Joe Skeen
| Joseph Richard "Joe" Skeen | |
 | |
| In office January 3, 1981 – January 3, 2003 | |
| Preceded by | Harold L. Runnels |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | Steve Pearce |
Chairman of the
New Mexico Republican Party | |
| In office 1962–1965 | |
New Mexico State Senator from Roswell
| |
| In office 1961–1971 | |
| Born | June 30, 1927 Roswell, New Mexico |
| Died | December 7, 2003 (aged 76) Roswell, New Mexico |
| Resting place | Skeen Ranch Cemetery in Picacho in Lincoln County |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Helen Jones Skeen (1926-2016) (married 1945-2003, his death) |
| Children | James Hardin Skeen (died at birth, June 15, 1948) Mary Elisa "Lisa" Skeen Livingston Mikell Lee "Mike" Skeen (1962-2018) |
| Alma mater | O'Dea High School (Seattle) |
| Occupation | Rancher |
Military Service
| |
| Service/branch | United States Navy |
| Years of service | 1945–1946 |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Joseph Richard Skeen, known as Joe Skeen (June 30, 1927 – December 7, 2003), was a conservative Republican rancher who represented the 2nd congressional district for his native New Mexico for eleven terms in the House between 1981 and 2003.[1]
Background
Skeen was born in Roswell in eastern New Mexico, a city now known for its reported UFO sightings. His parents were Thomas Dudley Skeen (1903-1951) and the former Ilah T. Adamson, later Ilah Rose (1907-1964).[2]
During his teenage years, his family moved to Seattle, Washington, where he graduated from O'Dea High School in 1944. In the final year of World War II, Skeen entered the United States Navy. After returning home, he graduated with a degree in agriculture engineering from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. He subsequently served for three years in the United States Air Force Reserve.[1]
Political life
The owner of the Buckhorn Ranch in Picacho in Lincoln County in southern New Mexico, Skeen raised sheep.[3] He was the state Republican chairman from 1962 to 1965 and served in the state Senate from 1961 to 1971.[4] After ten years in the state Senate, Skeen ran for lieutenant governor in 1970 on an unsuccessful ticket headed by future long-term United States Senator Pete Domenici. Incumbent Republican Governor David Francis Cargo (1929-2013), a Moderate Republican, was ineligible to run for the first four-year gubernatorial term in the history of the state. Cargo therefore ran unsuccessfully in the primary for the Senate seat retained for his last term by the Democrat Joseph Montoya.
In the Democratic years of 1974 and 1978, Skeen lost twice in close races for Governor of New Mexico. In the first race, he was defeated by the Democrat Raymond S. "Jerry" Apodaca (born 1934), and thereafter in 1978 by Democrat Bruce King (1924-2009) in 1978. In the former race, Apodaca led 164,172 (49.9 percent) to Skeen's 160,430 (48.8 percent). In 1978, King secured a second nonconsecutive term, 174,631 (50.5 percent) to Skeen's 170,848 (49.4 percent).
1980 congressional election
Throughout the 1970s, five-term Democratic U.S. Representative Harold Lowell Runnels (1925-1980) seemed to have a lock on the 2nd congressional district since succeeding the one-term Republican U.S. Representative Ed Foreman, who earlier had represented another House district for one term in Texas. Runnels was so strong that the GOP failed to run a candidate against him in 1978 or 1980. On August 5, 1980, Runnels died of cancer at the age of fifty-six. The state attorney general, a Democrat, announced that the Democrats could replace Runnels on the ballot but that it was too late for the Republicans to do so because they did not have a nominee in waiting. Republicans then rallied behind a write-in effort waged by Skeen, while the Democrats selected Governor Bruce King's nephew, David W. King (born 1946), over Runnels' widow, Dorothy Frances Gilland Runnels (1923-2020), later Mrs. Bill Clendenen from 1985 until his death in 1990.[5]To complicate matters for the Democrats, Mrs. Runnels elected to run her own write-in campaign. Furthermore, David King had only moved his voter registration into the district some ten days after the death of Runnels. [1] David King switched to the Republican Party in 1995.
Buoyed by the Ronald Reagan victory over Democrat Jimmy Carter, Skeen won the election, 61,564 votes (38 percent) to King's 55,085 (34 percent), and Mrs. Runnels' 45,343 (28 percent). Skeen was only the third person in U.S. history to be elected to the U.S. Congress as a write-in candidate,[6] the previous such write-in victory occurred in Arkansas in 1958, with Dale Alford's unseating of Brooks Hays.
Representative Skeen was instrumental in the opening of the federal underground nuclear waste repository, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, near Carlsbad, New Mexico. He defended private property rights, rebuffed increases in grazing fees and fought against the reintroduction of endangered Mexican gray wolves into New Mexico.[3] His congressional voting record was conservative. He promoted ranching interests in the West. Skeen faced several competitive races for reelection. In 1997, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.[3] He announced his retirement and did not contest the 2002 election. At the time of his death in 2003, he was highly regarded in both parties for his service to his state.
He is interred with his son and wife at the Skeen Ranch Cemetery in Picacho in Lincoln County.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bioguide Search (congress.gov), accessed October 15, 2021.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Joseph Richard Skeen (1927-2003) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed October 15, 2021.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Rep. Joe Skeen, N.M. Republican, Dies at 76 - The Washington Post, accessed October 15, 2021.
- ↑ Joseph Skeen (nndb.com), accessed October 15, 2021.
- ↑ Obituary of Dorothy Frances Runnels | Kirby Smith Rogers Funeral Home, accessed October 15, 2021.
- ↑ Republican Joe Skeen Wednesday became the first write-in candidate... - UPI Archives, accessed October 15, 2021.
