new mexico
Republican Gov. Gary Johnson has bicycled across the state four times, hang-glided off a 10,000-foot mountain and even completed the grueling Ironman Triathlon since taking office four years ago.
But he isn't a lock for re-election, and Democrats see New Mexico as an opportunity to grab a gubernatorial seat. They're sending in money, and Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Al Gore are visiting soon to campaign for his challenger, Martin Chavez.
All of this comes as Johnson's support has hovered below 50 percent in newspaper polls a dangerous sign for an incumbent, especially in a state in which Democrats outnumber Republicans 1.6 to 1. And he's had to deal with campaign strategy as well as burnishing his rugged-individualist image. Johnson is just the third Republican governor of New Mexico in 30 years.
"From our end, Johnson is definitely one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents in the country," says Tony Wyche of the Democratic National Committee.
And Democrats are backing up that talk with money $165,000 to Chavez so far from the Democratic Governors' Association and support from party heavyweights.
On Friday, Mrs. Clinton visits Santa Fe to help Chavez, the former mayor of Albuquerque, and Tom Udall, a Democrat in a tight race with Republican Rep. Bill Redmond. Gore is expected in New Mexico next week.
Nationally, voters will decide 36 governor's races in November. Among incumbents seeking re-election, there are 18 Republicans, six Democrats and one independent. Republicans are defending six open seats and Democrats five.
For New Mexicans, the governor's race offers two 40-somethings with starkly different political experience and views about government.
Johnson, 45, owned a construction company and ran in triathlons but never had campaigned or held elective office before winning the governorship in 1994.
He once described political games with the Legislature as "nanny-nanny boo-boo" and said the state Supreme Court used "a chicken bone thing" to make decisions.
Chavez, 46, is a former state senator, government agency administrator and from 1993 to 1997 was mayor of Albuquerque, the state's largest city.
"I'm not a triathlete. I'm a public policy person. I want to change my state for the better," Chavez says.
Johnson, even after four years as governor, maintains he is the "non-politician" in the race and describes Chavez as a "pro." He continues to preach the less-government-is-better gospel that carried him to victory in 1994.
Chavez has hammered away at the incumbent for failing to pull New Mexico with the worst poverty rate in the nation up from its low rankings in social and economic areas.
"I refuse to accept last-place status for New Mexico going into the next century," he says.
Chavez stresses education, proposing voluntary all-day kindergarten and smaller classs for first- and second-graders. He also wants to eliminate the state's tax on food.
Johnson advocates taxpayer-financed vouchers to allow parents to send their children to private schools. Chavez opposes them. Johnson wants to cut personal income taxes by $100 million and says the state can't afford Chavez's proposals.
"My opponent is promising everything to everyone and either he's not going to make good on his promises or we're going to have the largest tax increase in New Mexico history," Johnson says.
Democrats portray Johnson as an anti-government extremist. The state Supreme Court found him in contempt last year for not following its order to halt a welfare reform program he illegally implemented without legislative approval.
Johnson tells voters he has delivered on his promises: reducing the number of state workers by 5 percent, slowing yearly increases in state spending and rolling back a 1993 gasoline tax increase.
Johnson certainly has vexed Democrats sometimes even Republicans by his unwillingness to compromise and his frequent vetoes of legislation and budget items. Johnson vetoed 200 bills during his first year in office almost half of what the Legislature passed.
Chavez distributes lists of Johnson's vetoes of money for local programs. His campaign signs say, "Children before vetoes," a swipe at Johnson's '94 slogan, "People before politics."