CAMPAIGN 2008 MOSAIC

I was inspired while getting my photos for my column in previous post.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: IT WAS THE ELECTION THAT WAS

It’s over.

The longest election cycle in the history of the galaxy is over.

Hopefully, the volume of new messages in my e-mail in-boxes, both work and personal, will be reduced to humane levels.

My cell phone won’t be constantly buzzing with new text messages from the Obama campaign. (I just signed up last summer to get the news of his vice-presidential pick and suddenly they wanted me to work for them.)

I won’t feel compelled to start off each day looking at the RealClearPolitics.com electoral college map.

Indeed, it’s been a long election. For me it actually started in June 2005, when I followed Gov. Bill Richardson to the great state of New Hampshire. He hadn’t yet declared his candidacy. In fact, it was still more than a year away from his gubernatorial re-election campaign. Though he wouldn’t admit it at the time, Richardson was clearly testing the waters back in 2005 in the first primary state, making speeches, doing interviews and making contacts who could help him in the 2008 primary.

The real campaign, at least for most New Mexico political reporters, didn’t start until January 2007, when Richardson formally declared he was running for president. By the next month I was traveling to Carson City, Nev., for the first Democratic presidential forum. Richardson was there, as was Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, “Mad” Mike Gravel (who brought some much-needed laughter to the rather dull affair) and Tom Vilsack. (Remember him? He dropped out of the race not long after the Carson City forum.)
The only no-show in Carson City that day was Barack Obama. A year later I wondered if that contributed to his defeat in the Nevada caucus.

The presidential race was pretty nonstop after that. There seemed to be a debate every couple of weeks. But things didn’t really get serious in New Mexico until several months later when Pete Domenici announced he wouldn’t seek re-election. Reporters had to scramble to see who was and wasn’t running for Domenici’s seat, then all three of the state’s Congressional seats. Six Democrats and two Republicans ended up on the 3rd Congressional District primary ballot, not to mention two independents early in the race, plus a small army of Democratic politicians who were considering or rumored to be considering the congressional race.

Normally I bellyache every two years about the number of state legislators who get a free ride on election day. But this year I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t relieved that there wasn’t any competition in the Roundhouse races in the Santa Fe area.

I’d also be lying if I said it wasn’t fun.

I’ll have lots of fond memories from this election — the freezing cold of New Year’s Day in Iowa, which made January in New Hampshire seem like a tropical paradise; the Democratic cigar party in Denver, plus running in to the likes of Jimmy Carter, Madelyn Albright, The Daily Show fake-news team and Captain Morgan; Obama in Española; John McCain in Albuquerque; Mitt Romney at an Airport Road tire store, just down the street from the restaurant where Caroline Kennedy spoke a few days before; strolling the farmer’s market with Tom Udall; eating tamales with Steve Pearce on a sunny day in Mora County; watching Richardson campaign among New Hampshire Hispanics at a Manchester barbershop; Richardson’s “job interview” ads, Udall’s “parrot” ads, Pearce’s “hippie” ad.

Yes, it was a heck of an election, Brownie. Now I’d better get busy deleting e-mail before my computer goes catatonic.

’60s Flashback: At the risk of mixing my roles as political columnist and music columnist, prompted by the first victory of a black presidential candidate, and the image of tears streaming down the face of the Rev. Jesse Jackson on television after Obama had been declared the winner, I spent a good chunk of Wednesday morning listening to Mavis Staples’ excellent We’ll Never Turn Back. This album, produced by Ry Cooder, consists mainly of civil rights-era songs — spirituals, civil-rights anthems, union songs and even blues, such as J.B. Lenoir’s “Down in Mississippi.” In the middle of the latter tune, Staples does a lengthy spoken part during which she remembers the Mississippi of her youth, when she was forbidden to drink out of certain water fountains.

“My gran’ma said, ‘Young ’un, you can’t drink that water,’ She said, ‘You drink from that fountain over there.’ And that fountain had a sign, said ‘For Colored Only.’ ”

I’m not black, and I didn’t grow up in Mississippi. But I clearly remember back in the mid-’60s, when I was a grade-school kid in Oklahoma. Our class had a field trip in which we rode in an old bus — apparently an old city bus — that had a sign saying: “Back for Colored Only.”

I don’t even remember where our class went that day. All that stands out from that day is that sign. I’m not even sure whether the back-of-the-bus rules still were being enforced in Oklahoma City by that point. But it was still close enough in time that nobody had bothered to remove that weird oppressive message from that bus.

So it’s easy to see why Rev. Jackson shed a tear, and why U.S. Rep. John Lewis, himself a civil rights activist, was speaking so emotionally in television interviews on Tuesday night and why, as blogger Joe Monahan reported, Lenton Malry, the first black state legislator in New Mexico, had tears in his eyes at the KNAW-FM studios when Obama’s victory was announced.

BLOG BONUS: Here's Mavis singing "Eyes on the Prize" from We'll Never Turn Back"

MORE ON JIMMY CARL

My friend Erik Ness, who introduced me to Jimmy Carl Black circa 1980, wrote this piece on our late friend. I cut and paste with his permission.

I learned today that my good and long-time friend Jimmy Carl Black passed away peacefully at his home in Siegsdorf, Bavaria. Sonny, as his friends called him, is a true legend in the annals of rock and roll, and is best known as the drummer for the Mothers of Invention with front man Frank Zappa.

I first crossed his path when the late John Safar and I interviewed him in the KNMS Radio studios at New Mexico State University around 1975. Of course we were surprised to find that the drummer for one of the most inventive and original rock bands of all time was living in Anthony. At the time Sonny had just formed the Mesilla Valley LoBoys and they were starting to rehearse and tour the area. The scene was so interesting I began helping Sonny with all aspects of the band including advance work, management and publicity. Mr. Black knew how to put together a band and the original guys included Tom Levy on bass, Sonny on drums and vocals, Jeff Littlejohn on lead guitar, Bob “Hopper” Shannon on primary drums Mike Collins on rhythm guitar and Chava Villegas on congas. This band quickly built a large following because it had a musical power and creative energy that matched any national touring band at the time.

Sonny was born in El Paso with Cherokee blood and his classic line from the Zappa days, “Hi boys and girls I’m Jimmy Carl Black the Indian of the group” stuck all through his magnificent half century in the music business. During the 1970’s Sonny was cast by Frank Zappa for his breakthrough film “200 Motels” which also featured Ringo Starr a drummer from Liverpool. We premiered the film at the Plaza Theater in downtown El Paso to a sold out crowd and the LoBoys played live on stage before they rolled the film. It was a historic night for music in the area as were all live appearances by the Mesilla Valley LoBoys.

Sonny and the boys loved to play the El Patio in Mesilla because it perfectly fit their working class rock and roll, blues and soul sounds, not to mention and the eclectic crowds that would come from all over the borderland to see their favorite band. During and after his tenure with Zappa’s band Sonny played with some of the greatest musicians of the era including: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Doors, The Turtles, Chuck Berry and The Moody Blues. Of course as fledgling musicians and college students we loved hearing Sonny’s stories from touring with Zappa in Europe and later painting houses in Austin with the infamous Weird Arthur Brown the author of one of the greatest rock songs ever, “Fire.”

At some point in his career in New Mexico I introduced Sonny to Santa Fe singer/songwriter Steve Terrell who is currently a reporter for The Santa Fe New Mexican. Jimmy Carl played drums on one of Steve’s tracks on his classic cult album, Picnic Time for Potatoheads and they became great friends in music and life. It was Steve who called me with the sad news. For those of you who were blessed to have known Jimmy Carl Black and enjoyed his music, his sense of humor and life please join me for a tip of the hat to one of rock and roll’s most prolific drummers and also a great friend, husband and father.

I was born in 1938,
An American Indian in the Lone Star State….
Then to California to the Pacific shore
Joined a band called the Mothers in ‘64….
There was hardly a rock star I didn’t know
Back in the days when music had soul.

Jimmy Carl Black from his bio-song “The Indian of the Group.”

Vaya con Dios, Sonny.

Erik L. Ness

Las Cruces, N.M.

NOT EVEN CLOSE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
November 5, 2008

It wasn’t even close.

In the past two elections, New Mexico provided the thinnest margins of any state in the presidential race. But Tuesday, Barack Obama was declared the winner of the state’s five electoral votes by national news organizations shortly after the polls closed.

Hundreds of people gathered at Hotel Santa Fe for a party sponsored by Democratic congressional candidate Ben Ray Luján cheered loudly when ABC News, being shown on large screens, announced Obama had won Ohio — a pivotal state in the 2004 election — and cheered even louder when Obama’s New Mexico win was announced.

As it was in states all over the nation, the election was a mighty sweep for Democrats in New Mexico. Not only did Obama win, but Tom Udall won his campaign to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Pete Domenici. In the congressional races, Luján easily won his race in the heavily Democratic 3rd District. In District 1, which mainly consists of Albuquerque, Democrat Martin Heinrich was declared the winner by The Associated Press, as was southern 2nd District Democrat Harry Teague.

With Teague and Heinrich’s wins, it would be the first time in 40 years in which Democrats completely controlled the state’s congressional delegation. (For two years, between 1981 and 1983, all the state’s congressional seats were held by Republicans.)

In Santa Fe, a liberal community where Democrats outnumber Republicans 3-to-1 (and where there are fewer Republicans than people registered as “declined-to-state”), the Obama campaign seemed to be everywhere — canvassing neighborhoods, calling voters at home and, on Tuesday, standing at intersections, waving at cars with Obama signs. In contrast, the campaign for Republican John McCain in Santa Fe was next to invisible.

However, some Obama campaigners in Santa Fe were fearful and pessimistic. One volunteer said campaign officials were worried the turnout in Santa Fe might not be high enough to offset McCain totals in the more conservative southern part of the state. The apprehension proved to be unnecessary, as Obama carried Santa Fe by more than 70 percent.

There were no public parties scheduled in Santa Fe by the Obama campaign. While the major state parties had victory celebrations in Albuquerque, the Luján party was the biggest public election celebration in town.

Naturally, local Democrats there were jubilant. A small group of women at the party weren’t able to vote, but were excited about Obama’s victory. The women, who came from Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Morocco, were part of a group from the Middle East being hosted locally by the Council on Foreign Relations. Several wore Obama and Luján buttons, and some said they were getting calls from people back home — even though it was in the wee hours there — wondering whether Obama had won.

“We are very optimistic about Obama,” said Summer Fatany, a radio-show host from Saudi Arabia. “The Bush administration has done so much harm. We’re hoping he can sort out the mess that Bush has left.”

Obama’s win could have direct political repercussions in New Mexico. Gov. Bill Richardson has been frequently mentioned as a possible contender for secretary of state or some other top position in an Obama administration.

For political tea-leaf readers, there was an interesting development in New Mexico on the eve of Obama’s victory:

Richardson shaved off his beard.

Richardson, who began growing his whiskers shortly after he dropped his own presidential bid in January, on Tuesday denied his shave was connected with any new career move. “I just got tired of maintaining it,” he told a reporter. “I’d decided to do this a long time ago.”

Richardson repeatedly has said he expects to serve out the final two years of his term as governor. “I’m not looking for a job, and I haven’t had any conversations about it,” he said Tuesday night following several television appearances.

Cabinet position or not, winning New Mexico for Obama was a top priority. “John Kerry’s still mad at me,” Richardson has said half-jokingly in various interviews this year when reminded about New Mexico going for Bush in 2004.

But Richardson spent much time campaigning for Obama out of state. He’s been one of Obama’s top surrogates since March, when he formally endorsed the Illinois senator.

And since March, The Associated Press reported last week, Richardson has campaigned for Obama in 19 states. In the month of October, Richardson was out of state campaigning for at least 10 days, hitting states including Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, Washington, Nevada and Colorado. All those states went for Obama. (Richardson also made at least one appearance in Texas campaigning for U.S. Senate hopeful Rick Noriega, who lost.)

R.I.P. JIMMY CARL BLACK

Jimmy Carl Black, one of the original drummers with Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention and former New Mexico resident, died of cancer Nov. 1 in Germany, where he'd lived for more than a decade.

Born in El Paso, Texas, Jimmy lived in Albuquerque and Taos for a few years in the early '80s. He had a local blues and rock band called Capt. Glasspack & His Magic Mufflers. And, as I've bragged about for years, he played drums on "The Green Weenie" on my album back in 1981, which made him the Indian of my group.

I knew in my heart when I saw him last year playing at The Outpost in Albuquerque with Eugene Chadbourne (when they played in Albuquerque last year as The Jim & Jack Show ) that it would be the last time I'd ever see Jimmy. It was a great night. Several of his kids drove up from El Paso for the show and Jimmy, although already suffering from his illness, ( "It's a mild form of leukemia," he told me) was in fine form.

My review of that show, which mainly consists of memories of JCB, is HERE and my snapshots from that night can be found HERE.

Better yet, enjoy some of Jimmy's music HERE.

Adios, Lonsesome Cowboy Burt!

UPDATE: The original version of this incorrectly said Jimmy was born in Anthony, Texas, not El Paso.