The netroots is playing a big role in elections this year, and I give some serious props to Matt and Barb for stepping up and getting this effort going. I think it’s a testament to their hard work, and a recognition of the role they’re playing, that each of the New Mexican candidates are posting guest blogs this week (you can see Heinrich’s posts here and here).

Matt has a great post introducing the project, highlighting the unique situation in New Mexico this cycle:

In 2008, New Mexicans have a chance for a true change — a golden opportunity to make a True Blue New Mexico.  There are more Democrats than Republicans registered in the state, and Democrats control both the state Senate and House.  Yet in federal offices, Republicans hold a 3-2 advantage, including a 2-1 advantage in the House. This year, that can change — and change dramatically.

I couldn’t agree more. I’ve thought that some additional attention in southern New Mexico from groups like the DCCC could help push the district closer toward the “Democratic” column, and with the right candidate Rep. Steve Pearce might have had a fight on his hands. With changing demographics, who knows what would have happened?

But with Pearce facing what could charitably be called an uphill battle with Udall, there’s no incumbent and a wave of anti-Republicanism sweeping the country. The Third congressional district is safe, and I think Martin Heinrich will have a solid advantage over Darren White. The second district would be tough regardless, but Teague can self-finance to a certain degree and that will help.

There’s some signs that New Mexico is trending more Democratic, and all of these candidates should have a great surrogate in Gov. Bill Richardson. But they need some help, and the best way to help is to donate early. Every dollar donated now is worth twice as much as money given later – early money will help the campaigns canvas voters, place ad buys sooner rather than later, and build their operations.

So, head on over to the ActBlue page and give some money, and help turn New Mexico blue this November.

Anyhoo, in case you were wondering:

These sites were all talking and cross-linking with each other and about two weeks ago they joined up with Congresspedia, a nonpartisan site that was already using the wiki process to build profiles of all members of Congress. Congresspedia, a project of the Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Media and Democracy, had a fairly high profile, as well as paid editors in place who monitor the site and make sure all entries are sourced. On Wednesday, Congresspedia emerged as the host site for S.T.P. and it has quickly become a clearing house for superdelegate information.

“The biggest portion of the new users who have come in the last four or five days are people with local knowledge at the state level or the district level,” said Avelino Maestas, assistant editor for Congresspedia. “We’re getting information that most people at a national level wouldn’t have.”

I think that first paragraph merits the only clarification I saw in the reportage: I don’t think anybody partnered up with Congresspedia until last week.

State Democratic Party leaders said 16,871 provisional ballots were being counted Wednesday.

At noon Wednesday, four precincts still had not reported their vote totals. They included three precincts in Rio Arriba County and one in Sandoval County where Rio Rancho voters experienced extremely long waits at the city’s only polling location. Some reported taking three hours to cast their ballots.

Also, the state Democratic Party’s Web site is less than helpful at 2:30 Eastern time (sorry, stuck in D.C. mode):

New Mexico’s Democratic caucus remained unsettled early Wednesday morning as Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama were separated by just 117 votes with nearly 17,000 provisional ballots yet to be counted.

With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton held 65,845 votes, or 42.97 percent, while Obama held 65,728 votes, or 45.89 percent.

State Democratic Party leaders said 16,871 provisional ballots were still to be counted Wednesday morning starting at 9 a.m.

The CNN site for New Mexico doesn’t even have that much information, while the vote tally section of the New Mexico Democratic Party is still lacking information on Bernalillo, Doña Ana and Grant counties.

Hopefully the picture will firm up by the time LP comes on.

LP has already mentioned the overall results indicated by CNN’s exit poll from New Mexico. However, I wanted to take a look at a few things that stand out to me, notably this response:

This indicates to me that Obama’s message of change played a very large role in New Mexicans’ decisions in this election. “Change” was the most important issue for more than half of all voters, and they voted overwhelmingly for Obama.

More breakdown of the exit poll after the flip:

The economy is definitely on voters minds, and it looks like people most concerned by the situation were supporting Clinton. Unsurprisingly, Obama won among those who thought Iraq was the most important issue, while it was much closer in regards to the health care block.

Here’s three charts on voters’ gender, age & race, and income:

So, while more women showed up to vote than men, it looks like the candidates split the female vote. Obama won among men though, and among those making more than $50,000 a year. Clinton was a big winner when voters were making less than $50K, and her support among Latinos of all ages is strong. However, it looks like Obama brought in more white voters than Clinton, and that white voters outnumbered Latinos.

Obama’s appeal among affluent voters appears strong: voters with a college education swung for him by a large margin:

Finally, here’s a bit on ideology, where Obama won among liberals and conservatives while Clinton carried moderates: