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CD1: Wilson 102,376; Madrid 100,981
Wilson-Madrid race too close to call; 5,500 plus ballots to go
Photo by Steven St. John Tribune
Tribune
Attorney General Patricia Madrid makes her way to the podium after being introduced by Mayor Martin Chavez at the Democratic election headquarters. Early today, Madrid still remained locked in a close race with incumbent Republican Rep. Heather Wilson in the 1st Congressional District.
Photo by Michael J. Gallegos Tribune
Tribune
U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson visits with some of her supporters at the Republican election headquarters at the Marriott Pyramid. Wilson was behind earlier in the night, but edged ahead of Democratic challenger Attorney General Patricia Madrid. She has a 1,300-vote lead going into the final rounds of counting.
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Madrid speaks
"I know the hour is late. We are very cautiously optimistic. We have not been behind once tonight. It's going to be a little bit later. I know it's a weekday, but I wanted to come out and say from the bottom of my heart thank you. I'm going to stay here, and it's worth waiting for so we can declare victory."
Wilson speaks
"While Mrs. Madrid was over announcing how far ahead she was, her lead was cut in half." (Wilson then listed several precincts that hadn't reported but that she thought would go in her favor.)
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What comes next?
Bernalillo County voting officials early today said two sets of ballots remained for hand-counting.
One group, estimated at about 2,000, is ballots that could not be machine-read. That count should be wrapped up today.
Another 2,698 provisional ballots and 1,058 "in lieu of" ballots - voters who say they never received an absentee ballot in the mail but instead voted at their precinct - won't be counted until canvassing begins Thursday or Friday, officials said.
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She was the Democrats' best hope against U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, their No. 1 star in an election season scarred by scandal and war.
And Attorney General Patricia Madrid still might be. But we probably won't know for sure until the end of the week. Or next week.
After the congressional candidates spent a long evening playing cat-and-mouse in their vote tallies, they went into the morning hours Wednesday with Wilson holding onto a 1,048-vote lead.
But their fate is bound up in two sets of uncounted ballots totaling more than 5,500 votes.
One group consists of more than 2,000 ballots rejected by the ballot-reading machines. They were being hand-counted by weary poll workers this morning.
A second set includes the ballots of 2,698 provisional voters and another 1,058 who cast "in lieu of" votes. Those probably won't start to be counted until Thursday, according to the Bernalillo County Clerk's Office.
With 462 of 465 precincts reporting, unofficial results from the Associated Press early Thursday gave Wilson 102,376 votes to Madrid's 100,981, a 1,395-vote margin.
Shortly after midnight Wednesday, as Madrid began to see the lead she'd held most of the evening slip away, she and her husband quickly and quietly left the Hotel Albuquerque to go home.
Madrid spent most of the day with her family, away from the cameras. Heather Brewer, her spokeswoman, stood in for her on 10 p.m. newscasts.
At 11:30 p.m., Madrid delivered her only speech, 3 minutes long, at the hotel, saying she was "cautiously optimistic" she would win.
About the same time, 10 miles away at the Marriott Pyramid, Wilson likewise made her only speech of the night.
"This race is close, but I expect to win," she said. "And then, we'll celebrate with orange juice at breakfast."
Brewer later predicted that the results would be close but that Madrid would win - and Wilson would ask for a recount.
"There's nothing more to say until we have a result," Brewer said after state Democratic party Chairman John Wertheim announced there would be no more speeches.
If she won, Madrid had planned to appear on CNN and National Public Radio this morning, Brewer said.
Even with the uncertainty, enthusiasm at the Democrats' party remained high throughout the night: The party took control of the U.S. House and seemed poised to snatch it from the Senate. Democrats won all statewide races except for Jim Baca, who lost to incumbent Republican Land Commissioner Pat Lyons.
If Madrid ends up winning, it would be a big victory for the party, given the uphill battle that challengers face against incumbents, said University of New Mexico political science professor Christine Sierra.
If she loses, it could be hard for the Democrats to challenge Wilson again, she said.
"It does feel like it would be very difficult to unseat her," Sierra said.
A majority of the voters in the district are Democrats, but a Republican has represented it since 1969.
Wilson, since her first election in 1998, has faced close races, but has usually dominated in early and absentee voting. This year, the Democrats appeared to narrow the gap, thanks in part to President Bush's low approval ratings and a hard-hitting Madrid campaign tying Wilson to his administration.
From both sides, the campaign was negative from the start. And the hostilities continued through Election Day. Earlier in the day, Wilson held a news conference to bemoan a shortage of ballots in two Albuquerque precincts.
Madrid topped Wilson in Bernalillo County by a slim margin; Wilson pulled ahead with votes from portions of District 1 in other counties.
No matter who wins, some Democrats planned to stay at the party until a result was announced in the race.
"I'm going to wait until 7 a.m., because I have class at 8," said University of New Mexico junior Ashliegh More. "This is history because of the change in direction, and hopefully a big change."
The last Democrat to represent the Albuquerque area was Thomas Morris, who was first elected in 1958 to the House, when the state's seat was chosen at-large. The seat was later divided into two positions, and a third seat was added in 1983.
Morris, 87, served until 1969, when Manuel Lujan Jr. was elected to the district.
Morris spent $11,600 on his first election and said Monday that he can't believe what the candidates are spending now. It took a day to fly to Washington. And the way to get the vote out was "by talking to people, and by having their neighbors talk to other people."
"Those were the days," he said.
