Democratic tradition runs deep in Costilla

By Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published September 29, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

Text size  

• 0 Comments
• Email
• Print

See how Colorado has voted in each presidential election since 1876 in an interactive map »

Barry Gutierrez/The Rocky

Joe Gallegos picks vegetables from his garden, which is watered from the San Luis People's Ditch, the oldest recorded water right in the state. Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 5-to-1 in Costilla County. "You can win as a Republican, if the guy who's a Democrat has really screwed up," said Gallegos.

The water keeping Joe Gallegos' ranch alive flows through the oldest recorded water right in the state, the San Luis People's Ditch.

It is a point of pride among people here that their ancestors - Gallegoses included - built the ditch by hand in 1852. Even today it still functions, feeding some of the state's oldest farms, just outside Colorado's oldest city.

Tradition runs rich here in Costilla County. Next to ranching and farming, another tradition has endured: politics.

Democratic politics.

Costilla County has voted for Democrats for president 20 out of 22 times since 1920 - more often than any other county in Colorado.

Voters here haven't gone for a Republican presidential candidate since 1924, when the popular incumbent Calvin Coolidge took on an unknown Democratic congressman.

The county also was responsible for the largest margin of victory ever recorded in Colorado by a Democratic presidential candidate, when Lyndon B. Johnson took nearly 81 percent of the vote over Barry Goldwater in 1964.

Today, Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 5-to-1. No one can remember more than three Republicans who have been elected county commissioner, and everyone expects Sen. Barack Obama to win here in November.

Government land grab

"You can win as a Republican if the guy who's a Democrat has really screwed up," said Gallegos, a Democrat who will finish a term as county commissioner in January.

How Costilla County became so solidly blue may be a story older than Colorado itself, Colorado historian Bill Convery said.

Mexican pioneers founded San Luis in 1851, after migrating north from present-day New Mexico. They settled on land given to them by Mexico, which 30 years earlier had won independence from Spain and control of what is now southern Colorado and New Mexico.

After the region ended up in U.S. hands, the county's residents saw much of their property taken by Republican-appointed U.S. territorial governors.

The die was cast.

"(They) were losing their land grants," Convery said. "That kind of feeling of legal assault was something that made Hispanic voters nervous about joining what they saw as a Yankee government."

Residents in San Luis offer several explanations for why things haven't changed.

People here associate more with heavily Democratic northern New Mexico. Any wealth is in the land - water, soil, minerals - so they lean toward candidates they feel are more likely to protect the environment.

There is pressure from one's parents and the fact that people here are among the state's most poor.

"Simply put, they just identify more with the Democratic Party because of where the economics lie," said Rose Mendoza-Green, who runs the town's one-room library. "The Republicans have always been associated with someone who has money."

That's not to say that politicians are quick to pass by this county of about 3,600 people - or that its politics is boring.

Politics are personal

U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar and U.S. Rep. John Salazar, who were raised in the San Luis Valley, are frequent visitors. Former Gov. Roy Romer famously fell off a horse on Main Street during a campaign stop.

Rep. Mark Udall, Democratic candidate for Senate, filmed his first commercial of this campaign season a few hundred feet from San Luis' best-known landmark, the Stations of the Cross Shrine.

On the campaign trail in Costilla County, candidates are as likely to be grilled about something their uncle did 20 years ago as the farm bill.

"Voters here are very different," said Crestina Martinez, who at age 26 just won a seat as county commissioner. "It's all so personal to them."

Martinez is the sixth generation of her family to live in San Luis. Her father was a county commissioner for one term, then clerk and recorder for 24 years. Her uncle is the sheriff. When she knocked on doors during her campaign, she often was judged - good or bad - by what her family has done.

"Thank goodness I'm an only child," Martinez said with a laugh.

Yet voters also are astute, Gallegos said. They follow the national political scene as closely as local issues such as road improvements.

Part of the reason, said Felix Romero, is that in this isolated valley there hasn't been much else to do.

"It's always been that was the thing people talked about. We weren't into the big city things that were happening." said Romero, who owns the R&R Market, Colorado's oldest continuously operating business.

"Politics is a way of life here. It's what kept things interesting."

Staff writer Burt Hubbard contributed to this report.

Costilla County

Population: 3,309

White: 33 percent

Hispanic: 63 percent

Black: 1 percent

Median age: 47

Voters

* Democrat: 1,729

* Republican: 314

* Unaffiliated: 335

* Other: 4

Featured

• Denver turns 150

  

  Read about the city's history, look at old photos and see a list of influential Denverites.

• Mount Crushmore

  

  Which four Broncos greats should be immortalized on Mount Crushmore? Vote here.

• Winter Escapes

  

  Your insider’s guide to the copious joys of the coolest season.

• Rocky Multimedia

  

  The news comes alive in our videos and slide shows. Catch up on what's happening today.

• Weekend plans?

  

  Figure out things to do this weekend with the help of our entertainment calendar.

• Bronco Dean's rant

  

  Listen to Bronco Dean's pregame rant on the Raiders.

• Season To Share

  

  The Post-News Season To Share campaign provides grants to area nonprofits.

• The Rocky @ 150 Years

  

  The Rocky was there when Colorado became a state in 1876. Read our coverage.

• A Dozen on Denver

  

  And the winner is... Robert Ziegler! See the whole fiction series by clicking here.