Joseph Manuel Montoya was born José Manuel Montoya on September 24, 1915, in Peña Blanca, New Mexico. He was the son of Thomas O. Montoya and Frances de La. His father, after mining gold in Arizona, returned to New Mexico to become sheriff of Sandoval County. Although his family was not wealthy, it was influential. Both parents traced their ancestry to seventeenth-century Hispanic roots. This was significant in New Mexico, where Hispanics in the northern part of the state proudly claimed unbroken descent from Spanish settlers, in contrast to those who came across the Mexican border as late as the twentieth century and who generally had a mixed Spanish-Indian genealogy.
Education
Montoya attended Bernalillo High School before entering Regis College in 1931. He transferred to Georgetown University in 1934, where he received the LL. B. in 1938.
Career
In 1939, Montoya was admitted to the New Mexico bar and began practicing law in Santa Fe. Later he was admitted to practice before both the state supreme court and the United States Supreme Court. If one can be politically precocious, that term fit Montoya. While still a student at Georgetown, he was elected in 1936 to the New Mexico House of Representatives representing Sandoval County. At the conclusion of the 1937 legislative session, he was named its outstanding legislator by his colleagues. Reelected in 1938, he was selected majority floor leader by his fellow Democrats for the 1939 and 1940 sessions. In 1940, at the required minimum age of twenty-five, Montoya was elected to the New Mexico state senate. In that chamber he was elected Democratic whip and chaired the judiciary committee. Montoya served in the state senate through 1946 and was elected to that body again in 1952. He also served in the state's executive branch when he was elected lieutenant governor in 1946, 1948, 1954, and 1956. Losing the 1950 Democratic primary for the state's only congressional seat to Antonio M. Fernandez, Montoya returned to his law practice and managed the Western Freight Lines, which he had purchased in 1945 and whose principal activity was hauling materials for the Los Alamos nuclear program. Later he would acquire substantial commercial real estate in New Mexico, becoming a millionaire by the 1970's. Before Montoya took office for his fourth term as lieutenant governor, Congressman Fernandez died in November 1956. The next February, Montoya was selected by a caucus of Democratic leaders to be the party's candidate for the vacant House seat. He won the April 9, 1957, special election over Republican Tom Bolack. Both later said this was the most difficult campaign of their careers. Montoya was reelected to the House in 1958, 1960, and 1962, but his modest plurality in that last contest made him vulnerable to a future challenge. As a member of Congress, where he served on the judiciary committee, Montoya did not make a national reputation but diligently pursued the interests of his constituents. Representing one of the nation's poorest states, he supported programs to aid the economically disadvantaged, as well as subsidies for wheat and cotton, key commodities in his state. In late 1962, Dennis Chavez, who represented New Mexico for nearly three decades in the United States Senate, died. The state's Republican governor, Edwin L. Mechem, resigned in order to be appointed to the vacant Senate seat by his lieutenant governor, Tom Bolack.
Through the state's unusual preprimary endorsing system, Montoya and Mechem were nominated in 1964 to contest the Senate seat. The Mechem-Montoya struggle was a contrast of stature and ideology, pitting "Big Ed, " a Goldwater Republican, against "Little Joe, " a lifelong liberal Democrat. For a dozen years, Mechem had been the only Republican victor for statewide office. Handicapped in this contest by the opprobrium of his virtual self-appointment to the Senate in 1962, Mechem lost to Montoya in 1964 by an unexpectedly large margin. In 1970, Montoya retained office by defeating Goldwaterite Anderson Carter. During his second term, Montoya served on the Senate committee that investigated the Watergate break-in. The televised hearings did not benefit him to the extent that national television exposure often can. As the last senator in rotation, his questions mainly reiterated inquiries made by other senators, and his comments seemed closely dependent on his notes. Soon afterward Montoya was the target of unsupported allegations that he had pressured the Internal Revenue Service to grant him favorable treatment because he was chairman of the Senate committee that oversaw the agency's budget. He was also harmed by reports of improprieties related to a shopping center he owned in Santa Fe. Seeking a third term in 1976, Montoya lost by a huge margin to former astronaut Harrison Schmitt. Thus ended the political career of the "barefoot boy from Peña Blanca. "
Montoya had held elective office for thirty-eight years, losing only twice. Although his family name could be considered an asset, at least twice it was a liability. He lost the 1950 congressional primary to Antonio Fernandez by 2, 000 votes because another Joe Montoya on the ballot collected 10, 000 votes. In the 1962 election, he was faced with an opponent who claimed he was the actual Joe Montoya. Only after the congressman presented papers in court confirming that he had surrendered his birth name of José did he prevail. Montoya's final loss signaled a major change in New Mexico's political profile. The influx of people from other parts of the nation diluted the strength of the Hispanic voters in the state. By the 1950's, the "Little Texas" voters in the eastern and southern counties were giving their support to candidates who reflected their conservative origins in the American South. At the same time, Republican strength grew in Albuquerque, which had nearly one-third of the state's voters, as newcomers with college educations and other middle-class attributes rejected the patronage system that was a prominent feature of the state's Democratic politics. Stricken with an incurable kidney ailment, Montoya died after a brief hospitalization in Washington, D. C.
Achievements
Views
Montoya aggressively advocated for federal aid for state education programs and public works projects. Although all of the bills he proposed died in committee, Montoya established a reputation as an ambitious legislator. Montoya tried to secure financial and material aid for veterans and lobbied for federal workers. He advocated government support, particularly farm subsidies and funding to train seasonal workers for other occupations, as well as federal aid for depressed rural and industrial areas and public infrastructure projects. He also tried to expand educational opportunities for students because he believed providing for education was a “national responsibility as well as a local one. ” During his House tenure, Montoya supported the Vocational Education Act of 1963, which he noted would provide New Mexico an allotment - “almost double what my State is receiving under present programs. These funds are sorely needed to construct area vocational schools, improve vocational education facilities and train additional young people … to successfully enter the labor market, ” Montoya said. The House passed the bill on August 6, and President John F. Kennedy signed it into law on December 18.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
"Senator Montoya was exactly what every public servant should be - a true servant of the people who elected him. No person was too insignificant … and no problem brought to him by a constituent was ever too small for him to try to solve. ” - Manuel Luján, Jr. .
Connections
On November 9, 1940, Joseph Montoya married Della Romero. They had three children.