Phill Casaus: In an impressive win, a newcomer has a stellar moment

Jun. 11—The tall, handsome gentleman stood alone in the center of a downtown hotel ballroom — cooly sure of himself but clearly out of place amid the 20-year reunion of the Santa Fe High Class of 1981.

Sizing up the outsider, their taste buds and good sense anesthetized by vodka tonics and Buds and Zimas, the revelers squinted across the room. They were trying to identify the man, and just where they'd seen him before.

The click of the switch was loud. Someone blurted out: "That's David Byrne!"

David Byrne, lead singer of the great '80s band, Talking Heads. David Byrne, of "Once in a Lifetime." Of "Burning Down the House." Music legend, inexplicably lost at a Demon reunion?

The other details are fuzzy, but this I remember from that long-ago night in 2001: Camilla Bustamante was the only member of the gaggle brave enough to march up to the rock 'n' roll hall of famer, introduce herself — then ask if he'd mind singing a number for her pals.

"Why be shy?" Bustamante recalled.

No one ever won an election by serving as class wallflower, so perhaps it makes sense that Bustamante — smart, earnest and fearless, but a political rookie — engineered perhaps the most impressive performance in Tuesday's Democratic Party primary.

Though the least-known entity in County Commission District 3, she blitzed a field that included an incumbent (Rudy Garcia) and a well-known and respected city councilor (Chris Rivera). Bustamante, 59, will take her seat on the commission after the November general election, in which she has no Republican opponent.

Bustamante spent much of her life in education until retiring, and is a late-comer into politics, though she acknowledges she'd always been something of a community activist and was involved in a number of organizations. She was going to run for office about a decade ago when her job conflicted with the Hatch Act, which limits the political activities of certain employees affiliated with the government or government programs.

This year, she said, was the right time.

"So, it's always been there," she said of the politics bug, "but it was the opportunity to just work toward the goal of helping people's lives be improved and assuring a better quality of life for people in our communities."

Maybe you always say this after an election, but the potential for change is great in Santa Fe County, where there's a new manager and two incoming board members — Justin Greene is the other — who almost certainly will do things differently than their predecessors.

Exactly where that takes county politics no one can say yet, particularly since SFCO is always in the shadow of its more controversial and visible cousins at the city of Santa Fe. But if this area is to grow intelligently, it's clear Santa Fe County will need to have a bigger and louder voice in those discussions.

In Bustamante, constituents — and maybe not just constituents — are getting an articulate newcomer determined to push forward third-rail discussions about growth, water, housing, infrastructure.

"Right now, every time a person sees a new building go up just about anywhere around here, I don't know anyone who doesn't ask the question — out loud, if not in their own mind — 'Well, where is the water coming from and where is it going to come from?'" she said.

In the background, I could've sworn I heard the Heads and these lyrics from "Once in a Lifetime":

You may ask yourself, "What is that beautiful house?"

You may ask yourself, "Where does that highway go to?"

And you may ask yourself, "Am I right, am I wrong?"

And you may say to yourself, "My God, what have I done?"

Bustamante said her observations were honed in part during a primary run in which she clearly outworked Garcia and Rivera. She got 63 percent of the vote, more than 500 votes better than both rivals combined.

A few days after the victory, she said what she enjoyed most about the experience was the chance to actually talk to people rather than simply ask for their support.

"The [door] knocking was one thing, but getting together in community groups ... if somebody would reach out to me and express a concern and they said, 'Well, people in our area are concerned about this,' then I took the opportunity to meet with people in their community," she said.

"So on many occasions, I met with groups in their community: Galisteo, San Pedro, Edgewood. It was really nice to sit down with groups of people; it's a whole different energy when they know you're gonna listen, rather than knocking on a door and taking them away from their favorite episode of Gunsmoke."

"Gunsmoke?"

It's an old reference (for those born after 1975, a TV western). It's so ancient even the Class of '81 might be hard-pressed to remember. But you get the idea.

For Bustamante, it's about meeting people where they are — not where she hoped they would be.

Oh, and the reunion? David Byrne politely declined to sing for Bustamante or her classmates.

No problem. Twenty years later, her "once in a lifetime" moment arrived.

Phill Casaus is editor of The New Mexican.