In Chicago politics of old, the powerful Democratic Party chairman sat in a hotel meeting room with several cigar-chomping cronies. They slated the chairman as their candidate for mayor.

Richard J. Daley used that backroom system to displace an incumbent as the Democratic nominee and then unseat him. Daley remained mayor of Chicago for 21 years. Only death in 1976 loosened his grip on power.

State Rep. Daymon Ely says he doesnt want a similar system of closed-door politics to infect a special congressional election in New Mexico.

As it stands, members of state party central committees would choose the candidates for a probable vacancy in the Albuquerque-based 1st Congressional District.

About 700,000 people live in the district. Only a few hundred party regulars would select the nominees to run in a special election.

To prevent insiders from picking who makes the ballot, Ely wants to change state election law when legislators go into session next month.

You make it a fair fight. I do not like this system of a small number of people deciding on the candidates, Ely said Tuesday in a phone interview.

How would he bring the general public into the selection process if senators confirm U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland as interior secretary and she resigns from her elected office?

Ely is not sure. He mentioned the possibility of qualified candidates from all political parties being placed on a single ballot, and a winner emerging through ranked choice voting.

In that system, if no one has a majority of first-place votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Voters who selected the ousted the candidate as their top choice then have their votes count for their second choice. The elimination of candidates and shuffling of votes continues until a candidate has a majority.

Do I think my idea is fabulous and should be accepted as Bible? No, I dont, Ely said.

He has reservations about the very concept hes mentioned.

I dont like ranked choice voting. Im not a proponent of it, Ely said.

But its a starting point for discussion, he said. His reasoning is he expects opposition to holding both traditional primaries and then a special election to choose Haalands successor.

I know there will be complaints that having primaries is more expensive and more time consuming, Ely said.

State Sen. Mark Moores, R-Albuquerque, called Ely to offer his help in changing the system to replace Haaland.

The Constitution says the House of Representatives shall be elected by the people. A smoke-filled room to pick the nominees I dont think that meets the spirit of what the founders had in mind, Moores said Tuesday.

He shares another position with Ely.

I hate ranked choice voting, Moores said. There is no concrete plan right now, but I want to make a more open, democratic process. Thats democratic with a small d.

State Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, often leads the Legislature in crafting election laws. He has a different view of party regulars choosing political nominees.

Ivey-Soto said a mere 31 central committee members in his Senate district voted when he became the replacement candidate in 2012 after the nominee withdrew. No fuss occurred over that process, Ivey-Soto said.

But thats not a fair comparison.

New Mexico has 112 state legislators but only three members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Shutting out the public while political insiders choose high-profile congressional candidates isnt smart and it shouldnt be acceptable.

The field of contenders to replace Haaland probably would be large and unwieldy, especially for the Democratic nomination. Republicans havent won the 1st Congressional District since 2006.

Already two state legislators, Rep. Melanie Stansbury and Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, say they will compete for the Democratic nomination if Haaland moves to the Interior Department.

Several other politicians, as well as people from law, business and sports, say they might seek the congressional seat.

Elys next step is to huddle with professional bill drafters at the Legislature. He needs to review election law and consider the possibilities for removing power from party regulars and giving it to the public.

In Daleys era, top-down decisions were the norm. As mayor of one of Americas largest cities, Daley could order a technician to kill the microphone of a dissenting alderman without receiving any serious criticism.

Picking congressional nominees without a public vote might seem tame by comparison. Moores and Ely say otherwise. They hope to start a movement that will change the law.

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Effort brewing to end closed-door congressional nominations - Santa Fe New Mexican