Tom Udall's announcement late last year that he was running for the U.S. Senate and leaving the safe congressional seat he has held since 1999 set off a political stampede.

It's only the third time since the Northern New Mexico district was created after the 1980 census that the seat has been open, without an incumbent candidate. The first time was in 1982, when a young Bill Richardson beat several contenders to become the first to fill the seat. The next was in 1997, when Richardson left to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

By February, six Democrats and two Republicans had filed to get on ballots for the June 3 primary in the 3rd Congressional District.

Among the contestants for the Democratic Party's nomination, state Public Regulation Commissioner Ben Ray Luján and Santa Fe developer Don Wiviott have already taken to the airwaves with television spots.

Also courting Democratic voters are former state Indian Affairs Secretary Benny Shendo Jr., Santa Fe County Commissioner Harry Montoya, and lawyers Jon Adams of Santa Fe and Rudy Martin of Dixon.

The Republican candidates are Marco Gonzales, a Santa Fe lawyer who worked 10 years with retiring U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Rio Rancho businessman Dan East.

The district stretches across the northern end of New Mexico, from the oil and gas fields of San Juan County in the northwest to the ranching country around Clovis on the southeast. In between are such counties as Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, Taos, Mora and San Miguel. Northern and western Indian Pueblos are in the district as are much of the Navajo Nation and the Jicarilla Apache Nation.

More than 36 percent of the district is Hispanic and slightly less than 30 percent American Indian, according to 2000 U.S. census statistics. More than 15 percent of families live beneath the poverty level. More than 25 percent of workers are government employees.

The 3rd is the most Democratic of New Mexico's three congressional districts. According to the Secretary of State's Office, as of January, 55 percent of voters in the district were registered as Democrats, compared with 29 percent Republican.

The remaining voters aren't eligible to vote in next month's primary.

On the issues

Based on their ads, interviews, campaign literature and answers to a recent questionnaire from The New Mexican, the half-dozen Democrats express few differences on major issues.

All favor establishing a massive national public-works program; launching a serious congressional investigation into possible war profiteering in Iraq; changing the policy of subsidizing the growing of corn and other grains for ethanol; and reducing federal prison sentences for those who commit nonviolent crimes.

None said he would have voted in favor of the 2005 federal bankruptcy bill, which made it harder for debtors to seek bankruptcy protection. (The state's congressional Democrats split on this controversial bill. Udall voted against it, U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman voted in favor.)

All six Democratic candidates have said they would withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq and, in the questionnaire, all but Luján and Adams said they would vote against further funding of the war. "Congress should not punish our troops for the Bush Administration's mistakes," Luján said.

All but Wiviott supports a single-payer national health insurance program. "While single-payer national health insurance deserves further study and analysis," Wiviott said, "our first priority should be to provide affordable and quality health care to the 402,000 uninsured New Mexicans, give people choice by allowing competition among private and public plans, and focus on preventive care."

All but Montoya and Adams agreed Congress should pass legislation allowing states to create their own medical marijuana programs.

Montoya is the only one of the six who wouldn't vote to mandate significantly higher gas mileage in automobiles even if it meant higher prices for vehicles. "We can mandate higher gas mileage and still lower prices for cars," he said.

All but Luján said campaign contributions from political action committees to candidates for federal office should be prohibited. "Until we pass real campaign-finance reform that mandates public financing for federal candidates and levels the playing field, organized labor, AARP, environmental organizations, the American Lung Association and other such groups shouldn't be prohibited from donating to candidates," Luján said.

The horse race

There hasn't been much in the way of independent polling of the Democratic primary candidates, but by other conventional measures, the race has two front-runners — Luján and Wiviott.

As far as party backing goes, Luján and Wiviott are the only ones who got more than 20 percent of the votes cast at the state Democratic Party's pre-primary convention in March. Luján — the son of House Speaker Ben Luján, clearly is the favorite of the party establishment. He got just over 40 percent of the delegate votes at the convention. Wiviott, who is credited for bringing many new participants to the county Democratic conventions, got just under 30 percent at the pre-primary.

The other four Democrats had to file extra nominating petitions to stay on the ballot.

There's also the money race. Wiviott is far in the lead, but only because he has pitched in more than $1 million of his own money into his campaign, according to the latest campaign finance reports, filed last month.

Wiviott's huge contributions to himself invoked a law called "The Millionaire Amendment," which allows opponents to triple the maximum amount of contributions they receive from donors — to $6,900 from $2,300.

Luján has raised more than $328,000 as of March 31. Much of that is from state lobbyists, legislators loyal to his father and Richardson's financial backers. (The governor has yet to endorse a candidate. "Nobody's asked me for one," he said in a recent interview.)

Their big campaign treasuries allowed Wiviott and Luján to advertise on broadcast television stations — a luxury that's out of reach for the other candidates. (Montoya plans to begin a modest ad campaign on cable television, which is considerably less than broadcast stations.)

As for the others, Shendo raised about $103,000 (much of which came from Indian tribes and leaders); Montoya reported $63,000; Adams received $17,000; and Martin said he raised about $9,500, all but $2,000 being a loan to himself.

Both of Luján's TV ads are general meet-the-candidate spots, touching on several issues. After first focusing on boosting his name recognition, Wiviott's most recent commercials have focused on his opposition to the Iraq war.

Albuquerque pollster Brian Sanderoff of Research and Polling Inc. said in a recent interview that despite widespread opposition to the war in this state, especially among Democrats, this strategy is risky.

Because of the fact Wiviott is one of only two Anglo candidates in the primary, he stands to do well in Anglo pockets of the district, such as Farmington on the west side of the state and Clovis on the east side, Sanderoff said. However, Democrats in those areas tend to be more conservative so a strong anti-war message could backfire, the pollster said.

One area in which Luján seems to hold a big lead over his rivals is in the area of endorsements of unions and other Democratic interest groups.

Montoya, who served on the Pojoaque school board for eight years, expressed frustration that the National Education Association endorsed Luján over him. Martin said during a candidate forum that it was ironic that teacher unions would endorse the candidate with the least amount of formal education.

Wiviott — who frequently mentions he worked his way through college as a union laborer and who stresses his credentials as an environmentalist — has seen the support of unions and environmental groups such as The Sierra Club and the Conservation Voters New Mexico go to Luján. He downplayed the importance of the endorsements in a recent interview, however, saying they were based on "political calculations."

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com.