Watching the room at a meeting of the Doña Ana County Democratic Party on Thursday, you might have thought there were three men vying for the right to take on U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., in 2008.
Al Kissling and Bill McCamley worked the room hard at the annual meeting, at which new leaders and delegates to the state party were selected. But State Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, was working just as hard.
McCamley and Kissling have already declared that they’re in the race and, because of that, both gave speeches at the meeting. Cervantes’ last public comments about the race came in December, when he told me he was seriously considering running and would meet with his family to make a decision “as soon as I’m done with the session.”
The session is over. People are wondering, and there were a lot of eyes watching Cervantes as he made his way around the room Thursday evening looking like a candidate. When I asked, he refused to talk with me about whether he’s running.
Today, he said on The Morning Show with Michael Swickard that he’s still thinking about it.
“I do have a tremendous interest in going to
That doesn’t sound like a more definitive answer than Cervantes gave me in December or, for that matter, in December 2005, when he said he was considering running against Pearce in 2006 or making a move to higher office in
In response to criticism that he’s indecisive, Cervantes said he has more to consider than McCamley and Kissling. Kissling is retired and McCamley is single.
“I have businesses. I have employees,” he said. “It’s a big decision for us and it will involve all of our family.”
Cervantes said he is looking for opportunities to “make the state a better place and make the nation a better place,” but said a move to Washington would be a massive “lifestyle change” that would affect his family.
As I was listening to the interview, I was thinking at that point that Cervantes was leaning against running. Then he said that, while he was working the room Thursday night, several Democrats offered to work on his campaign if he runs for Congress.
“My sense is they’re going to keep an open mind for quite a few months, waiting to see if anyone else is going to get in that race,” Cervantes said.
Swickard asked about the timeframe for Cervantes’ decision, and added that, historically, candidates need to get into the race about a year beforehand – in this case, November of this year.
Cervantes said that sounded about right.
“A race against Pearce would be a year from November. I think that’s the timeline you talked about,” Cervantes said. “It’s a great opportunity.”