By Sherry Robinson
All She Wrote

   In 1984 New Mexico voters took a turn to the right, sending more moderates and conservatives of both parties to the Legislature. Back then the parties entertained a greater range of ideas.

After voters had spoken, conservatives had a new opportunity take back the House. Rep. Jerry Sandel, a conservative Democrat from Farmington, became the swing vote that unseated House Speaker Raymond Sanchez, D-Albuquerque, and replaced him with Rep. Gene Samberson, D-Lovington.

Last month, Sandel died at 82 in Farmington, where his family has operated Aztec Well Servicing and related companies for decades. He was 28 when he was elected to the Legislature, one of the youngest members of the House, and served from 1971 to 2000.

  In the 1970s the Mama Lucy Gang controlled the House until around 1978, when the Cowboy Coalition took power, setting off a struggle between left and right in the state that defied party lines. The Mama Lucy Gang, the liberal and mostly Hispanic coalition, took its name from a Las Vegas restaurant where they occasionally met. The Cowboys, mostly Anglos who lived outside the Rio Grande corridor, were moderates and conservatives of both parties. They elected Samberson house speaker in 1978.

  In 1982, with a swing of the voters’ pendulum, the Mama Lucy Gang was back in power. Samberson was out, and Sanchez, a young lawyer, was again speaker.

In 1984 Sandel addressed “what top Democrats have called a slow, leftward drift by the party away from its base,” wrote Albuquerque Tribune political reporter Dan Vukelich. “That drift has alienated many conservative Democrats.”

Sandel said he wanted to see more moderates in the Democratic Party hierarchy, as well as leaders who were not from Albuquerque or Northern New Mexico. That year the pendulum swung back to the right and sent five Republicans to the House.

When House members chose their new speaker, they had a choice between the liberal Sanchez, the moderate Tom Brown of Artesia, and Samberson. Sandel tipped the vote to Samberson.

The Cowboys’ reign ended with another pendulum swing in 1986. The Carlsbad Current-Argus headline announced, “Cowboys Out, Liberals In.” In an editorial, the newspaper observed: “What made the coalition viable is that many rural areas of the state, although predominantly Democrat according to registration and represented by Democrats, are more attuned to conservative political philosophy, ‘pay-as-you-go government.’ Therefore these conservative Democrats threw in with the Republicans to gain control.”

  Jerry Sandel, during his 30 years as a legislator, would go on to chair the powerful budget and tax committees, where he was known for a steady hand in steering difficult, contentious meetings. He worked easily with both sides of the aisle and never lost a floor vote on any of his bills. He knew more about New Mexico tax law than anyone else in the Roundhouse.

He always called himself a conservative Democrat and never felt the need to explain that, even when pressed by former Republican Party Chairman John Dendahl, who in the late 1990s tried to talk Sandel into changing parties. By then his House district was the most Republican-voting district represented by a Democrat in the United States. Sandel lost his election in 2000.

One-time adversary Raymond Sanchez said, “The people of San Juan County did more to hurt the state of New Mexico with this vote than they’ll ever know. Jerry Sandel… was a resource for the entire state.”

Sanchez himself also lost his election.

It was a stunning outcome. I quoted House Majority Whip Danice Picraux telling business leaders, “Every economic tax incentive was supported, molded and pushed by Jerry Sandel and Speaker Sanchez. They could bring everyone along.”

  Such is politics. New speakers and new tax experts would come along. But that year heralded the devaluing of moderates – or anybody who didn’t march in lockstep with their parties. New Mexico is poorer for it.

Sherry Robinson is a longtime New Mexico reporter and editor. She has worked in Grants, Gallup, the Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico Business Weekly and Albuquerque Tribune. She is the author of four books. Her columns won first place in 2024 from New Mexico Press Women.

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