By Suzanne Dougherty
Congressional Quarterly

Electoral votes: 5

Delegates: 35

Chairman: Diane Denish

Hotel: Universal City Hilton and Towers (818) 506-2500

1996 Election:
Clinton – 49%
Dole – 42%
Perot – 6%

No state's name reflects its diverse population quite so well as that of New Mexico. The influence of Hispanics, who make up about two-fifths of the state's residents, is well-reflected in its delegation to this year's Democratic National Convention.

The 35-member delegation has 18 Hispanic members, including state Senate Majority Whip Mary Jane Garcia and New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron. There also are three American Indians (from a group that makes up 9 percent of the state's population) and three African-Americans (blacks are 3 percent of the state's population).

"By following just the natural voting process, we created a very diverse delegation," said John Pound, state campaign co-chairman for the Democrats' presidential standard bearer, Vice President Al Gore. "If you put a camera on our state delegation you would see the face of New Mexico."

New Mexico held its presidential primary June 6, three months almost to the day after Gore virtually clinched the Democratic presidential nomination. As a result, the state's delegation is solidly behind Gore.

There are three delegates chosen as pledged to Gore's erstwhile rival for the nomination, former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, but all plan to support Gore at the convention.

Most of the delegates are confident that they will again be able to hand their state's five electoral votes to the Democratic candidate, as they did in 1992 and 1996 for Bill Clinton (with Gore on the ticket as the vice presidential nominee).

But New Mexico, a partisan "swing" state with a large conservative constituency, hardly belongs in the "Safe Democratic" category.

Both of Clinton's wins were by pluralities: 49 percent to 42 percent over 1996 Republican challenger Bob Dole and 46 percent to 37 percent over GOP incumbent George Bush in 1992 with independent Ross Perot taking 16 percent. Moreover, Republicans carried the state in the six presidential elections immediately preceding 1992.

New Mexico has a rather strong record as a bellwether state in presidential elections: It has voted for the winning candidate in each contest since Republican Ronald Reagan carried the state in 1980.

The most politically prominent member of this year's New Mexico delegation is three-term U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, who is strongly favored in his re-election contest against former one-term Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Redmond.

The other Democratic member of the state's congressional delegation - freshman Rep. Tom Udall - also is a delegate and is favored for re-election this year.

State Democratic Party Chairman Diane Denish is heading the New Mexico delegation to the convention.

NEW MEXICO NOTABLES: U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman; U.S. Rep. Tom Udall; state Democratic Party Chairman Diane Denish, the delegation chairman; state Senate Majority Whip Mary Jane Garcia; New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron.