PETE McCLOSKEY

The news of Pete Domenici's announcement brought back memories of the 1972 election, whiich, as I mentioned in the post below, was the first election in which I could vote.

So it seemed like synchronicity this morning when, out of the blue, former California Congressman Paul "Pete" Pete McCloskey was just interviewed on KUNM's Call-In Show with Arcie Chapa.

I didn't realize until this interview that McCloskey and his wife have a home in Madrid, N.M. I also hadn't heard that McCloskey has switched parties from Republican to Democrat, though that news isn't surprising. In fact it's amazing he stayed in the GOP for so long.

McCloskey first got national attention in the '72 election, when he challenged President Nixon in the Republican primaries, running as an anti-war candidate.

He didn't get very far. McCloskey got only about 11 percent in the New Hampshire primary and about the same in the New Mexico primary in June. However, under state law, that qualified him for one delegate at the 1972 GOP Convention.

As it turned out, New Mexico sent the only anti-Nixon delegate to the Republican National Convention. (The delegate was Tom Mayer, who a couple of years later would be my creative writing teacher at the University of New Mexico.)

Any way, I enjoyed the radio interview. I hope to run into McCloskey on one of his visits here.