Election '08

• Overview
• Agenda
• Candidates
• Results

Candidates

	Congressional District 1
	Martin T. Heinrich, Democrat, seeks to represent the 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. A former member of the Albuquerque City Council, Heinrich served as Council President in 2006. He is the former Executive Director of the nonprofit Cottonwood Gulch Foundation and the founder of private public affairs firm. Heinrich is a Natural Resources Trustee for the state of New Mexico. On the Albuquerque City Council, he targeted issues including crime reduction, raising the minimum wage, economic development, and energy.
	Darren P. White, Republican, seeks to represent the 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He began his second term as the Sheriff of Bernalillo County on January 1, 2007. White is a former Cabinet Secretary for the New Mexico Department of Public Safety and is a public safety advocate. He has served with both the Albuquerque and Houston police departments, where he was named honor graduate from both academies. Before his career in law enforcement, White served in the U.S. Army as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division.
	Congressional District 2
	Harry Teague, Democrat, is running to replace Rep. Steve Pearce in New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District. Teague began working in an oil field when he was 17 for just $1.50 an hour, and has deep roots in Southern New Mexico. He owns his own business which employs over 250 people in the southern region of the state. He was a member of the Lea County Commission for eight years, serving as Chairman for three years. He also served as a board member for the Lea County Fair and Rodeo and for the Boys and Girls Club of Hobbs. In addition, Teague helped start the Big Brother Big Sister program in Lea County.
	Edward R. Tinsley III, Republican, seeks a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for New Mexico Congressional District 2. A New Mexico rancher and restaurateur, and owner of Tinsley Hospitality Group, LLC, Tinsley holds an accounting degree from the University of Texas, and a law degree from Texas Tech. He is a former Chairman of the Board of the National Restaurant Association, past President of the Carrie Tingley Children’s Hospital Foundation, and was recently appointed by President Bush to serve as a Trustee on the Valles Caldera Board of Trustees. He has been married for 31 years, has 2 children, and resides in Lincoln County.
	Congressional District 3
	Ben Ray Luján, Democrat, seeks to represent the 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is currently a Public Regulation Commissioner for the State of New Mexico, representing PRC District 3. He is a former Chairman of the PRC, where he advocated renewable energy, regional solutions to global warming, and health insurance reform. Lujan is the previous Deputy State Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer for the New Mexico Cultural Affairs Department. Lujan was born and raised in northern New Mexico.
	Daniel K. East, Republican, is vying for a seat in U.S. Congressional District 3. East is a native New Mexican, and is a business owner/contractor. He received a B.S. in Construction Management from Colorado State University in 1988 and has since concentrated on improving infrastructure and clean water in New Mexico District 3. He serves as the Senior Vice President of the National Utility Contractors Association on the national level, and was previously the President if NUCA New Mexico. He lives in Rio Rancho with his wife Nancy, where together they have raised 7 children.
	Carol Miller, Independent, is a public health advocate who has been living in a frontier mountain village in northern New Mexico for more than 30 years with her husband Larry. Miller holds a BA in Art from Wheaton College in Massachusetts and a Masters in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley. In 1993, she served as a Presidential Appointee to the White House Health Care Task Force. Miller was also a Presidential Appointee in the Reagan Administration. She is Executive Director of the National Center for Frontier Communities.

Candidate Selection Criteria

New Mexico candidates for United States Congress were invited to participate in the town hall candidate forums if they had:

• Formally declared their candidacy for the office,
• Qualified to appear on the state’s ballot (determined by the New Mexico Office of the Secretary of State), and
• Had not dropped out of the race.