[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 78 (Tuesday, June 20, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1053]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING LARRY CALLOWAY

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. TOM UDALL

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 20, 2000

  Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, I rise to call to the attention 
of the House the retirement of a leading journalist and commentator for 
the State of New Mexico. Larry Calloway, who stepped down this month 
from his regular column at the Albuquerque Journal, will be missed by 
thousands of readers who were faithful followers of his thrice-weekly 
column. His refreshing and anecdotal comments, which covered civic 
activities and politics, were always immensely interesting and 
entertaining. His remarkable contributions to the people of New Mexico 
cannot be understated. Thank you, Larry, and best wishes in your new 
endeavors.

            [From the Albuquerque (NM) Journal, April 1999]

       Columnist Larry Calloway, with great suspicion, has covered 
     about 25 regular sessions of the New Mexico Legislature and 
     an alarming number of political campaigns. His column appears 
     like clockwork, Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, on the 
     Editorial page. An outsider, he loves New Mexico and its 
     diverse people but has not fallen in love with its 
     politicians.
       He had a promising Western wire service career going when 
     he arrived in Santa Fe from Denver in a used 1962 Ford 
     Fairlane junker with all his possessions in the back. He had 
     already worked for United Press International at news bureaus 
     in Helena, Montana, Salt Lake City and Denver, with brief 
     temporary assignments in San Francisco and Topeka, Kansas. 
     New Mexico ended his travels. He stuck, got married and began 
     raising a family of two daughters.
       His first in-depth experience with New Mexico politics was 
     the Rio Arriba County courthouse raid on June 5, 1967. He was 
     tied up, pushed around, paraded through Tierra Amarilla, 
     threatened with hanging and shot at. He escaped at a State 
     Police roadblock and wondered, ``Was it something I wrote?''
       It has been that way ever since. Calloway has been reviled 
     by Democrats for his ``monkey speech'' story that contributed 
     to the defeat of U.S. Sen. Joseph M. Montoya. He has been 
     denounced by both the regulators and the regulated for 
     revelations about things like monopoly bus companies. He has 
     been excoriated in letters to the editor by activists, 
     candidates, lobbyists and governors for discussions of things 
     like real estate deals, political hiring and no-bid 
     contracts. He has been castigated frequently by legislators 
     in open sessions of both houses.
       Before all that, Calloway was born innocent in Wyoming and 
     raised in Colorado. He was educated in the Denver public 
     Schools, at the University of Colorado-Boulder (BA, 
     philosophy of science) and at Stanford University 
     (professional journalism fellowship). He has worked and 
     traveled in Asia.
       Calloway was with The Associated Press in Santa Fe through 
     the 1970s and joined the Journal in 1980 as the founding 
     editor of Journal North. Politically, he prefers to describe 
     himself only as ``journalist,'' meaning that he looks for the 
     truth behind the cliches and ideologies and tries to write 
     it. He has written a book of fiction, ``Guide to the San 
     Juans,'' and is writing a book of nonfiction on his lengthy 
     visit to New Mexico, something that probably will have 
     ``outsider'' in the title.

     

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