When I got the press release that US Rep. Tom Udall, D-NM, would be early voting at 2:30 pm, Saturday, May 17 at the Santa Fe County Fairgrounds, I decided to gamble that most reporters would be too busy having lives to show up and that, perhaps, I would be rewarded for my fortitude by Udall telling me, before anyone else, who he plans to support as a superdelegate.
Well, right on one score, anyway.
Udall is leaving his seat representing the third congressional district to run for the US Senate seat currently held by US Sen. Pete Domenici, R-NM. Two Republicans, US Reps. Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce, face off in New Mexico's June 3 primary. This means that in New Mexico, one US Senate seat and three congressional seats are up for grabs. For the third congressional seat currently held by Udall, six Democrats face off on June 3, as do two Republicans. There also are two Independents slated to run against the winners of those races in November.
After voting early myself, I caught up with Udall in the mostly empty parking lot and failed to get him to give anything up. Here's the sad transcript:
JG: Why won't you endorse in the third congressional district?
TU: I believe there is a great field out there and I've never endorsed in a primary before and I'm going to continue to uphold that tradition.
JG: Were you surprised your dad [former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall) endorsed [Ben Ray Lujan]?
TU: When I got the call from him I must say it was consistent with his pattern in the past of jumping into primaries both in city elections and in some other elections. I was a little bit surprised, but I've known him as being a strong independent-minded individual. He makes up his mind and it's very hard to get him to change his mind so I didn't even try.
JG: OK, your vote as a super-delegate. Come on! You have to give me something. I'm here at the county fairgrounds on a Saturday!
TU: Julia, I promised the voters when we had this big issue in New Mexico, I was in several town halls and meetings, some of them pretty lively, confrontations with voters and people said, 'this isn't about superdelegates, this is about people voting and we should allow the voting to take place as much as possible before the super delegates vote.' And I said at the time, and I've consistently said since then, I'm going to wait until June the third, until all the voters in the nation have voted, until South Dakota and Montana have voted and then I'll be in a position, very quickly, to be able to visit with other super delegates and visit with both campaigns and talk about my intention how to vote.
JG: Who did you vote for on Super Tuesday?
TU:That's something I'm going to keep quiet.
JG: If you had your choice, who would you run against in the general election: [US Rep Heather] Wilson or [US Rep] Steve Pearce?
[Udall's wife, Jill Cooper, drives into the county fairgrounds and loudly hits a rut]
Udall: There goes the Prius.
JG: Wilson or Pearce?
TU: I would say in a couple of words: Be careful what you wish for. I might get my hopes up too high and then I would get the opposite of what I wanted.
JG: I think you want Pearce.
TU: Be careful what you wish for.
I then watched Udall vote and as he did, he called out to me the names of people he was voting for: all Democrats in uncontested races. Gee, thanks!