Enthusiastic crowd greets Udall in Las Cruces

U.S. Rep. Tom Udall appeared in Las Cruces to announce his Senate run today in front of an enthusiastic crowd full of high-profile officials.

Among the more than 50 people who showed up to hear Udall speak at Roberto’s Mexican Food in Las Cruces were Public Regulation Commissioner Sandy Jones, state Reps. Joseph Cervantes and Jeff Steinborn, Doña Ana County Commissioners Bill McCamley and Oscar Vásquez Butler, Las Cruces City Councilor Nathan Small, District Judge Jim Martin, Magistrate Judge Olivia Nevarez Garcia, congressional candidate Al Kissling and county commission candidate Vince Romero.

The other high-profile Democrat in the race, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez, hasn’t held a public rally in Las Cruces to compare with this event. On the GOP side, events held by U.S. Reps. Steve Pearce and Heather Wilson were not as well attended, but there are fewer Republicans than Democrats in Doña Ana County.

I’ll let you see for yourself what Udall told the crowd by watching the video of his speech at the end of this article. After the event, Udall spent a few minutes talking with me about his campaign.

“We’ve had great turnouts,” he said of his first three events in Albuquerque, Los Lunas and Las Cruces. “There’s a lot of enthusiasm in this campaign. … With Governor Richardson out, we’re the only Democrat that can win the general election.”

Udall said he will announce his campaign team in a few weeks, and will spend the month of December making an aggressive push for cash so he can show the strength of his campaign with the fourth-quarter finance report that must be filed by Jan. 15. Udall begins the race with about $800,000 that he has transferred from his House campaign account.

“I think we’ll be very happy with where we are at the end of the year,” he said.

Here’s the video of his speech: