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Democratic primary voters in a progressive enclave of Albuquerque will need to comb through the policy differences of four candidates with very similar ideals to determine who’s taking the reins from a long time state representative.
Democratic Rep. Gail Chasey — the longest serving member of the House — announced earlier this year that she was retiring from the Legislature. Chasey has represented House District 18 since 1996 and currently serves as the House majority leader. The district’s physical boundaries stretch from Kirtland Air Force Base to I-40 and from I-25 to as far as San Mateo Blvd. in some spots. According to U.S. Census data, more than half the population of the district identifies as white, while about 30 percent identifies as Hispanic. Given that the House district has remained blue since the time of dial-up internet and that the corresponding Senate, City Council and County Commission Districts have all been long-represented by politically left-leaning office holders, the area is all but a guaranteed win for progressives.
This year is no different for the House district — all four primary candidates are Democrats and three are graduates of a local program that trains and encourages Democratic women to run for public office.
Marianna Anaya is arguably the most high profile of the candidates running in District 18, especially with an endorsement from Chasey. Anaya’s name has also been in local headlines, but not necessarily under ideal circumstances. She came forward in 2022 with sexual assault and harrasment allegations against state Democratic Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto. Her complaints led to an internal legislative investigation, which ultimately fell short of any sort of censure for Ivey-Soto. But after the secret investigative process came to light, the Legislature made significant changes to the way it handles ethics complaints. Anaya, who’s also worked as a community organizer and legislative lobbyist, tells The Paper. she doesn’t want her allegations to be the main focus of her candidacy, but she says going up against a sitting senator as well as hordes of “corporate lobbyists” shows how she can speak truth to power.
“Will I be fearless? Absolutely. And that’s really what I hope the voters in my district know and understand about me,” Anaya says.
In a field of three other progressive opponents, Anaya says her time advocating during legislative sessions sets her apart.
“I think a lot of folks who enter races for political office have a starry-eyed approach to what it means to be a legislator,” she says. “But it’s very different when you have been there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for 30 to 60 days sessions.”
Completing Emerge New Mexico’s program aimed at preparing Democratic women to run for office is another one of Anaya’s achievements, but two of her opponents have the same bragging rights.
Dr. Anjali Taneja, another candidate for District 18, graduated from the Emerge program in 2010 and has experience pushing for federal legislation in Washington, D.C., but she says her experience as a physician at a South Valley health clinic separates her from the rest of the pack. She says her time working as the executive director at Casa de Salud has allowed her to work directly with the community in a “very profound and visceral way.”
“I have borne witness to the stories of my patients every day,” Taneja says. “A lot of ideas and needs for what change we need, and how perhaps the system is not fully working well for us comes from my patients.”
Rounding out the Emerge graduates running for District 18 is Gloria Doherty, a nurse practitioner. Doherty tells The Paper. her doctorate in public policy separates her from the other three candidates.
“Besides my expertise in health care and all the work and advocacy I’ve done in health care — including being on Senator Ben Ray Luján and Secretary [of Health and Human Services Xavier] Becerra’s roundtable for the health care workforce shortage, I have a little bit of knowledge — definitely not an expert — about other topics, like climate, nongovernmental organizations, Homeland Security, budget analysis, policy analysis — which I’ve been doing for years,” Doherty says. “That gives me the skills to be able to bring together the questions that need to be asked and actually find people in my community that are experts, and call on the community to figure out if voting in favor or not in favor is actually good for our state in our community, as opposed to necessarily party party politics.”
Juan Larrañaga, an instructional designer at Central New Mexico Community College, says he’s different from the three other candidates because of his lived experience volunteering for various civil rights organizations from a young age. He says he’s taking a page from his decades of community organizing and running his campaign with “a community-based approach,” which means he’s been knocking on a lot of doors himself.
“I see myself as the underdog because there’s three women and myself,” Larrañaga says. “I believe that progressives should support me and vote for an Albuquerque native — somebody who knows the neighborhoods, who knows the community.”
Democratic voters in District 18 hoping to find some distinction between the list of candidates might have their work cut off for them, but the vibe amongst the four vying to win the primary seems to be civil. Larrañaga says Democratic Party leaders laid out some unofficial ground rules.
“The Democratic Party has spoken to all of us, I think, and said, ‘Let’s make this a friendly race,’” Larrañaga says. “I’ve spoken with some of the other candidates and that’s what we said: We’re going to keep it a friendly race.”
Taneja, who scored endorsements from Democratic Sens. Jerry Ortiz y Pino and Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, says the crowded primary race is actually a good thing for voters.
“I think that voters having choices is extremely empowering and competitive primaries facilitate dialogue and refinement of ideas among candidates, which is only a good thing,” Taneja says. “I really strongly believe that voters deserve, and that they want, that kind of a process — not an uncontested coronation.”
The New Mexico primary election is on June 4.
For more information on early and absentee voting, visit NMVote.org or the Bernalillo County Clerk website.