By DANIEL J. CHACÓN 
Santa Fe New Mexican

In an often partisan world of subterfuge, shenanigans and secrecy, it’s hard to find one person everybody trusts.

At the Roundhouse, a place known for political conflicts and bickering, Adam Campos is among the few exceptions.

To call Campos well-liked may be an understatement, since he fits the description like a glove.

Or, in his case, like a custom-made shoe.

The affable Albuquerque native, who operates a small shoeshine stand in the Capitol, has been a cherished fixture of legislative sessions  for nearly two decades.

But Campos was nowhere to be seen in the past two years, when COVID-19 restrictions kept the building from being completely open to the public.

“I missed it, I missed it,” Campos, 48, said Monday. “I’ve been doing this for like 17, 18 years straight except for the two years that COVID put us out of business.”

Campos compared returning to the Capitol after his hiatus to a longed-for family reunion.

“You get to see a bunch of old friends and people you haven’t seen in a few years,” he said. “A lot of people were saying, ‘You know what, Adam? When I seen your shoeshine stand here, it made me feel like, man, we’re getting back to normal.’ As people see me here, it’s just like a sign of normalcy, like, ’Hey, we’re getting back to normal. The shoeshine guy is back.’ ”

Campos said he was at the Capitol for the 30-day legislative session in 2020.

“The session ended in February,” he said. “The next month, March, is when COVID hit.”

The following year, the Roundhouse was completely closed to the public.

“They had a fence around it,” Campos said of the 2021 session, which triggered extra security measures amid fears of violence erupting following the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Last year, the public was allowed entry, but masking and vaccination requirements were put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“It was still not quite back to normal yet so we said, ‘We’ll wait until it gets back to normal,’” he said. “By 2023, they said, ‘You know what, Adam? We’re ready to have you back.’ ”

Campos didn’t reveal exactly who told him they were ready for his return, but it’s clear his services are in demand.

Legislators, staffers, visitors and even reporters have sat in the mobile shoeshine stand Campos and his grandfather built since the start of the session last month.

Among Monday’s customers: Rep. Wonda Johnson, (D-Crownpoint), and Sen. Bill Sharer, (R-Farmington).

“This is the best thing about the session, bar none,” Sharer said. “This is the only reason I come back.”

Sharer said he gets his shoes shined weekly.

“He knows more about what’s going on in here than anyone else,” Sharer said of Campos.

Johnson said she’s been a regular customer of Campos’ during the nine years she’s served in the Legislature.

“It’s really convenient to walk in here when you have a minute to get your shoes polished,” she said. “My dad taught us how to polish your own shoes, and it was important for my dad to have nice, clean, sharp looking boots, so I grew into it, and now I like my shoes polished.”

Campos, who sees between 20 and 50 customers a day, charges $6 for a shine.

“The price is good, probably too good,” Johnson said, who tipped Campos $5.

Campos said he keeps the price “real inexpensive so anybody” can afford to get their shoes shined.

Campos said a shoe shine takes about five to 10 minutes, depending on the shoe and shoe size.

“You gotta try to get it done quickly because people have things to do,” he said. “They don’t have time to sit here for 30 minutes.”

“It’s like getting your truck washed,” Johnson said.

Campos, in fact, does start off with a wash.

“We hit [the shoes] with saddle soap and water and we clean them up really good,” he said. “After you clean them up really good with the saddle soap and water, then we hit them with a leather conditioner and after the leather conditioner, we hit them with shoeshine.”

Campos, who owns Model Shoe Shine Parlor in downtown Albuquerque, a business started in 1931, works at the Capitol only three days a week: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

“Every year I try to keep that schedule,” he said. “I don’t want to confuse anybody.”

Campos said Gov. Bill Richardson is the last governor to have shoes shined at his stand.

“A lot of times, he would send them down, like bags of boots, and I would shine them up, and every once in a while, he would come down here and get a shoeshine,” he said. “That was the last governor I had in the chair.”

Campos said he would welcome Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is serving her second term.

“She does have lots of boots, so if she does need me, she knows where to find me,” he said.

Campos said he’s shined the shoes of celebrities such as wrestler Hulk Hogan, football player Emmitt Smith and actor Omari Hardwick.

“Everybody likes him,” David Abbey, director of the Legislative Finance Committee, said as he walked into the Capitol’s elevators. “He knows everybody.”

Campos said he hears a lot of political insight but always keeps it secret.

“Oh yeah, the shoe shine guy knows everything, but he don’t repeat it,” he said, laughing.

“I think that’s the reason I’ve been here so long,” he added. “People come and can say whatever they want, and my job as a small business owner is to make sure it stays with me. … What’s said here at the shoeshine stand stays here with the shoeshine stand. It’s kind of like doctor-patient confidentiality.”

Asked whether he gets more business from Republicans or Democrats, Campos said he doesn’t ask his clients’ party affiliation.

“As long as they’ve got shoes to shine, I don’t care what they are,” he said. “Shoeshine is bipartisan.”

Campos said a person’s shoes say a lot about them.

“A shine on a man’s shoe reflects their brilliance,” he said. “I just think that it’s important for people to have their shoes shined because it just shows that you take pride in how you look.”

Asked if he’s ever ruined anybody’s shoes, Campos is quick to respond.

“No, thank God, no,” he said. “I might’ve messed up a few pairs of socks … and just joking, when I get some [shoe shine] on their socks, I tell them, ’Ooooh, now I’m going to have to charge you extra because I’m making your socks match the shoes.’ ”

Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.