RIP, Fred Harris

John notes that former Oklahoma Senator Fred Harris passed away.I didn't realize he had been living in Corrales since 1976. The neighbor I never knew. One of the good guys:

Harris ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976, quitting after poor showings in early contests, including a fourth-place win in New Hampshire. The more moderate Jimmy Carter went on to win the presidency.

Harris moved to New Mexico that year and became a political science professor at the University of New Mexico. He wrote and edited more than a dozen books, mostly on politics and Congress. In 1999 he broadened his writings with a mystery set in Depression-era Oklahoma.

Throughout his political career, Harris was a leading liberal voice for civil rights and anti-poverty programs to help minorities and the disadvantaged.

“Democrats everywhere will remember Fred for his unparalleled integrity and as a pioneer for instituting core progressive values of equity and opportunity for prosperity as core tenets of our party,” the Democratic Party of New Mexico said in a statement.

Along with his first wife, LaDonna, a Comanche, he also was active in Native American issues. 

“I’ve always called myself a populist or progressive,” Harris said in a 1998 interview. “I’m against concentrated power. I don’t like the power of money in politics. I think we ought to have programs for the middle class and working class.”