With Tom Udall entering the race for the open Senate seat of the retiring Pete Domenici, there is yet another open House seat in New Mexico. And Santa Fe green developer Don Wiviott is going to switch his campaign over from the Senate race to the race for the now-open Third Congressional District seat.
Democracy for New Mexico first reported on the change, saying, “Don intends to seriously explore running for Congress in NM-03.” Later yesterday, Heath Haussamen got a quote from Wiviott saying he would officially change over to the House race.
Read what he had to say under the fold. Crossposted at New Mexico FBIHOP.
Wiviott said Udall is a friend, in addition to being his congressman. He will defer to him in the Senate race, but said he plans, in running for Udall’s House seat, to stay in the fight to end the Iraq war, protect the environment and improve the education system.
Wiviott loaned himself $400,000 and raised an additional $137,189, so he will enter the House race with a significant amount of campaign cash to play with. It will be some time before we find out exactly who will oppose Wiviott. We know, however, that state Rep. Peter Wirth will not seek the job.
As for the Democratic side of the Senate race, Jim Hannan said immediately following Domenici’s retirement a month ago he would drop out of the race if Udall stepped in. But Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez and Mother Media editor Leland Lehrman both vowed to stay in the race for the US Senate seat.
Chavez’s campaign manager was confident in Chavez despite the Udall entry into the race.
Chavez’s campaign manager Mark Fleisher said today that the mayor believes he absolutely can beat Udall. Fleisher says the mayor is known around the state probably as well as Udall.
Udall and Chavez’ opponent Lehrman issued a press release explaining why he would not back off his run for Senate:
Although his votes on the environment and civil liberties make us all proud, his Washingtonian willingness to avoid tough issues means that he cannot be trusted with the leadership role a US Senator must take.
One example Lehrman gave was Udall’s vote to table a bill which would start impeachment hearings on Vice President Dick Cheney, a proposal set forth by Dennis Kucinich.