I visited Harry Teague’s campaign office, part of the larger Democratic campaign offices. Teague is running for the 2 nd Congressional District seat, the nation’s eigthth largest district, recently vacated by Republican Steve Pearce. The seat up for grabs has been held by Republicans for 30 years.Alex, a campaign staffer for Teague, described Teague’s campaign as having gone on for a year now. During that time, Teague racked up 60,000 miles on his truck as he campaigned for office. He also told me that all of Teague’s employees at his oil field service company can have their state college tuition completely paid for by the company—books and everything—as an example of Teague’s commitment to the working class. Erica, a Democratic campaign employee, showed me around the office. Canvassers were in and out picking up lists of voters to contact and dropping off results of door-knocking. Three rooms housed phone-bankers, several of whom were bilingual. I spoke with a volunteer who was decked out in buttons and stickers and carrying a "Harry Teague for Congress" sign. She was on her way to canvass and hopeful for a win tonight.Erica preferred not to make any predictions, saying she just hoped to see the results of everyone’s hard work, including 200 volunteers this past weekend alone.The most recent poll in the Journal shows him just ahead of his opponent, Republican Ed Tinsley, by about four points. I spoke with Teague on the phone today. He said he was doing well and seemed optimistic about the outcome of the election. He went on to say that the campaign was the hard part—attempting to wrestle a seat that’s been Republican so long—and he’s looking forward to getting to work.The campaign has largely focused on oil and both candidates have ties to the oil industry. Both support more drilling, with Teague opposing drilling on the Otero Mesa until groundwater protection can be assured. He also opposes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Tinsley supports drilling everywhere, apparently, and has been rather indifferent to environmental issues, even expressing disdain for concerns about prairie chickens’ mating season interfering with drilling.At the moment, Teague is intensely focused on emerging polls.
Checking In With Harry Teague
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