Congressional candidate profile: Dan East

Republican champions small businesses

Kate Nash | The New Mexican

10/18/2008 -

ALCALDE — By the time he gets to this highly Democratic outpost in Rio Arriba County late one recent afternoon, Dan East has driven nearly 600 miles on the campaign trail in the state's 3rd Congressional District.

The Republican has made the chug over from Shiprock and up from Bernalillo and Santa Fe in good spirits, despite the long hours glued to the roads of the area he hopes to represent in Washington.

When he gets to the Oñate Center, just eight people greet him.

If East, a 50-year-old Rio Rancho utilities contractor, is disappointed in the turnout, it doesn't show.

The small, dining room gathering seems anxious to talk with him, ask questions about his stances and how his campaign is going.

Intimate meetings like this one are key to how East is running his campaign, he says, sitting atop one of the lunch tables and nursing his second cup of coffee in an hour.

"Newspaper and radio ads are effective, but what's more effective is me sitting here talking to you, getting to know you," he said to the group.

For about 45 minutes, East talks with the local residents about how he'd fix the economy, about how he'll fight "tooth and nail" for gun-ownership rights, about being pro-life and about stopping taxpayer-sponsored benefits for undocumented immigrants, because without them, "people who are in this country illegally will stop coming."

He talks about his Bronze-Star-winning son in the National Guard, his daughter's wedding this month, his energy policy.

Everyone in the audience, small as it is, nods in agreement with what East says.

Just as it might be a surprise to find East here in a stronghold of the opposing party — 80 percent of the county's voters are Democrats, while 11 percent are Republicans — East's victory over better-known candidate Marco Gonzales in the June primary was a shocker in some Republican circles.

Gonzales, a Santa Fe attorney, had spent years in Washington working for U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. East has spent almost 10 years at the helm of a Rio Rancho utilities contracting company, visiting Washington only occasionally as part of his work with the National Utilities Contractor Association, where he is the senior vice president.

East says voters wanted someone from outside the Beltway. "I think people out there are tired of that, tired of Washington politics as they are. They are ready for somebody new," he said.

While local Republicans say they'd be thrilled to send East to Congress, Bill Hillman, the executive director of the National Utilities Contractor Association, said his group would also be ecstatic.

If elected, East would be the only utilities contractor heading to Congress next year, Hillman said, something that would give him a unique perspective on Capitol Hill. "Unless you've really stood in those shoes, best intentions aside, it's sometimes difficult to understand how the different issues affect those types of companies," Hillman said. "A guy like Dan would bring a really good understanding of infrastructure systems."

Infrastructure like water and waste water systems in this country, he said, are underappreciated and underfunded, in large part because they are unseen.

"It's not like a bridge that collapses into the river, where people die. Everybody sees that," he said, referring to the collapse last year of a freeway bridge in Minneapolis. "It's not like a pothole where about the fifth time a person hits it and breaks an axle, somebody is calling the mayor."

The group's political action committee is among East's top contributors, giving him $5,000 in the primary and $4,000 in the general election.

East's company, Cone Construction Corp., is well versed in infrastructure projects. Its work mostly includes municipal water and wastewater-treatment plants and facilities. East has said a majority of the work he's done has been in the 3rd Congressional District, and one of his recent projects is the Las Campanas Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion.

Like many companies, Cone has both faced and filed lawsuits over alleged breach of contract and money owed.

East also is facing a lawsuit from a former campaign employee, Caroline George, who says the candidate owes her $25,000 for her work for the primary election. George's lawyer declined to comment.

Court documents say George and her company, Strategic Communications, worked for East between December 2007 and February.

The case is set to go to arbitration in November.

East said George has "been paid in full for the work she was hired to do."

He added: "I have no campaign debt."

He calls that lawsuit "frivolous" and said it's the kind of thing he'd like to stop in Congress. "We need to look at something where the losers pay ... something to stop ambulance chasers."

While East has a packed schedule for the next three weeks, if things don't go his way Nov. 4, it doesn't appear he'll be too crushed.

He's on the campaign trail to bring attention to issues like those that small businesses face, to get the representation in Congress he says he and others in the district deserve.

"I have a job," his common refrain on the soapbox goes. "I don't need another one. I'm doing this to represent the people of the district."

Dan East, Republican

Family: Wife, Nancy. Seven children between them; one granddaughter and another grandchild due in February

Hometown: Born in Las Cruces, lives in Rio Rancho
Education: Bachelor’s degree in construction management from Colorado State University

Age: 50

Years in New Mexico: 21

Occupation: Utilities contractor

Have you ever been arrested for, convicted of, charged with or accused of a felony or misdemeanor? No

Have you or any company you’ve owned or own ever filed a bankruptcy petition? No

Best meal you can cook from scratch: Enchiladas

Name the last book you read: It’s Called Work for a Reason! by Larry Winget

What alternative energy programs do you use, either in your car, at your home or at your work? None

Name the last charity for which you volunteered. U.S. Blood Services; I donate.

What role, if any, does spirituality play in your life? Prayer is very powerful for me, and I pray often.

When was the last election in which you didn’t vote? There may have been a school board election I missed, but I can’t think of when.

What kind of car do you drive in New Mexico? My campaign car is a Saturn Aura. My company vehicles are Ford, and my personal vehicle is a Chevy diesel.

Campaign Web site: www.daneast4congress.com

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Republican candidate Dan East

Democratic candidate Ben Ray Lujan

Independent candidate Carol Miller Video Interviews by Kate Nash/The New Mexican