Tara Jaramillo, Sandy Hammack vie to represent a redrawn New Mexico House district 38
Among New Mexico's more extensively changed districts following the post-Census redistricting process is House District 38, currently represented by state Rep. Rebecca Dow, a Republican from Truth or Consequences.
Indeed, had Dow sought another term in the legislature, she would have needed to run in the new District 49, based on the state's new election map. (Dow ran in the Republican primary for governor instead.)
Beginning in 2023, District 38 extends from Socorro at its northern tip to includes parts of Sierra and Doña Ana counties, encompassing portions of White Sands Missile Range and part of Truth or Consequences, reaching south into Hatch and Radium Springs. It will represent 30,680 people and is projected to learn slightly Democratic.
The two candidates asking voters to send them to Santa Fe as their representative both live in Socorro County and both won their parties' primaries by decisive margins. Whoever prevails, a large and diverse district incorporating rural and urban communities as well as public lands will be represented by a newcomer to the Roundhouse in January.
Tara Jaramillo
Jaramillo, a Democrat, is a speech-language pathologist and founder of Positive Outcomes, a service provider for healthcare and early intervention services based in Socorro. She is making her first run for office. She said parts of the new district are a two and a half hours, by car, from her home.
"As big as it is, it just as diverse," she said, counting off various economic sectors within the district, from farming and ranching near Socorro and down to the Hatch Valley, tourism and water recreation around Truth or Consequences and Elephant Butte, into Doña Ana County and the Las Cruces metropolitan area.
She said securing access to water as well as how the region will derive energy, from the state's petroleum industry as well as a growing renewable sector, were among the top concerns voiced by those who may soon be her constituents.
The district also includes Spaceport America in Sierra County, a facility built with taxpayer money that relies on state appropriations for part of its budget and is supported by local taxes in Sierra and Doña Ana counties. Jaramillo said the aerospace facility is a viable investment but that the burden of supporting it should be spread across the state.
While she said voters were not raising questions about election security, Jaramillo voiced concerns of her own about access to voting in rural communities based on her own experience in Socorro County and what she witnessed when providing services within the Alamo Navajo reservation during the COVID-19 pandemic's first waves. She said the nearest post office was nearly 40 miles away and, in any case, there was not a general awareness of options such as absentee or early voting.
"We need to do a better job at informing individuals on how they can vote," she said.
In her line of work, she said she was seeing the penetration of narcotics into her county firsthand and how that affects education outcomes as well as public safety. She spoke of fentanyl and other drugs and children's exposure to them, leading to harmed infant development, overdoses and even deaths. Such cases would be on her mind, she explained, when debating measures addressing pretrial release for certain defendants.
"Some statistics that have been released by our local hospital indicate that 70 percent of our infants are born addicted," she said. "This is a huge crisis. Now, as much as I want to say we need to hold everybody who is accused of a crime, because I fear for our children, I know we need to ensure everybody's rights. There is evidence, certainly, that can be presented by (District Attorneys) and police officers to show that certain people shouldn't be released."
Assuring the best outcomes at court, she said, would require collaborative efforts with community crisis response teams, local law enforcement and prosecutors.
A key concern she said has been shared by mayors and local officials in the district is aging infrastructure, from roads and bridges to water and sewer systems, in municipalities where city leaders are part-time public servants with full-time jobs and little staffing, leaving them hard-pressed to research and apply for grants to fund capital projects.
After knocking on thousands of doors, Jaramillo said women's healthcare, including abortion, has frequently been raised by voters wanting to know her position. Since the U.S. Supreme Court this summer struck down a federal right to terminate pregnancy and effectively moved debates over restrictions to state legislatures, New Mexico's Democratic majorities in the statehouse and Democratic governor have positioned the state as a safe harbor for abortion rights.
"I believe in women's reproductive rights," she said. "I believe there should be no interference from government or anyone else on what a woman chooses to do with her body, with the guidance of her physician." As far as any legal restrictions, she added, "I don't know where to stop that. If there's a young girl that has been raped or molested, or her life is in danger, I believe that all options should be presented to her for healthcare purposes."
Moreover, she responded to the abortion debate as the mother of a child with special needs.
"I don't want government deciding what baby I can or can't have. I'm so blessed with my child and so grateful that I brought her into this world. I want women to be able to make those decisions. Either way, I don't want government telling me what I can or can't do."
More information about Jaramillo and contact information are available at her campaign website, www.TaraJaramilloForNM.com.
Sandy Hammack
The Republican candidate, Sandy Hammack, is a former Socorro County party chair, retired rancher and businesswoman from San Antonio.
Her campaign website highlights a few policy positions in the areas of education, business and "law and order." The list includes call for reduced regulations and unspecified changes to gross receipts taxes.
The list also decries "racist CRT curricula," a rallying cry for conservative resistance to proposals by local school boards to address historic discrimination and assimilation of communities of color and Native Americans as well as English-language learners and students with disabilities. Some of the proposals were prompted by a 2018 court ruling in Yazzie/Martinez vs. State of New Mexico, which held that New Mexico was not meeting its constitutional obligation to serve all of New Mexico's students.
CRT, or "critical race theory," has emerged as a catch-all term to characterize such efforts to address discrimination in learning environments, although critical race theory is an academic concept originating in college-level legal education and analysis examining institutional racism.
On energy, Hammack's website calls for "clean, affordable energy through energy independence" without delving into further detail.
Hammack did not respond to multiple requests for interviews to talk about her campaign. In one instance, she appeared to answer her phone accidentally, crying out "Oh shoot!" and then disconnecting the call.
Her campaign website is www.SandyHammack.com.
Journal reports past tax liens
On Oct. 4, the Albuquerque Journal reported that Jaramillo had faced tax liens in 2007 and 2013 which she had not disclosed when she completed the Journal's regular candidate survey. The liens were for $679 and $2,265, respectively, the latter filed jointly against her and her ex-husband.
Jaramillo responded that she had not been aware of them and that the accountant who prepared her taxes in 2007 was deceased and that the latter may have been related to her ex-husband's business tax filing.
The Journal also reported that Hammack disclosed a "business-related bankruptcy" in the 1990s.
Algernon D'Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, adammassa@lcsun-news.com or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.
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This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Jaramillo, Hammack vie to represent redrawn New Mexico House District 38
