Pauline Eisenstadt, 86, a retired state legislator and the first woman to serve in both houses of the New Mexico State Legislature died March 1, 2024 of natural causes. Eisenstadt served in the New Mexico House of Representatives (1984-1992), where she rose to a leadership position in the Democratic Party, and the New Mexico Senate (1996-2000). She represented her constituents, on Albuquerque’s West Side, with a love for public service at a time when governance was more collaborative and communication with constituents was mostly face-to-face.
Eisenstadt conveyed pride in finding practical solutions, helping to bring attention particularly to education (as a former teacher), women’s rights, health care, energy, the environment, science education, and human rights.
Among her greatest achievements was co-sponsorship of legislation to build the Paseo del Norte bridge connecting the quickly-growing Rio Grande Valley to the rest of Albuquerque. She also helped create the Petroglyph National Monument as part of her prioritization of environmental and historical conservation. Family remembers recall her enthusiasm at achieving bipartisan consensus on a range of infra-structure issues, although she acknowledged having less support, and needing to work harder, to pass some of her other initiatives.
Among her other achievements, Eisenstadt advocated to improve prenatal care, especially for the Native American communities, always lamenting that in the world’s richest country, we were not caring for society in a manner befitting of our people.
Prior to her time in the legislature, Pauline worked as the Founding Director of the Albuquerque non-profit, Energy Consumers of New Mexico. She helped establish the organization to provide a citizen “watchdog” on the Public Service Commission in the 1980s winning court cases that lowered rate-payer energy costs. Eisenstadt’s energy work clearly galvanized the interest of her younger son, Keith “Keegan” Eisenstadt, who became a strong advocate for reducing climate change, and protecting forests.
Keith Eisenstadt recalled that his interest in environmental protection was sparked by his mother’s trip to promote New Mexico business in China when he was 15 years old. “She came back and spoke of all the pollution there at that time, and riled me up to try to do something about it,” prompting Keith Eisenstadt’s eventual graduate study of forestry and lifelong work trying to combine business and the public interest to conserve forests and manage climate change.
Eisenstadt’s other son, Todd Eisenstadt, now a political science professor, was also greatly impacted by his mother’s modeling of political action. “In recent years my mother frequently commented that the polarization in New Mexico – and US – politics was removing the ‘community-spirit’ from political action,” said Todd Eisenstadt, who recalled campaigning door-to-door “at every house in Corrales and Rio Rancho” as a 15-year-old during Sen. Eisenstadt’s first campaign, a losing one, while he was in high school.
“She ran her campaign on the belief that voters were virtuous and that if you appealed to their good senses and with facts, you could win them over,” Todd Eisenstadt said of his mother. “The people at every house had to understand what she stood for, and we would stay on their doorstep as long as they would have us, to answer questions and get feedback. And it worked both ways; we would talk between houses about whether her position was representative enough.” He said he never learned more about civics or believing in peoples’ best nature.
Todd Eisenstadt observed that in recent discussions with his mother, she had lamented that political discourse lately had lost some of that faith in open-minded citizens who decided their positions rather than just polarizing and attacking adversaries.
Pauline Eisenstadt was a family matriarch and dedicated spouse and mother as well as a public servant. A Jewish descendant of Holocaust survivors who had fled Poland in the 1930s, Pauline also fought for human rights and helped pioneer Hate Crime legislation in the state. She was also active in mentoring women in politics and, “between the lines” in her 2012 autobiography, A Woman in Both Houses, she found some sexism in the Round House in those days, which she always tried to challenge through example and by participating in organizations promoting women’s rights. She was a pioneer in many ways, often providing a constant reminder of the changing role of women that her generation brought to the US and the world. In many ways, her shoulders are amongst those that we all now stand on.
Pauline Eisenstadt is survived by her two sons, Todd Eisenstadt and his wife Rosa Amelia Suniaga Narvaez of Garrett Park, Maryland and Keith “Keegan” Eisenstadt and his wife Kristy Pilgrim of Missoula, Montana, and four grandchildren, Natalia Eisenstadt, Paola Eisenstadt, Spencer Eisenstadt, and Holly Eisenstadt. Her deceased husband Mel, a mechanical engineer and lawyer, was also the Corrales municipal judge in the 1980s and 1990s. The family lived in Corrales from 1973-2016 when Mel and Pauline moved to The Neighborhood in Rio Rancho, where they enjoyed the last stages of their lives among new and old friends.
Services will be held at The Neighborhood on April 27 and Temple Albert on April 28. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be granted in Pauline Eisenstadt’s name to the Anti-Defamation League of Bnai-brith (ADL) anti-hate crimes group.