Author: fbihop

New Mexico Dems have been waiting for someone to step up to the plate to take on Sen. Pete Domenici.  Tom Udall’s name has been bandied about, as has Rick Homans.  But a blast from the recent past may beat them all to the punch — Patricia Madrid.

According to an inside source, the former New Mexico Attorney General is considering a run against Sen. Pete Domenici.  In her last run for office, she fell to Rep. Heather Wilson by less than 900 votes.

So why would Madrid be considering a run for Senate?  There are actually some very real reasons why it would be worthwhile. 

Read the reasons under the fold.  Crossposted at New Mexico FBIHOP, MyDD and Daily Kos.

For one, Madrid is an established personality in New Mexico.  She won a statewide election — twice — for Attorney General, and narrowly lost a tough election to Wilson.  I’m guessing that nearly everyone in New Mexico knows Madrid.

For another, she has a large donor base.  She raised $3.3 million for last November’s race.  She proved she can raise the money. I’m sure the DSCC would pitch in a large amount of money to any credible candidate who was willing to take on the 74-year old senior Senator.  And his warchest, $540,000, isn’t exactly an unbeatable number.  Tom Udall has more in his warchest without raising money so far this year.

Obviously, from her run in November, Madrid wants to be in Washington.  And she does need a job… Perhaps a job in the US Senate, goes the thinking.

But the number one reason Madrid may be considering a run is that she, and many, feels Domenici is vulnerable.  With the recent Iglesias scandal and a number of other things (is his age getting to him?  That hawkish position on Iraq isn’t looking so good right now, etc.), he is no longer the unbeatable legend he once was.

Madrid even weighed in on political interference into court-goings on back in March. Madrid alleged Domenici and Wilson also have involved themselves in the probe of the state treasurer scandal. So she has been paying attention, and she knows Domenici is vulnerable.

There are still those who believe that Domenici is as unbeatable as he was two years ago.  I believe his reputation has been damaged, and there isn’t any sign of the current US Attorney scandal going away.  And also for those who believe Domenici is unbeatable, you just have to say three words.  George Allen; macaca. 

I’m not saying Domenici has any racist remarks ready to come from his lips.  What I am saying is that one moment, George Allen was the unbeatable incumbent, a frontrunner for the Republican Presidential nomination.  The next moment, he was embroiled in a fight for his political career with Jim Webb; a fight that he ultimately lost.

Or if you want another example, how about Conrad Burns (who is actually three years younger than Domenici).  Again in a YouTube moment, Burns  was caught resting his eyes, cementing the image of an over-the-hill Senator, too old to serve.  Of course, Burns also insulted firefighters and referred to taxicab terrorists.

I’ll say it once again, because it is that important — Domenici has the big ol’ scandal target on his back.  When you get that scandal target on your back, people start looking closer into things they might have let go before.

Considering all of this, it’s surprising Madrid is the only one rumored to be expressing real interest in taking on our senior Senator. 

Maybe Tom Udall isn’t going to be running for Senate against Pete Domenici in 2008.  What makes me say that is his latest campaign fundraising numbers.  Sure, the numbers look good.  Udall has $712,941 cash on hand after the end of the first quarter.

But when you begin the quarter with $712,873, it’s not all that impressive.  In other words, he netted something under $100 for his fundraising efforts.  Udall raised just $1600 in the first quarter.  I could go on and on on the numbers (the number of “other income” which includes interest and dividends is nearly four times that of the money he raised), but I think you get the point.

More under the fold.  Crossposted at New Mexico FBIHOP.

This doesn’t look like someone gearing up for an intense Senate run against an incumbent of over thirty years. It looks like a safe incumbent who is willing to stay in the position he is at.

Sure, Udall has more cash on hand than Domenici, but if Udall was serious about going after Domenici — or of even scaring Domenici into retirement — he would have been out trying to put up a big number.  Raising $300,000 would have put Udall at twice the amount of money Domenici has at this point.

I’m disappointed that Udall looks to not be interested in running for Senate.  I’m just not sure which credible New Mexico Democrat will step up to the plate to take on Domenici.

(From the diaries with minor edits. – promoted by James L.)

Crossposted at New Mexico FBIHOP, Daily Kos and MyDD.

Rumors of Democrats getting ready to take on Heather Wilson for her seat in Congress have been floating around since November.

Clearly, whichever Democrat goes against Wilson will have money behind him or her (more on that below).  So who is stepping up to the plate?  State Rep. Al Park?  State Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino?  Former Albuquerque City Councilman Eric Griego?  Nope.

First up, we have the potential rock star of the group, Albuquerque City Council President Martin Heinrich.  Heinrich is popular, young, and a favorite of progressives.  Not to mention that he has his own website, which is always a plus for a blogger.

Joe Monahan reports he was told by Heinrich Monday, “Heinrich may try to clear the field and announce his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the congressional seat held by Republican Heather Wilson within the next several weeks.”

So who would he be clearing from the field?  Besides the aforementioned names, maybe Rick Homans.  So who exactly is Rick Homans?

Currently, Homans is the New Mexico Economic Development Secretary.  He also ran for mayor in 2001… where he finished fifth behind current Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez, former Bernalillo County District Attorney Bob Schwartz, the at-the-time incumbent Jim Baca and city Councilor Mike McEntee. 

And according to a source of Heath Haussamen, he is considering a run for Congress.  Most significantly, the source told Haussamen “Gov. Bill Richardson has pledged to support Homans in a Democratic primary.”

But if Heinrich steps into the race, not many (if any) Democrats would stand a chance in a primary against the city council President.

It’s about time local area Democrats stepped up to the plate to take on Wilson.  Having quotes from potential challengers about her fauxs pas from here to election day would build a nice narrative in the minds of undecided voters. 

Even better, they could start raising money to take on the inevitable large warchest Wilson will raise to try to save her job.  And they will have support from the DCCC.

After all, Wilson’s seat is perennially a target for Democrats, and the DCCC began attacking her for her controversial phone call to former US Attorney David Iglesias.  Iglesias was subsequently fired, and believes it was due to political pressure from Wilson and Sen. Pete Domenici.

The DCCC has also started a website called the Heather Wilson Watch to keep tabs on Heather Wilson.  This is similar to the now defunct Washington Wilson Watch run by the Patricia Madrid campaign.  Currently, HWW is just dedicated to her role in the Iglesias firing; but it can easily be expanded to show her stances on many issues.

For some reason, when I say or type “dirty tricks”, I think of Gollum from Lord of the Rings saying, “tricksy little hobbits…”.  But anyway, I went to Talking Points Memo, and lo and behold, I see the first item is about New Mexico!

It linked to a TPM Muckraker story about the dirty tricks by the GOP.  The Associated Press reported on the story, and in the story, the GOP claimed it only happened once, to one voter.  But NM Democratic Party director Matt Farrauto says that’s just not true.

More on the dark side of the moon.

Crossposted at New Mexico FBIHOP and as a diary at Daily Kos

“I am standing in front of four people who had it happen to them, and there’s a fifth woman who contacted me this morning,” Farrauto told me. The group was standing in the courthouse lobby, he said, waiting to meet with a judge who could order the GOP’s calls to stop.

The Albuquerque Journal mentions the controversy in their Monday-before-Election-Day article.  Again, there is the claim by the Republicans it only happened to one person.

But Marta Kramer, executive director of the state Republican Party, said the accusation was bogus. She said a volunteer on the Republican phone bank inadvertently called a Democrat who had the same name as two other Republicans.

Right.  Those other four or five people who have come forward and actually realized this is unethical and misleading information?  They don’t exist.  Not to mention we don’t know how many Democrats don’t realize the information is wrong.

Joe Monahan notes that Republicans are getting misleading mailers; I think we can assume these are being sent to everyone.

[B]log photog Mark Bralley, a Republican, said he received a mailer from his party directing him to the wrong polling location.

So there are misleading mailers along with those misleading phone calls floating about.

To see Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. Jeff Bingaman’s responses, see my earlier post.