in the ongoing D.C. deficit and budget battles. Referring to the committee of 12 House and Senate members that will make budget recommendations, Pelosi said, "This table of 12 cannot be a chopping block for Medicare and Social Security."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Santa Fe Mayor David Coss at right

She also spoke about her desire to have the meetings of the "Super Congress" open to the public, televised and webcasted.

Asked whether having these negotiations public would turn into predictable recitations of talking points for both sides  instead of producing a real compromise, Pelosi said, "That's called `democracy.' I think the American public will have a slim appetite for that kind of exploitation at that table. We have to succeed at that table."

Both Pelosi and Lujan said the current debate is not really about deficits. "Why didn't (Republicans) say `boo' when (the deficit) was being amassed by President Bush," Pelosi said. She blamed the deficits on tax breaks for the wealthy and "two unfunded wars."

In a written statement e-mailed after the event, Tyler Q. Houlton, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said, "Nancy Pelosi and Ben Ray Lujan should be honest with New Mexico voters and admit to the damage they’ve caused to Medicare. It’s disingenuous for Pelosi and Lujan to claim they have protected Medicare when they voted to gut the program by $500 billion to fund their government takeover of healthcare.”

More in Tuesday's New Mexican.

Susana Poll Numbers Looking Good

In the most recent numbers released by PPP, Gov. Susana Martinez is enjoying a 52 percent approval rate, with 37 percent of those polled disapproving.

In the PPP blog, poll honcho Tom Jensen says, "Most of the Republicans elected Governor in Obama states last November have quickly become very unpopular. Not so in the case of New Mexico's Susana Martinez ... A female Hispanic Governor who's maintaining her popularity as she governs a blue state? Martinez would be at the top of my VP list for next year if I was a Republican strategist."

Of course, Jensen is not a GOP strategist. PPP is a Democratic polling firm.

The latest poll finds that Martinez would beat Democrat Diane Denish in a rematch 53 percent to 44 percent. About a third of the Democrats polled approved of Martinez's first six months as governor as did a plurality of Hispanics.

The poll also asked about same-sex marriage.

When asked whether same-sex marriage should be legal 42 percent said yes and 48 percent said no. "Respondents under 65 narrowly support it but are outweighed by 58/30 opposition among senior citizens," Jensen said.

However, when respondents are given the option of "civil unions" the numbers get interesting. 37 percent chose same-sex marriage as the best option, 31 percent chose "civil unions" while only 30 percent agreed that "there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple's relationship."

Other poll findings:

* Outgoing Sen. Jeff Bingaman's approval rating is 59 percent (29 percent disapprove) while Sen. Tom Udall has a 48 percent approval (31 percent disapprove). U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan's figures are 30 percent approval, 34 percent approval, but those numbers are statewide, not just CD3, which Lujan represents.

* Former Gov. Bill Richardson's still are low -- 27 percent favorable, 63 percent unfavorable.

PPP surveyed 732 New Mexico voters from June 23 to 26. The margin of error is 3.6 percent.

PPP Release NM 705

Just How Rich Are These Guys?

Three of the state's five representatives in Congress are millionaires. Rep. Steve Pearce of Hobbs is the richest, with Sen. Jeff Bingaman is a close second. Sen. Tom Udall is a distant third.

The poor cousins in the delegation are Reps. Ben Ray Lujan of Santa Fe and Martin Heinrich of Albuquerque. As I said in my story published in today's New Mexican, they are mere "thousandaires."

This all is based on the most recent financial disclosure statements each filed last month.

You can check out and download all New Mexico Congressional financial statements (including those from past years and past members) HERE.

And to Absolutely Nobody's Surprise ...

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has endorsed U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan's re-election bid.

This can only be seen as a crushing blow to Lujan's Democratic primary opponent .... wait a minute, there is no primary opponent, at least not yet. There's not even a Republican general election opponent yet.

One thing the union's financial support means is that a primary challenge is less likely -- not that I've heard the slightest rumbling of any such challenge.

But, for the record: “Ben Ray has proven himself time and time again. He’s one of the hardest workers out there, and he always takes time to listen to us” said Paul Linville, AFSCME’s PEOPLE Committee member elected to represent Northern New Mexico State Employees.

AFSCME earlier this year also endorsed Martin Heinrich for Senate. That was a little more exciting because he does have a major primary opponent in Hector Balderas.

Back to what you were doing.

Javier Is Re-elected State Dem Chairman in Close Battle

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 1, 2011


In what turned out to be a much closer race than either of the top candidates had predicted, Javier Gonzales of Santa Fe held on to his job as state Democratic Party chairman, edging out challenger Sam Bregman.

In declaring victory at the meeting of the state Democratic Central Committee, Gonzales said the party was unified and ready to go forward to defeat Republicans in the 2012 elections.

“We’re coming together and moving forward,” Gonzales said as he called Bregman and his other opponent Letitia Montoya to the stage. They hugged and raised each others’ arms in a show of unity.

“Today marked the day we go forward as a unified party,” Gonzales told a reporter after the vote. “Today really showed the energy and commitment of the grassroots.”

Sam Bregman

“We lost fair and square,” Bregman told a reporter after the vote. “I congratulation the chairman and urge all my supporters to get behind Javier Gonzales and go out and kick some Republican tail.”

But only a couple of hours before, both Bregman and Montoya were harshly critical of Gonzales, saying he’d not done enough last year to help the Democratic ticket, which suffered major losses in the November election — and that Gonzales had not done enough to counter Republican Gov. Susana Martinez and her supporters during this year’s legislative session.

“We have leadership who lost the election,” Bregman said during his speech to the Central committee. He said 2010 — in which Democrats lost the governor’s race, a seat in Congress, the Office of Secretary of State and eight seats in the state Legislature — was the worst defeat for New Mexico Democrats in 80 years.
Montoya in her speech said, “I think it’s time for a woman to take over to clean up the mess the men have made.”

Former Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, last year’s Democratic candidate for governor, defended Gonzales’ work in the 2010 election. “Javier did everything we asked him to,” Denish said in her speech nominating Gonzales for his new two-year term.

The four-month campaign for the chairmanship often became bitter and personal. Some of Gonzales’ supporters criticized Bregman, an Albuquerque lawyer, for representing several figures who have been central in corruption scandals in the past five years, including former state Treasurer Robert Vigil, who went to prison after being implicated in a kickback scheme.

But Bregman after the vote, downplayed the intensity of the battle, saying Democrats were a family that could fight but in the end unite for a common purpose.

Javier Gonzales

Out of 380 committee members voting, Gonzales won 191 votes — just over 50 percent. Bregman got 180, and Montoya got nine votes. Had Gonzales received one less vote, he would have faced a run-off with Bregman.

Gonzales, 44, is a business consultant, a former Santa Fe County Commissioner and son of former Santa Fe Mayor George Gonzales.

He also serves on the New Mexico State University board of regents. Before he decided to enter the race, Gonzales told The New Mexican that if he got named chairman of the NMSU regents there might be a conflict of interest if he stayed on as Democratic state chairman. He might be in a position of blasting the governor one day and asking for funds for NMSU the next, he said.

However last week in an interview he said he was not going to become chairman of the regents so he wasn’t worried about a conflict of interest.

The central committee meeting attracted most of the candidates and those considering running for U.S. House or Senate seats next year. Both U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich and state Auditor Hector Balderas — both of whom are running for retiring U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman’s seat — spoke at the event as votes were being counted, as did longshot contender Andres Valdez, an Albuquerque activist.

U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, who is seeking re-election in the northern 3rd Congressional District, said he hasn’t decided whether to endorse one of the Senate candidates. Both Heinrich and Balderas mentioned Lujan in their speeches.

Eric Griego decides whether to take this call

In the 1st Congressional District, state Sen. Eric Griego of Albuquerque made it official Saturday, saying he will run for the seat currently held by Heinrich. Griego is one of the most uncompromisingly liberal voices in the Legislature.

Two possible candidates in the southern 2nd Congressional District — currently held by Republican Steve Pearce — emerged Saturday. One was Martin Resendiz, the mayor of Sunland Park, who said he plans to run. Meanwhile, former state Rep. Nate Cote, D-Las Cruces, told The New Mexican that he’s also considering the race. Cote lost his legislative seat to Republican Rick Little last year.

Check out my snapshots of the DEmocratic event today. CLICK HERE

It's Official: Ben Ray NOT Running for Senate

Most people didn't really believe he was going to run for Senate in the first place, but Politico just quoted a statement from a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan saying ....

"I appreciate the outpouring of support I have received while traveling around New Mexico these past few months, and my focus will continue to remain on serving the hard-working men and women of New Mexico — fighting to turn our economy around, put people back to work, and move our state forward. After careful consideration, I have decided that I will not seek the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate race. I look forward to building on my work as Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ BOLD PAC and as a member of the DCCC’s recruiting committee to recruit strong candidates who reflect the growing diversity of our country and who will be a part of our effort to take back the House. With BOLD PAC’s historic first quarter fundraising numbers and Census numbers showing the growth in the Hispanic community across the country, I am excited about the favorable position we will be in to energize Hispanic voters and help elect strong Democratic candidates."

Meanwhile, here's the declaration of candidacy for Hector Balderas I wrote about last week. Balderas is expected to officially announce tomorrow.

Hector for Senate Declaration of Candidacy

Catching Up

I had a couple of political stories published over the weekend.

I wrote about the race in CD3 between Ben Ray Lujan and Tom Mullins. It can be found HERE.

The sidebar on Lujan and Mullins' fundraising efforts are HERE 

My coverage of Sunday's gubernatorial debate is HERE  

Below is the video of the Mullins/Lujan debate Saturday on Channel 4.

Channel 7 has Sunday's gubernatorial debate, but it's spread over 13 separate videos (really, guys ...) You can find the whole baker's dozen HERE.

In Case You Missed the CD3 Debate Saturday ...

... you can watch it here.

NRA Loves Our Dems

So you thought gun rights was a Republican issue and that the National Rifle Association, the largest gun lobby group in the country, is naturally inclined to endorse Republicans?

Think again.

The NRA’s political action committee announced Monday that it has endorsed all three incumbent House Democrats in the state’s Congressional delegation, including U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan of Santa Fe.

A rival gun lobby group, Gun Owners of America, on the other hand, endorsed the three Republicans running for Congress in the state, including Lujan's opponent Tom Mullins -- a 12-year member of the NRA.

See my story in today's New Mexican.

See all the NRA's endorsements in the state HERE. See the GOA's grades of the New Mexico Congressional candidates HERE

Lujan Vs. Mullins

The two candidates for the 3rd Congressional district met yesterday to debate at St. Bede's Episcopal Church in Santa Fe.

About 100 people packed into a crowded room (or crowded into a packed room) for the two-hour event.

My story is HERE

The debate was sponsored by The League of Women Voters, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and The American Association of University Women. Those groups are sponsoring a similar event for local legislative candidates 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center, 3221 Rodeo Road.

Lopsided Campaign Finance Reports in CD3

I did a story in today's New Mexican about the most recent campaign finance reports filed by the 3rd Congressional District candidates.

To nobody's surprise, incumbent Democrat Ben Ray Lujan is mopping up over Republican opponent Tom Mullins of Farmington. It's a nearly 2-1 Democratic district and incumbents everywhere tend to have the fund-raising advantage. (That being said, down in the 2nd District, Republican challenger Steve Pearce is beating incumbent Harry Teague in the money race. Pearce, of course, is a former incumbent.)

My story is HERE.

Lujan's latest report is HERE.

Mullins' latest report is HERE

Mullins Says Ben Ray Too Harsh on BP

Republican Congressional candidate Tom Mullins will not join the piling on on U.S. Rep. Joe Barton for saying President Obama had engaged in a "shake-down" of BP, by securing $20 billion to help pay for damages from the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In fact even before Barton's controversial apology to BP, Mullins was criticizing his Democratic opponent, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, for beating up the giant oil company. It's on Mullins' campaign blog.

Yesterday Mullins told me he thought Barton had some valid points and reiterated his belief that Lujan was "beating up" on BP, which is the third largest producer of natural gas in this state.

My story on this is in today's New Mexican.

Ben Ray Targeted by "Men's Rights" Group.

U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan is one of 20 members of Congress targeted by Abusegate Investigate for defeat in the upcoming election because of their support for domestic violence legislation.

The Lujan campaign calls the group "radical domestic violence deniers."

The news release doesn't mention Lujan's Republican opponent Tom Mullins. I've put in the question whether he'd accept the support of Abusegate. I haven't heard back yet, but will add his response when I receive it.

Here's the release:

WASHINGTON / June 9, 2010 – Twenty national lawmakers, known for their advocacy of policies that promote false allegations and serve to break-up families, have been targeted for electoral defeat in November.

The 20 lawmakers are supporters of discriminatory laws such as the International Violence Against Women Act that are known to violate fundamental civil rights and escalate partner tensions. The 20 Democratic and Republican lawmakers are listed at the end of this press release.

“Domestic violence laws that promote ‘false allegations’ of domestic violence contribute to the destruction of families. Such laws remove the right of many children to know one of their parents, and often their grandparents,” explains Sheryle Hutter of Colorado. “Thanks to such laws, my son hasn’t seen his daughter for 10 years, and I have not seen my grandchild for more than 3 years.”

The use of false abuse allegations to gain a tactical edge in child custody cases has been extensively documented: http://www.saveservices.org/downloads/VAWA-A-Culture-of-False-Allegations

A growing number of civil rights organizations are questioning “get-tough” domestic violence laws. The Washington Civil Rights Council has described the Violence Against Women Act as the “biggest civil rights roll-back since the Jim Crow era.” Last year the Connecticut chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union successfully challenged a case in which a man falsely-accused of domestic violence was denied the right to a hearing.

Women’s groups such as Concerned Women for America have also expressed concerns with what it calls violence against women “misinformation.” In May 5, 2010 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Concerned Women for America warned that abuse-reduction programs need to “take the ‘gender’ politics and ‘politically-correct’ agenda out of the public policy solutions.”

The effectiveness of domestic violence programs is likewise being challenged. According to Department of Justice official Angela Moore Parmley, “We have no evidence to date that VAWA [Violence Against Women Act] has led to a decrease in the overall levels of violence against women.”

Research shows women are as likely as men to initiate physical abuse against their intimate partners: http://www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm But VAWA-funded programs may present misleading statistics.

The list of those targeted is below. Note the name of Sen. Arlen Specter. He actually was defeated in the Democratic primary a couple of weeks ago, but I don't think his support of the Violence Against Women Act was the main factor in his loss.

Senators:
Barbara Boxer - California
Mark Kirk - Illinois
Russ Carnahan - Missouri
Arlen Specter - Pennsylvania
Patty Murray - Washington

Representatives:
Vic Snyder – Arkansas
Lucille Roybal-Allard - California
Jeff Miller – Florida
Jim Marshall - Georgia
Walt Minnick - Georgia
John Tierney - Massachusetts
Donna Edwards - Maryland
Larry Kissel – North Carolina
Paul Hodes – New Hampshire
Rush Holt – New Jersey
Ben Luján – New Mexico
Mary Joe Kilroy - Ohio
David Wu – Oregon
Ted Poe - Texas
Steve Kagen - Wisconsin

UPDATE 8:30 pm:
Lujan's Republican opponent Tom Mullins responded:

"I've never heard of this group at all. It sounds like it is possibly a democrat group creating an issue to benefit Lujan ?"

In fairness, I probably should have included in the original version of this post the fact that I did verify the press release today with Paul Elam, editor of an online publication called Men's News Daily. If it is a hoax, it's pretty elaborate.

3rd CD Campaign Finance Update

Congressional candidate Tom Mullins says he's still having problems getting his report posted on the Federal Election Commission site. But on his Web site he reports raising $ 26,102 in the first quarter, spending $28,399 during that time and having $28,680 in the bank as of March 31.

Mullins' GOP opponent Adam Kokesh reported raising more than $57,000 and spending more than $50,000, which leaves just over $12,000 in the bank.

Democratic incumbent Ben Ray Lujan raised more than $150,000 in the first quarter. He spent more than $61,000 in the last quarter, leaving more than $375,035 cash on hand.

My story about the reports from this morning's paper is HERE

Enjoy the Comedy Team of Tom Udall & Ben Ray Lujan

Udall's a Ninja?



And here's the video by Sen. Al Franken to which Udall and Lujan were alluding. (It's pretty obvious that Franken has a little more experience in the realm of comedy, but our guys' video is pretty funny too) :

Tired of Polls Yet?

I know I've posted a lot this week, but here's the Public Policy Polling survey of the New Mexico Congressional races.

Her in District 3, incumbent Democrat Rep. Ben Lujan is leading both his GOP rivals, but he's got low approval numbers -- 31 percent positive and 40 percent negative.

According to the PPP blog:

Despite his negative approval numbers Lujan leads both of his Republican opponents by decent margins. It's 42-36 over Tom Mullins and 40-32 over Adam Kokesh. Lujan's approval is in negative territory because Republicans are much more united against him (71%) than Democrats are in their support for him (47%). Independents also disapprove of him by a 22/42 margin, similar to Obama's 35/54 disapproval in the district.

In the other races, Incumbent Martin Heinrich of Albuquerque has a decent lead over Republican newcomer Jon Barela. But down south former Rep. Steve Pearce, the Republican challenger has a two point lead over incumbent Harry Teague. That's pretty much on track with the internal poll the Pearce campaign released this week.

PPP surveyed 400 voters in each Congressional district from February 18th to 20th. The margin of error on each survey is 4.9 percent. PPP is a Democratic firm and uses an automated polling system.

I like this statement on their blog:

Between the Governor's race and the potential for some close House races, it looks to be another interesting year in New Mexico politics.

Here's the poll:

PPP NM Congressional Poll

UPDATE: Tom Jensen of PPP alerted me that there was a typo on the original version. I've deleted that and uploaded the corrected version here.

Children of Politicos

In my story in today's paper about Pete Domenici, Jr. I quoted political science professor Lonna Atkeson saying, "Children of politicians do well here," then listed several examples including Gary King, Diane Denish and Jerome Block Jr. (who "did well" in that he won his election.)

But a reader just pointed out that I left out a very obvious example -- one so obvious I'm going to have to learn yoga so I can kick myself harder:

Congressman Ben Ray Lujan!

According to my sources his father is involved in politics -- speaker of the state House of Representatives to be exact.

Before anyone else points it out, I also should have listed U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, son of former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall.

Roundhouse Roundup: Keeping Up With Congressional Expenses

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
December 3, 2009

If you ever wondered how much members of Congress spend maintaining their offices — and who and what they spend it on — that information just became much easier for the average citizen to track. For the first time, the U.S. House of Representatives this week published its quarterly log of expenditures by all members — salaries, travel, office equipment, rent and other expenses for district offices, postage and more.

You can find it at the official government site, in the form of large, rather unwieldy PDFs , or in a handy, dandy searchable database courtesy of The Sunlight Foundation .

Think locally: According to the report, U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján of Santa Fe spent more than $337,000 on his office between June and September and $808,000 in the first nine months of the year. That seems like a lot, but it’s less than New Mexico’s other two congressmen. Martin Heinrich of Albuquerque spent more than $343,000 for the quarter and $908,000 for January through September, while Harry Teague of Hobbs spent more than $352,000 the last quarter and more than $899,000 as of the end of September.

The most expensive offices in Congress are those of Reps. Steve Kagen, D-Wisc., who spent $452,000 in the last quarter, Alan Grayson, D-Fla., who spent $449,000, and Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., who spent $445,000.

Luján’s biggest expense is salaries — $569,552 for 23 employees in the first nine months of the year. In that time period, he spent more than $56,000 on rent, utilities and other expenses for his six district offices here in New Mexico; more than $45,000 on printing; more than $36,000 on travel; nearly $35,000 on postage and more than $35,000 on “other services” including security systems and computer software.

Keep on the Sonny side: One name in Luján’s expense records caught my eye. Santa Fe contractor Sonny Otero is paid $3,295 a month for rent of Luján’s Santa Fe district office on St. Michael’s Drive.

Otero is a major financial supporter of Gov. Bill Richardson, and in 2006 he made $3.2 million on a controversial land deal with the state shortly after contributing $50,000 to Richardson’s re-election campaign. All involved have denied the land sale had anything to do with the campaign cash.

He’s also contributed some money to Luján. Otero and his wife gave Luján’s 2008 campaign a total of $5,850.

The space was previously used by former Rep. Tom Udall, who moved into former Sen. Pete Domenici’s old office downtown after being elected to the Senate. When Udall first began renting the St. Michael’s Drive office about 10 years ago, it was owned by the Molnar family, a spokeswoman said. Otero bought it later.

A spokeswoman for Udall said Wednesday that Luján set up shop in several of Udall’s old district offices “for both continuity and convenience for his constituents” and to save time and money.

Run Allen Run: Apparently Republican Allen Weh is taking the phrase “running for governor” literally. His campaign announced Wednesday that Weh will participate in the 10K Reindeer Run in Roswell this Saturday. In October, Weh ran the Duke City Marathon’s 5K race in Albuquerque.

Is this a not-too-subtle appeal to supporters of former Gov. Gary Johnson, who always seemed to be competing in events like this?

Weh, himself a lifelong long-distance runner, says it’s to make a pitch for healthy living. He’s a prostate cancer survivor who says promoting proper nutrition and exercise is a priority.

Cargo Cult: The recent death of former Gov. Bruce King has prompted me to re-reread his autobiography, Cowboy in The Roundhouse. In recent months, I’ve also read former Senate Majority Leader Fabian Chavez’s autobiography, Taking On Giants.

And this week I learned there’s another book in the works from another New Mexico politician who was a contemporary of King and Chavez — former Gov. David F. Cargo.

Veteran Albuquerque journalist Dennis Domrzalski posted on his Facebook page this week that he “Just finished the final edit of former New Mexico Gov. Dave Cargo’s memoir, Lonesome Dave.”

It will be published by Sunstone Press in Santa Fe, which also published King’s book.