Spurred by a competitive 3rd Congressional District primary and excitement over the presidential race, more than 500 Santa Fe County Democrats showed up for ward meetings at Santa Fe Community College on Saturday to elect delegates to the state Democratic pre-primary March 15.

Longtime local political veterans who attended the meetings said Saturday's turnout was much higher than in past years. County Democratic leaders initially intended to hold all the ward meetings inside the large Jemez Room at the college. However, there were so many people, several of the wards met at tables in the nearby dining area, while some met outside.

"This is a lot more people than I expected," said Feliciana Gallegos, who said she's been to about 10 such meetings before. "It's a good thing. The Democratic Party has to get stronger."

Many commented on the number of new people who showed up Saturday. One of those was Lauren Hearsill, who was there to support candidate Jon Adams. "I just wanted to participate just because of what has been going on this country the last eight years with George Bush and the Republicans. I think it's important to get involved."

At stake in the ward meetings were 166 delegates from the 3rd Congressional District — and four delegates from the 1st Congressional District — to the pre-primary convention. In addition, two other delegates were elected at large later in the afternoon by the Santa Fe County Democratic Convention, which consisted mainly of party leaders and activists. About 30 members of the State Central Committee from Santa Fe County are automatic delegates to the state convention.

Anyone who shows up can run for one of the delegate slots from their ward. But not everyone announces which candidate they are supporting. And some would-be delegates are uncommitted. So it was difficult, if not impossible, to see which of the six congressional candidates won the most delegates at the meeting. None of the candidates or campaign officials interviewed would venture a guess, although a spokesman for Public Regulation Commissioner Ben Ray Luján said he thinks his team won about 50 percent of the Santa Fe County delegates.

However, the most visible campaigns — judging by signs in the area and stickers worn by participants — were those of Luján and Santa Fe developer Don Wiviott. Wiviott and Luján are leading in the preliminary fundraising efforts, according to reports filed with the Federal Elections Commission.

"It's a good year for bringing new people into the party," said Wiviott, whose organization was praised by some backers of other candidates for getting a big turnout at the ward meetings. "It's good to get new blood in the party."

Luján also was happy about the big turnout. "It's good for the party to have people this passionate," he said. "We just have to keep the excitement level up until November."

Adams said he thinks he did well at the ward elections, though he admitted his campaign was not nearly as visible. "My people were not wearing stickers," he said. "I didn't want them to be identified by the other candidates."

All three candidates attended the event, as did Santa Fe County Commissioner Harry Montoya, who later in the day flew to Washington, D.C., on county business. His campaign manager, Eli Sena, said Saturday that Montoya is concentrating on just winning a place on the ballot. "Our real campaign starts after March 15," he said.

Also running for the congressional seat are former state Indian Affairs Secretary Benny Shendo and Dixon lawyer Rudy Martin.

Two Republicans are running in the heavily Democratic district — lawyer Marco Gonzales and construction contractor Dan East. Carol Miller, a public health activist from Ojo Sarco, is running as an independent.

The money primary: The campaign finance reports filed Jan. 31 show that Wiviott largely is financing his own campaign, while Luján, the son of state House Speaker Ben Luján, seems to have the support of party regulars, loyalists of Gov. Bill Richardson, lobbyists and government employees.

Wiviott has loaned his campaign $325,000. He raised another $20,839 from his supporters by the end of last year. Wiviott has spent more than $460,000 and, by the end of the year, had just under $300,000 cash on hand.

His expenses don't include the two television commercials Wiviott recently began airing. He's the only 3rd District candidate advertising on TV so far.

Luján's report said he'd raised $103,500 by the end of last year, about half of that his own money. The report said he'd spent about $11,000 by the end of the year.

There were many familiar names on his report. The aborted senatorial campaign of Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chávez gave $2,000. State Highway Commissioner and longtime Richardson backer Johnny Cope and his wife, Marty Cope, each contributed $2,300. Several lobbyists, including Scott Scanland ($2,300), J.D. Bullington ($1,000), Joe Menapace ($500) and Joe Kupfer ($500), contributed.

Santa Fe lawyer Gene Gallegos, who ran for Congress in 1972, gave Luján $2,300, while lawyer Bill Robins and construction contractor Sonny Otero, both major Richardson contributors, each contributed the maximum of $2,300 to Luján.

The other candidates were way behind in the money race. Adams reported $24,823.22, while Montoya reported raising $8,491. Shendo and Martin did not file reports.

Party regulars: While Wiviott's support seemed to be at least even with Luján's at the morning ward meetings, it was a different story at the county party's convention Saturday afternoon. The convention, mainly made up of party regulars, gave polite applause to most of the candidates and surrogates who spoke. But they cheered loudly when Ben Ray Luján was introduced.

Luján's father, Speaker Luján, also got a loud ovation when, addressing the convention, he said, "I wouldn't be a good father if I didn't ask you to help my son."

In electing the two at-large delegates, the county convention chose two Luján supporters — Rep. Luciano "Lucky" Varela, D-Santa Fe, and Cathy Thompson.

Wiviott received the only criticism during the convention. This was from Adams, who, when addressing the convention, attacked Wiviott for attacking him.

Adams, who has sued to disqualify Wiviott's nominating petition signatures, has been in a war of words with Wiviott since the suit was filed. Last week, Adams claimed Wiviott has harassed him over the lawsuit. Wiviott's campaign fired off a statement calling Adams "a fringe candidate throwing around bizarre and baseless charges."

On Saturday, Adams objected to the "fringe candidate" label and said Wiviott also had called him a "silver-spoon candidate" and "joke candidate."

To the silver-spoon charge, Adams said, "I went to an Ivy League college, but I'm a product of New Mexico public schools." As for being a "joke," he said, "There is nothing funny about the Iraq war, there's nothing funny about veterans coming home to no health care ... about a president who's taking away our civil rights."

Wiviott, who spoke immediately after Adams, didn't directly address Adams' statements, though he said, "Perhaps I'm the silver-spoon guy because I went to an Ivy League school."

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