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Once a college dropout, Balderas found success
Hector Balderas (Courtesy photo)
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Hector Balderas was a college dropout working on an assembly line at 21. Like so many others who find their way out of poverty, his story is filled with people who challenged him and gave him hope for a better life.
This is the second of four profiles of the U.S. Senate candidates that seek to tell the stories of who they are and what shaped them.
At age 21, Hector Balderas was a college dropout working the graveyard shift at a Motorola assembly plant in Albuquerque. He was in debt. He wanted a family. And he was tired of getting off work in the middle of the night and eating at Village Inn.
At that critical juncture in his life, Balderas, now a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, decided to quit his job, move back to Las Vegas, N.M. and re-enroll at New Mexico Highlands University.
Balderas was deficient in reading and writing. He had struggled during his first attempt at college and earned poor grades, he told NMPolitics.net. The second time he had to do remedial work and re-take courses.
But he did the hard work, and from that point on, Balderas has been on a different path.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Highlands. He went to law school in Albuquerque. He completed an internship at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. He was elected to represent his hometown of Wagon Mound and surrounding communities in the state House. In 2006, he was elected state auditor.
When he became auditor at age 33, Balderas was the youngest statewide Hispanic elected official in the nation. He was named one of the nation’s most 100 influential Hispanics.
For a man who grew up in poverty in a rural town with a few more than 300 residents, such success may have been improbable. He claims in his new TV ad to be the first person from Wagon Mound to become an attorney. Today he lives in Albuquerque with his wife and three children.
Like so many others who find their way out of poverty, Balderas’ story is filled with people who challenged him and gave him hope for a better life.
‘Taking it to’ college-bound students in chess
Balderas and his two younger siblings were raised by their mother, with the help of public housing and food stamps. Dessert was a can of peaches. A soda and bag of chips were a treat once or twice a month.
He described his father, a Mexican national, as a “vagabond” who wasn’t around much during his early years and “totally gave up on being a father influence” when Balderas was 11 – though they now talk on the phone a few times a year.
He said his grandfather on his mother’s side was one of his early influences – a harder worker who was “optimistic, resilient and humble.”
Asked to share stories about people and moments that set him on a different trajectory, Balderas started with his seventh-grade science teacher, Mr. Padilla, who taught his students to play chess.
The students were fine with that, thinking it was a way to get out of studying. It turned out the team from Wagon Mound was good. Balderas described them as “a bunch of little Hispanics in a station wagon” driving around Northern New Mexico and “really taking it to” college-bound students from St. Michael’s in Santa Fe, St. Pius X in Albuquerque and Los Alamos.
Wagon Mound won the state championship that year and went to nationals, which happened to be in Albuquerque. That instilled some confidence in Balderas and got his competitive juices flowing.
A coach who helped buy shoes
A couple of years later, Balderas wanted to join the basketball team. But the shoes cost $65, and he knew his mom didn’t have the money. Balderas described having “limited coping skills” and giving up – an automatic reaction during his childhood.
“Poverty is more than just…” Balderas said before trailing off for a moment. “There’s an identity challenge with it. There’s stigma. There’s emotional insecurity. And then there’s just isolationism, where you don’t fit in in school and don’t know where you fit in anywhere in the world. I battled that.”
Then came one of those amazing moments in Balderas’ life. Coach Marquez bought the shoes for him and told him to repay the money in $5 monthly installments. That created “a monthly anxiety” for a teen who had little cash, and some shame that he needed the loan, but, Balderas said, “I wanted to play so bad.”
After Balderas made three successful payments, Coach Marquez canceled the remaining debt. And Balderas got to play basketball.
“It sounds so cliché, but it really isn’t. Basketball, the opportunity to compete, changed my life,” he said. “It was one of the first times where I socially felt like I was developing confidence.”
A ride to Boys State
Soon thereafter, Mary Schutz, the school’s principal, told Balderas he had been nominated to attend New Mexico Boys State, a summer leadership and citizen program that teaches high school students about the importance of participating in government. He thanked her, then planned to drop the issue. His mother could not afford to send him to New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, where the event was held that year.
“… being the food-stamp kid, it was very shameful those early teen years – but then I began to develop confidence from Boys State, playing basketball.” – Hector Balderas
But Schutz and her husband, whose son had also been nominated, offered to drive Balderas. So he went.
“There I was in the dorms, realizing that it was quite an honor to go, and there were a lot of other talented students from all over the state,” Balderas said. “It was then I started thinking I could go to college.”
To that point – he was 15 or 16 – Balderas said he had been a “welfare kid” who wore hand-me-down clothes donated by the local Church of Christ. In a high school with only a few dozen students, “the kids know you’re wearing their clothes,” he said.
“So being the food-stamp kid, it was very shameful those early teen years – but then I began to develop confidence from Boys State, playing basketball,” he said.
Becoming a ‘more reliable’ worker
Life started to change after that. Balderas said he became a “more reliable” worker and started getting jobs working on ranches around Wagon Mound and at the local gas station.
“They’d give me $20 to unload a semi and buy me a burger, and I thought I won the lottery,” Balderas said. “They noted they couldn’t get that kind of work ethic out of their kids.”
Hearing such praise, Balderas said, further built his confidence.
Among the ranchers who employed him was Bill Seidman, a former head of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in Washington and an economic adviser to three Republican presidents.
Balderas recalls talking with Seidman about what it was like to work for a president. And he realized he was having a conversation with someone who had been hugely successful – and that he, a teen from Wagon Mound, could have such conversations with successful people.
Balderas called it “One of the first positive experiences that I had with someone in both government and business.”
‘There are no throwaway schools’
All of that set Balderas on a path to Highlands in Las Vegas, but he wasn’t ready during his first attempt. So he ended up in Albuquerque working on an assembly line next to Evelyn, a mother who worked graveyard shifts so her daughter would never have to. One night, Evelyn challenged Balderas to go back to college.
“At that moment, I realized that I was not only letting Evelyn down, but that to honor my mother’s and grandfather’s struggles – and all the other people from Wagon Mound who believed in me – I needed to go back to college and make a substantial contribution to the community that did so much for me,” he said.
Balderas moved back to Las Vegas, got a job at a grocery store, and, the second time around, succeeded in college. Highlands, Balderas said, is a school with open enrollment that “will take you back if you flunk out,” so some call it a “throwaway school.” Growing up, he believed he was attending “throwaway schools,” including Highlands.
It’s not true, he said.
“There are no throwaway schools. Reputation is overrated,” Balderas said. “If institutions convince students to make the most of it, you can have a wonderful education.”
Balderas is determined to make less-prestigious K-12 schools and colleges better. He said that’s why, when the auditor’s office learned of potential embezzlement in the Jemez Mountain School District, he pushed so aggressively to get to the bottom of it.
His office’s 2009 audit uncovered more than $3 million in embezzlement and helped lead to criminal charges.
Balderas said “bureaucrats” had ignored complaints about financial mismanagement in the school district for years, and his desire to intervene stemmed from a deep belief that such schools can be better.
Staking job performance on ‘real outcomes’
Balderas believes such waste, fraud and abuse is rampant in government, and speaks impatiently about politicians in Washington who battle over budget cuts and tax increases instead of addressing real problems.
“I don’t think it’s enough just to blame the other side any more,” Balderas said. “I don’t think that congressional leaders who are blaming the other side are serving the interests of the public.”
He cited the recent corruption scandal in Sunland Park and the fact that some residents of the tiny town of Columbus get their water through a spigot at city hall as consequences of ineffective government.
“Corruption and poverty are the unfortunate results,” he said. “The citizen who is suffering is a victim of a lack of innovation and cooperation.”
Balderas promises to be a different U.S. senator – one who helps bring local, state and federal governments, and nonprofits, together to more efficiently and effectively build better communities.
“As a senator I feel a certain responsibility in oversight,” Balderas said. “The highest-paid, most influential leaders in New Mexico should take responsibility for the lack of progress in some areas of New Mexico.”
“Very few lawmakers are wiling to stake their job performance on real outcomes like the job rate, the poverty rate – and I’m willing to do that as a U.S. senator,” Balderas said, adding that, if he’s elected and those numbers don’t improve during his first term in office, “then I’m willing to come home.”
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Eliminate the military. That saves $929 Billion a year
DoD employs over 3 million taxpayers, not including support businesses, etc. Lets assume you’ll want to clean those installations up properly.
Reduce unemployment and end the recession.
Add 3 million more unemployed to that equation. In any case just think of it as another stimulus package. You wanted more right?
So you said deficit when you meant debt? Okay. Easy mistake to make. Done it myself. So, as Emily Litella said: Never mind.
On the rest of your most recent comment, I asgree totally
Mr. Schneider, I meant immediately paying off the entire national debt. That has reached such a size (through the inaction of both political parties) that not even stealing all the wealth of the richest people in the country would pay it off. Even if Mr. Obama were the Marxist he is claimed to be, and he nationalized a few of our country’s biggest profit providers, the national debt would still take a few years to pay off from their profits.
Eliminating the Bush tax cuts for everyone would be a fantastic start to fighting off the debt, as would closing down US military outposts in other countries. Why are our troops stationed in over a hundred countries if we are going in the red to pay their wages?
Here’s a simple way to eliminate the deficit:
And if one wanted to immediately pay off the deficit? It can’t honestly be done
Sure it can, Here’s how.
Eliminate the military. That saves $929 Billion a year. The military budget of the United States during FY 2011 was approximately $740 billion in expenses for the Department of Defense (DoD), $141 billion for veteran expenses, and $48 billion in expenses for the Department of Homeland Security, for a total of $929 billion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget
Reduce unemployment and end the recession. I don’t have any good figures for how much the recession is costing in tax revenues, but one source attributes a $138 Billion reduction between 2008 and 209 to the recession.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/2009-05-26-irs-tax-revenue-down_N.htm
Eliminate the Bush tax cuts for the very wealthy. That should get us at least $75 Billion a year
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/14/tax-cuts-for-wealthy-americans_n_1011601.html
Voila! That gets us to the total current federal deficit of $1.27 Trillion. No problem.
Mr. Schneider, I always forget that this website has different ways of dealing with links, so my apologies for having a comment with a broken link and for having ugly exposed HTML…It’s the second image from this page. Yes Reagan and Bush 1 and 2 didn’t particularly cut deficits, but since they both had to deal with Democratic congresses, it’s not as if anyone in power was without fault.
And more to the point of current worriers, deficits never exceeded hundreds of billions of dollars until a recession happened. If our country had spent the earlier half of the 2000s storing up money instead of not, we mighta been able to weather this recession without trillion dollar annual deficits. But, of course, both political parties were to blame for that, since while Bush 2 might have argued a lot for military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s not as if Democrats were all voting against such nonsense.
Artiofab, this link doesn’t seem to work:
http://author.candidatebriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Federal-Budget-and-Spending022-291×300.jpg
is it me? I’m surprised by the claim that “… federal revenue and spending were … keeping up with each other</a> from the 1960s until the late 1990s, when revenues started to decline…” . The figures I’ve seen suggest that the deficit ballooned under Reagan because spending went up and revenue declined because of his tax cuts; that the deficit ballooned again under Bush II partly because his tax cuts caused revenue to decline (as you imply) but also because he started several very expensive projects which caused expenditures to rise (Iraq, Afghanistan, Medicare Part D, Homeland Security).
But generally I agree with your conclusion that we don’t really need to be worrying about the deficit right now.
MJM: Perhaps he would like to expound upon how the USA will have to seriously reduce spending on many prized programs that many of his constituents consider necessities.
Dr. J: Tax The Rich
I’m no Balderas, but I am intrigued by the impression that MJM has that US spending needs to seriously drop. Why so, or more to the point, why is this an emergency? Federal spending was bound to increase as the baby boomers started to hit retirement and medical spending on them increased. Federal spending was bound to increase as said baby boomers also started to need Social Security funding; funding which should have been kept off-limits to budgets but which unfortunately became (at least partially) spent. Federal spending during the current sorta-depression has helped it from developing into a full depression, even if the federal spending has not been enough and if too much of it has been sent towards banks and not enough towards people. Federal spending has also increased as more and more costly and unnecessary foreign occupations have occurred, after a long period of time post-Vietnam in which US military intervention was much more cloak-and-dagger. The bottom line is that current spending levels are more likely an abnormality than the new reality, and revenues will eventually outpace expenditures.
The only way to do that on a quick time scale is, as Dr. J sarcastically (pessimistically?) says, to tax the rich. Adjusted for 2010 dollars, federal revenue and spending were <a href=”http://author.candidatebriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Federal-Budget-and-Spending022-291×300.jpg”>keeping up with each other</a> from the 1960s until the late 1990s, when revenues started to decline. In spite of having more Americans now than in 1999, and a higher GDP, the US federal government made less money in 2010 than a decade before. Federal tax breaks for the wealthiest of Americans, and for the wealthiest American corporations, are lessening the quality of life for all other Americans.
And if one wanted to immediately pay off the deficit? It can’t honestly be done. <a href=”http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/262045/there-aren-t-enough-millionaires-kevin-d-williamson”>Two attempts</a> at <a href=”http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/262053/how-much-money-do-rich-have-robert-verbruggen”>money crunching</a> by pundits at the National Review claimed that taxing income from the richest Americans would do little to downplay the deficit; a 100% taxing of every American earning >$250,000 in FY 2008 would have yielded a trillion more dollars of revenue. Likewise, if we took all the wealth that ultra high net worth Americans had (people who have $30 million or more of worth), sold it at market price, and put that money into the Treasury, we would get only <a href=”http://www.business.smu.edu.sg/MWM/documents/news_archive/20111115_World_Ultra_Wealth_Report_2011.pdf”>$7.6 trillion</a>. So we can’t tax the income of the rich, nor take all their property, to fix our financial hole.
If we take a page from <a href=”http://toomuchonline.org/the-global-super-rich-stash-now-25-trillion/”>Sam Pizzigati</a>, and instituted a wealth tax on these UHNW, we could start digging out of the hole. This, combined with higher corporate taxes, intelligent decreases in unnecessary federal programs, and maybe even a <a href=”http://www.factcheck.org/2010/09/1-transaction-tax/”>transaction tax</a>, would lead in time to an end to federal deficits. Maybe there won’t be an immediate cry for “lower taxes!” as soon as the deficit is paid off, and the US federal government could sit on a few trillion dollars to spend when needed to combat the next recession.
Breaking: Republicans pledge to repeal laws of arithmetic!!11Elventy-One!!
Since when does being middle class mean being mediocre?? That’s utter nonsense. Face it, not everyone can be above average. No matter how exceptional you think the US is, the mean is still the mean and the median is still the median, and not everyone can be in the top quintile on any scale.
“….I think 24 hours is enough time for him to give us his suggestions”
Again, if his “suggestions”involve educating our kids so they can aspire to the middle class, as his campaign rhetoric and DNC talking points proclaim, then he is certainly not the candidate for me. NEITHER NOW OR FOR WHATEVER OFFICE HE HOPES TO WIN IN THE FUTURE. Now’s your chance, Hector…to trash that inane script from your party bosses, assert some real independence, and support something that really sets our nation apart from others…a desire for excellence in EVERYTHING one does. If it’s a successful company, a successful non-profit that takes care of the poor, excellence in athletics, excellence in civil disobedience, excellence in saving the environment…need I go on? WHY SETTLE FOR MEDIOCRITY???!!!
Dr. J
While I am inclined to agree with you, I still want to hear from Hector Balderas…but i won’t hold my breath. It is too hard for me to give CPR to myself….I think 24 hours is enough time for him to give us his suggestions.
MJM, you should know by now that the answer to your question is decreed in the DNC talking points all liberal Democrats (and alas Hector has shown himself to be a party lapdog with no independent thoughts or ideas) must espouse. Tax The Rich. That is the solution to all their problems with huge deficits and out of control government and debt, just raise taxes, and keep spending, simple.
Mr. Balderas has a fascinating background, and has done a decent job as state auditor. Perhaps he would like to expound upon how the USA will have to seriously reduce spending on many prized programs that many of his constituents consider necessities. I continue to be amazed at how all the candidates fail to address this large and growing problem. Until one of them does non of them will garner my vote. Let’s see how the “auditor” gives us his opinion on how out of balance our federal books are, and how he can fix them.
Thanks IP, nice catch, always in your debt…..
Er, Dr. J, that particular attempt to twist my words would have worked better if the “intellectualism=elitist” rhetoric were coming from the opposite side of the aisle than it does… On the plus side, at least new_direction has finally demonstrated the most complex level of debate he/she is capable of.
In America all our children should be above average: “why in the world would a candidate for US Senate encourage any young person to aspire to the middle class??!!!”
One definition of ‘middle class’ is people with income and assets in the middle three quintiles – that is, it excludes the poorest 20% and the richest 20%. Obviously by that definition 6 of every 10 people are middle class. Democrats tend to focus on the middle class because that group is both large and has suffered, perhaps suffered most, from the stagnation in incomes over the last four decades or so. While the very very rich have gotten very very richer, the vast middle has pretty much barely held on. See. e.g.:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/09/us-household-income
http://www.thestreet.com/story/11288734/1/incomes-of-top-1-rose-275-in-28-years.html
Now maybe your children will all become heirs of Sam Walton (the most popular way of becoming one of the super-rich) but it’s about as likely as winning several mega millions lotteries. If you’re worried about most people, you worry about the middle class.
IP says: ”…anyone who equates intelligent discourse with “elitist” deserves to be saddled with the sort of rampantly incompetent and unengaged elected officials that such an insane viewpoint produces.” Well said IP, and I know exactly what you mean, look at our Prez, Senators, and two of our Congressmen, not to mention our last Guv and most all the NM House and Senate.
Ick P:
(In best Scooby Doo voice)….RUUUUHHHH????!!!!! RUH ROH, RAGGY.
new_direction:
Congratulations; in an attempt to be snarky, you quite aptly proved my point. Seriously, anyone who equates intelligent discourse with “elitist” deserves to be saddled with the sort of rampantly incompetent and unengaged elected officials that such an insane viewpoint produces.
Today’s Addition to the ever-increasing “List of Words that Dr. J Frequently Misuses”: Objective.
Why thank you IP, I am always pleased to assist in your education and give you objective perspectives on your proclivities as a liberal.
I was making fun of the overuse of the terms “middle class” and “working families” in my comment. And yes, it’s Dem politicians using the term and I suspect it comes from DNC talking points. But in a more serious vein, just how the hell do you define the middle class and working families? And why is necessary to classify Americans? To influence voters?….I can label myself Hispano but don’t anyone else try to classify me. Reach out to me because I’m of Spanish descent and I’ll spit on your hand. That fact that Balderas is Hispanic as he terms it makes no damn difference to me. My needs and wants have nothing to do with ethnicity. I grew up in a family where dad and mom never made those distinctions of gay, or black, or “Hispanic”, or Native American, or white. It was hard work, hard work, and hard work that were emphasized. My kids have grown up the same way. So the sanctimony and phony moralizing of liberals really turns me off…….strong letter to follow……
Ick Phoenix…yawn..too wordy…I lost you at pontification…however, I recognize your typically elitist musings anyway, so don’t bother translating your post to help us lower earth mortals understand.
Dr. J:
Once again, I have to thank you for your pontification on the viewpoints of liberals; Why should we form our own beliefs based on reality when we can just have you come along and tell us what we believe in overly-simplistic and completely-undemonstrated sound-bites? Don’t worry, liberals, there’s no need to continue our history of expanding this country’s freedoms based on the realities of the day; from now on, we can just be the evil, simplistic, shadowy demons created by Dr. J’s imagination to give him something simple to argue with, rather than having to exercise an attention span.
That being said, I certainly would like to thank certain of this site’s conservatives however for abandoning subtlety and making their assaults on this nation’s middle class unashamedly; since modern conservatives seem to have become more interested in being right than doing right, it is unsurprising that they would attack the middle class; after all, being middle class used to be the very definition of the “American dream”, a robust middle class is absolutely vital to a healthy economy, and all of this combined with the reality that the middle class was a liberal creation in the first place, it must be a bad thing. Besides, for people who seem to think of every little thing in dichotomous and intellectually-simplistic absolutes, the very concept of a “middle” anything must be dreadfully confusing.
A healthy middle class only exists when people are able to work hard in their lives and raise themselves out of the gutter of poverty. While most everyone aspires to be rich enough to live a life where they can support themselves and their families, not everyone wants to work so hard that they alienate their loved ones in pursuit of profit. If it’s a “buzzword” to be concerned more about the majority of Americans, who want to live comfortably, than the minority of Americans who want to eat caviar daily (but pay lower taxes while doing so), then I would happily embrace that “buzzword”.
Attention Democrats: I am a registered Republican but I consider myself fiscally conservative and socially moderate. If Balderas wins this primary, he’ll get my vote over Heather Wilson. Heinrich and Wilson have both been huge contributors to what is wrong in Washington (even if Heinrich is home every weekend as his ads so clearly state, he is still a Washington man with access to all of the Washington money). If Heinrich wins, I will choose the lesser of two evils in Heather Wilson. I really respect Balderas and hope he wins and can stay clean of the Washington garbage…
Yes gm, “middle class” has become the new liberal buzzword promoted by the DNC talking points, all candidates have to use it and center their empty promises around it. It is synonymous with Motherhood, apple pie, the America Way, fairness, etc. And money is not all there is obviously, but just aspiring to be “middle class” seems a bit unambitious to most people. It would be like telling a professional politician to aspire to be a county commissioner and that’s it. To them it is about power and the more the better, is that any more acceptable than using money for the rest of us poor slobs?
The “middle class” is where it’s at these days…..All the libs want to protect the “middle class” and “working families”…….My grandson starts college next fall to study aeronautical engineering….I’m hoping he can someday join the middle class and working families that Dem libs protect…..I want the best for my grandson….
n_d, I hope your aspirations for your kids involve something other than money. That is what your comment implies.
“Hector Balderas knows education is the road to the middle class”…why in the world would a candidate for US Senate encourage any young person to aspire to the middle class??!!! Sorry, Hector but I’m encouraging my kids to aspire to something greater.
I agree with you Mr.Goodenow, all novice, budding professional pols start out thinking they can change the world, country, and state by just having high ideals and ideas and talking a good game. I am cynical, but that is based on many decades of being fooled by people like this. I could give you a laundry list of them, but I suspect you know who they all are. They promise the moon, raise expectations and hopes, are great talkers but fail to do anything of substance. I don’t think they are disrespecting and underestimating our intelligence (I’m not that cynical) by this ridiculous excuse for a “campaign”. I think they are following orders from the elites and party machine insiders. And that in itself should tell you where they will be in a few years, status quo, same old, same old NM good old boys. If they will not buck the system here now, they never will, they will owe too much if elected and have to follow orders their whole careers. It has happened to all the bright young people I have ever seen get themselves involved with the dirt and corruption on NM party politics.
Dr. J, I interviewed Mr. Balderas. On each of these education positions, he confirmed them to me three times.
Of course, one U.S. Senator cannot make all these things happen, or any of them. But there are other U.S. Senators who already hold each of these views, and I’m sure that a Senator Balderas would get something done.
I don’t share your cynicism, I guess, Dr. J. Just disappointed in the two campaigns. In fact, there are candidates for U.S. Senate like Joe Donnelly in Indiana and Tim Kaine in Virginia — several others — who are running meaningful campaigns this year. So it’s not the system. On some level, I suppose, Balderas and Heinrich are choosing to run vapid campaigns. Perhaps they don’t respect the intelligence of New Mexico voters. I’m not sure. But their campaign teams are insulting the voters of this state, and ultimately both candidates are betraying the candidates of this state and betraying democracy itself by not running campaigns about our lives and about the future of this country. I condemn them both, but will vote for Balderas and then watch Heinrich claim the nomination cuz he raised more money. What joy.
Terrific background of a man that has overcome adversity. He is an inspiration for all of us and recognizes that opportunity to advance in life must be available for everyone.
This is a perfect example of why I advocate educational opportunity at any level for life. The intrinsic motivation to learn can occur anytime at any age.
Hector will go far and I am glad he is the state auditor. With his track record of going after corruption and waste, he should run for governor.
I am not so sure that he can beat an entrenched Heinrich but, running for office and losing is how people become politicians and I think he will be a great politician for the good of this state.
Dr. J just wants to see the animosity and petty meanness characteristic of Republican campaigns but, the Balderas campaign is going just fine. It is a campaign that speaks to the long haul required to position this man in power where he can do the most good.
I think Hector Balderas would make a terrifically effective senator. He is already a terrifically effective auditor. Too bad the campaign seems to be all about being a good salesperson.
Well Ms. Anderson, get back to me on June 6 about this. I have never been much impressed with speakers (especially in politics, religion, and self-help classes) that can captivate an audience. I think that superficial and shallow compared to real abilities, hard work, and actual accomplishments. It is good for stand-up comics and the like. I think Mr. Goodenow’s last few sentences are correct, a sorry campaign as I said. Mr. Balderas could well be Guv, considering the ones we have had over the years that is not hard to imagine, he could fit right in. But where Mr. Goodenow got that laundry list of positions, I don’t know, but he left out Motherhood, apple pie (or green chile enchiladas and sopapillas for NM),goodness, fairness, progress, stopping species extinctions, saving the rainforest, the American Way, and saying daily prayers.
Oh my goodness. This profile captures everything most of us who love and admire Hector Balderas most love and admire about him.
Put this – the essence of Hector Balderas — together with his policy priorities and positions, which are arguably the best of any candidate for U.S. Senate this year:
* Help small business thrive
* Help manufacturing and high-wage, high-growth industries prosper (aviation and aerospace, bioscience, infotech)
* Boost exports
* Upgrade and modernize infrastructure
* Include environmental and labor standards in international trade agreements
* Fund universal access to Head Start for 3- and 4-year-olds
* Ensure almost every first grader can read
* Build the best math and science education in the world
* Build the best high school vocational education in the world
* Raise teacher pay 30% at every Title I school in the U.S.
* Make the first 2 years after high school universally affordable
* Invest more in effective job taining
* Reduce the deficit with tax reform and smart spending cuts while preserving benefits
* Make the R&D tax credit permanent
* Improve government performance
* Secure universal health coverage while reducing costs
* Advance clean fuels and solar, hydropower, biomass, and other clean energy
* Raise fuel and energy efficiency
* Strongly protect Americans from toxins and threats to public health
* Halt global climate change
That is Hector Balderas. That is his life story and that is what is what he’ll do in the United States Senate.
The problem with Hector Balderas’s campaign is not Hector Balderas. The problem is his campaign team. They simply don’t know what to do with this inspirational leader who has the best policy priorities and positions of any U.S. Senate candidate in the country in 2012. That is the tragedy. He did not hire a campaign team that was up to the challenge. They have not built the campaign around Hector’s strengths. And they have not let Hector be Hector.
But it’s alright, cuz Hector will learn from this experience, be transformed by it, and go on to be the best Governor in the history of New Mexico.
Tell me Dr J have you seen Mr Baldars hold a room?? You can hear a pin drop.
Is a slick campaign, financed by Washington interests your criteria for a candidate?
Hector is running a 33 county campaign, unlike his opponent who has chosen to write off some counties. I will remind you that sort of a strategy turned this state Blue in 08.. in the long run it will always work.
I hope to high heaven that he never becomes a “professional politician” that he stays true to the New Mexico roots that created him.
Independent, I totally agree with you he is not a professional politician, yet. His sorry campaign against Heinrich is proof of that, as well as the fact he is not an insider, good old boy NM Democrat, yet. But obviously he wants to be or he would be taking on his old line party bosses and Heinrich with much more vigor, creative and imaginative rhetoric to distinguish himself, and energy and hard work. He seems to be satisfied with second place, be nicey, nicey, with everyone, don’t offend anyone in they party and just let everyone know he is from Wagon Mound, grew up in the dirt, and is Hispanic. I am saying that tells me nothing of what he thinks, where he is coming from on issues, and his abilities to tackle difficult problems if he just spouts the DNC party talking points. If he were to just say, as you did, he “has gone after his own party time and time again”, and that his very presence “puts fear and concern in the old politicians in this state that have earned there living of (sic) the state when they should have been making a difference.”, I would be much more impressed, as I was early when I contributed mightily to his campaign expecting all that. Where is that fire, rhetoric, and distinction between him and the others? Are you his spokesman? Speak for yourself Hector Balderas.
Dr J let me start by saying Hector is not a career politician. If he was he would be a well off individual which if you truley new him you would know that isn’t true. As far as experience, what have we learned from politicians that have experience and money? I will tell you(Corruption and same old results) doing something a long time doesn’t mean you are good at it. Hector has gone after his own party time and time again. Now that beats experience in my book, as for hard work don’t know where you have been for the last six yrs but before Hector became State Auditor the majority of New Mexicans didn’t know what that office did. Is this race not for him? the voters will decide but I will tell you one thing he isn’t going anywhere anytime soon and that puts fear and concern in the old politicians in this state that have earned there living of the state when they should have been making a difference.
Considering the amateurish, undistinguished, and ineffective (tepid) campaign he is running now Hemingway, he needs much more experience and much harder work, as he is about to be a drop-out once again. This excuse for a “campaign” will not help him running against anyone of substance for any elected office of significance. He is obviously not ready for prime time. But again in his childhood and upbringing short of college, I see much of my own experiences and some potential for him, he just needs to turn that into something better than he has so far and work much harder to actually convince people he is not just play-acting about being a grown-up politician. I do like his offer to leave Congress if he doesn’t achieve objective distinct numbers for poverty rate and unemployment, etc. But we have heard that from other politicians and they always blame the other party for their failures to produce results, I’m not sure Mr. Balderas is any different once he becomes the professional politician he wants to be.
I still say that Mr. Balderas should run against Governor Martinez for governor. He would be the ideal candidate.