New Mexico News
| MEET MARTIN HEINRICH, DEMOCRAT |
| Posted by () on May 21 2008 at 3:54 PM |
Martin Heinrich, a mechanical engineer by training, has spent the past decade moving toward politics.
The Missouri native was inspired by longtime Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, a populist. Carnahan's death in a plane crash in 2000 during a Senate campaign, "made me think about who was going to be next," to lead, Heinrich said.
In 2002, he got serious about politics, leaving his job as a director of Cottonwood Gulch, a wilderness camp in the Zuni Mountains, to begin working on Democratic political campaigns.
He learned a lot and in 2003, when a seat in his Albuquerque City Council district opened up, he ran and won.
When considering running for Congress, he and his wife thought about the state of the nation, especially in the context of what the future would look like for their two young sons.
"We just felt like things were really moving in the wrong direction," Heinrich said, citing the economy, the war in Iraq and ethics breakdowns in Congress and the White House. "I'd never seen such a pessimistic United States of America."
When he jumped in a year ago, it looked like there would be little primary opposition and that he would face incumbent Heather Wilson in the fall. Then Wilson turned her attention to the U.S. Senate and suddenly Heinrich had plenty of opponents.
Heinrich says he was a unifying force during his four years on the Albuquerque City Council, and the experience prepared him to succeed in Congress.
"I'm a proven legislator," Heinrich said. "I'm pragmatic and populist. I believe in taking a strong position but being able to work together with people who disagree."
His primary focus is on jobs and the economy. For inspiration, Heinrich goes back to his childhood in Missouri, where his parents ran a ranch while holding down physically demanding jobs. His dad was a telephone company lineman, and his mom did piecework in garment factories and worked on an auto factory assembly line.
"Middle class, blue collar," Heinrich said. "They were the people who took a shower when they came home from work at night, not before they went to work."
Comments
Add Comment