67 Year old Ernest Chavez Sunday did what he said he would do--he won a landslide victory among 34 members of the Democratic party Central committee to become the new State Rep. for the South Valley State House seat recently vacated by James Taylor who is now serving in the State Senate.

Chavez garnered 24 votes with Diego Gallegos getting only six. Art De La Cruz received one. Chavez predicted last week that he would score the victory because he had collected proxies from members who would not be at today's meeting. He showed up at the session armed with 16 proxies.

The race to replace Taylor was closely watched by Valley politicos who said Gallegos would have been the favored candidate of Big Bill. Chavez, a retired city of ABQ worker, does not have any GOP opposition in November so will win the two year term. I'll have more on all of this Monday.