Adios?

After the vote, brush-mustached David Chavez Jr., who left a $15,000 federal judgeship to go after the Democratic nomination for governor, sat in a Santa Fe friend's house wondering what to do next. Also wondering were at least 13 other Spanish-Americans who ran against "Anglo" candidates and lost. For the first time in years, New Mexico's Democratic ticket would be virtually Anglo. Heading the list: for governor, a run-of-the-platform politician named John E. Miles.

A political era was dying in New Mexico, the only state in the union which prints its ballots in two languages. Ten years ago, the state was more than half Spanish-American; now it is only 40%. Attracted by irrigation farming and by military plants like Los Alamos, Anglos (mostly from Texas) had shifted the balance of population and political power.

For the Chavez brothers--Candidate David and U.S. Senator Dennis--this meant the failure of an elaborate hope for a Chavez dynasty in New Mexico. For the Democratic Party, without its customary portion of vote-getting Spanish names, it meant that "native" voters might drift back to the Republican Party (where they had been before they became what one politician calls WPA Democrats). If enough switch over, they might hand the governorship to the Republicans in November. "It could be," admitted one worried Anglo Democrat, "that they'll give us the old adios this year."

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