The $100,000 House Races

The National Institute on Money in State Politics tracks political spending and reports through its Web site, www.followthemoney.org. A look at the report on New Mexico's 2006 house races shows that the $100,000 legislative campaign is well established in the state, sometimes even where the race is uncontested, as was the case for two of the 39 uncontested races in 2006. The unopposed big spenders were Representives Al Park of Albuquerque and Lucky Varela of Santa Fe.
The other $100,000 contests were in the southern part of metro Albuquerque (Districts 7 and 8), Las Cruces (District 37) and in District 54, in Artesia and Carlsbad.
The institute showed seven races that were competitive and 23 uncompetitive with no report on one district. In four of the seven competitive races, the loser outspent the winner, suggesting that money while money matters a lot, it isn't always the key to victory. In District 15 in the northwest part of metro Albuquerque, Traci Cadigan had a $44,000 spending margin over Rep. Teresa Zanetti ($92,000 to $48,000) and lost.
On the Web site, the institute says the data are incomplete. Still interesting, though.