Rocket racing tops list of news about the spaceport

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New Mexico’s fledgling commercial space industry got a boost today when the Rocket Racing League finally announced, after two years of delays, an exhibition race schedule that includes a contest in Las Cruces. The Las Cruces race will coincide with the 2008 X Prize Cup in October, but the date and exact location of the race haven’t been announced. The league made the announcement today along with announcements of two other exhibition races. One will be held Aug. 1 and 2 at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis., the largest air show in the world, and the other will be held Nov. Continue Reading

Guv to give policy speech at NMSU on Wednesday

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Gov. Bill Richardson will give a speech on the impact of U.S. foreign policy on domestic issues on Wednesday at New Mexico State University. Richardson will give his speech, “The Impact of U.S. Foreign Policy on Domestic Issues in New Mexico and Beyond,” at 3 p.m. at the Music Recital Hall on the Las Cruces campus. The event, sponsored by NMSU’s International Relations Institute, is free and open to the public. “Gov. Richardson is a seasoned diplomat who has been active in resolving difficult issues between countries. His understanding of these issues and his active support for the International Relations Institute will help in positioning NMSU and New Mexico at the forefront of this global society,” said Delano Lewis, former U.S. ambassador to South Africa and director of the International Relations Institute. Continue Reading

Newman raises $295K during first quarter of 2008

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Republican Second Congressional District candidate Monty Newman raised almost $300,000 during the first three months of 2008, including a $100,000 loan he made to his own campaign. In addition to the loan, Newman raised $194,200 from individuals and $1,000 from political action committees, bringing the total raised to $295,200, according to the report he filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission. He spent $88,906, leaving him with $206,293 in the bank on March 31. Newman is the first candidate from the Southern New Mexico district to file his report with the FEC for the first three months of the year. Reports must be filed and made public by Tuesday. Continue Reading

Doña Ana Dems open 2008 campaign HQ

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The Democratic Party of Doña Ana County has a new campaign headquarters for all 2008 candidates that will include the county office of U.S. Senate candidate Tom Udall. The office is located at 139 North Water Street in the old Popular Dry Goods building. The party is holding a grand opening for the office on Friday from 6-9 p.m. Democrats can hear about candidates and learn about upcoming events and how to volunteer. For more information, call county party Chair Melinda Whitley at 523-0470. Continue Reading

Hearing on Vigil-Giron’s signatures is today

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A challenge to the petition signatures collected by would-be First Congressional District Democratic candidate Rebecca Vigil-Giron may be decided in court today. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for 2 p.m. in the court of District Judge Daniel Sanchez in Santa Fe. “I hope to be on the ballot,” Vigil-Giron said. Vigil-Giron has filed a motion to dismiss the challenge, which was filed earlier this month by three supporters of another Democratic First Congressional District candidate, Michelle Lujan-Grisham. It alleges that Vigil-Giron submitted more than 600 signatures that weren’t valid, which would leave her 100 short of the 1,214 required to qualify for the ballot. Continue Reading

Luján wins hotly contested non-scientific CD3 poll

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Last week’s non-scientific Third Congressional District Democratic primary poll on this site had far more votes than any other poll in this site’s history, and was narrowly won by Ben R. Luján. Of 1,177 voters, 550, or 47 percent, said Luján will win the primary, while 508, or 43 percent, said Don Wiviott will win. Meanwhile, 93 voters, or 8 percent, picked Harry Montoya; 12 voters, or 1 percent, picked Benny Shendo Jr.; nine voters, or 1 percent, picked Jon Adams; and five voters, or less than 1 percent, picked Rudy Martin. I don’t recall a weekly non-scientific poll on this site, before this one, that had more than 330 total votes. It appears that the Luján and Wiviott campaigns worked hard to get supporters to the site to vote, and so did the Montoya campaign. Continue Reading

Dunn raises almost $107K during first quarter of 2008

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Republican Second Congressional District candidate Aubrey Dunn raised $106,598 during the first quarter of 2008, his campaign announced today. Dunn spent almost $95,000 during the quarter, and ended it with $287,148 on hand, according to a news release from his campaign. The money that was left was largely the result of a $300,000 loan Dunn gave his campaign during the fourth quarter of 2007. The news release said 83 percent of Dunn’s contributions came from New Mexicans. “I believe one of the problems with our government today is that too many politicians are used to spending other people’s money instead of their own. Continue Reading

Poll finds Udall with big leads over Pearce, Wilson

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A new poll finds that Democrat Tom Udall continues to enjoy sizable leads over both Republicans vying for the right to take him on in the U.S. Senate race in November. The Rasmussen Reports poll released Thursday had Udall leading Steve Pearce by 14 points, 54 percent to 40 percent, and leading Heather Wilson by 20 points, 56 percent to 36 percent. The survey of 500 likely voters was conducted on Tuesday and has a margin of error of 4.5 percent. For Udall, the new poll reflects a gain from the Feb. 29 poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports, which had him leading Pearce by eight points and Wilson by seven points. Continue Reading

Udall raises $1.3 million during first quarter of 2008

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Democrat Tom Udall raised $1.3 million in the first quarter of 2008 for his Senate campaign. That’s more than the $1 million he raised during the fourth quarter of 2007 – an amount that beat the combined fourth-quarter fundraising totals of GOP Senate candidates Steve Pearce and Heather Wilson. Pearce and Wilson have not released fundraising numbers for the first quarter of this year. Reports must be publicly filed by Tuesday. “Thanks to your overwhelmingly generous support, we’re going to be reporting to the Federal Election Commission that we have raised $1.3 million in the first quarter of this year,” Udall Campaign Manager Amanda Cooper wrote in an early morning e-mail to supporters. Continue Reading

Senate Dem leaders call for special session in the fall

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Hours after Gov. Bill Richardson threatened to hold a special session for universal health care in May because of a lack of progress on the topic by Senate leaders, the top Senate Democrats endorsed the idea of a special session but said it should be held no sooner than the fall. “Every New Mexican deserves to be able to get good, affordable health care when they need it. We are committed to making sure that happens,” Senate President Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, said in a news release. “The reforms necessary to achieve that goal are quite complex and need to be worked out over time.” “Several members of the state Senate have been meeting and will continue to meet in the coming months to help forge an agreement on the difficult question of how best to approach or pay for health-care reforms,” said Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen. “I expect that groundwork can be completed by the end of the summer and that a special session could convene as early as this fall.” Earlier today, I reported on Richardson’s threat to call the session in May because he said Senate leaders have met only once to discuss universal health care and have made no progress. Continue Reading

Pearce-backing group attacks Wilson in ad

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The Club for Growth, a conservative group that has endorsed Steve Pearce in the U.S. Senate primary, has created a new ad attacking Heather Wilson as a “liberal” spendthrift. Here’s the ad: It attacks her for voting in favor of congressional earmarks that are often tucked into unrelated but important bills – bills Pearce often votes against simply because of the earmarks – and accuses her of voting against “efforts to stop wasteful earmark spending” 90 percent of the time. That, the ad states, is “one of the worst spending records of any Republican in Congress.” When the ad makes that claim, images of Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton appear. The ad comes complete with a Web page that lists what it calls wasteful spending Wilson has voted to approve. The Wilson campaign declined to comment. Continue Reading

Daily Kos readers like Obama/Richardson ticket

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Bill Richardson has won a series non-scientific polls on the influential, liberal blog Daily Kos that surveyed the site’s readers about who should be Barack Obama’s running mate. The finalists who went head-to-head in the last poll were Richardson and U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va. Richardson won with 3,109 votes, or 56 percent, to Webb’s 2,406 votes, or 44 percent. You can read about it by clicking here. “The governor is grateful for the strong show of support, but he is focused on helping Senator Obama become the next president of the U.S. and nothing more,” Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley said. Continue Reading

Richardson threatens to hold special session in May

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Gov. Bill Richardson is threatening to call a special session in May to deal with universal health care, saying he’s not pleased with the progress of Senate leaders who had agreed to work toward consensus in exchange for delaying the session until the summer. “The governor has tried to work with Senate leaders to move this issue forward and forge an agreement on health care before a special session,” Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said. “But Senate leaders have only met once, and there has been no progress whatsoever. The governor will now meet with House leaders, and he is inclined to hold a special session in May.” House Speaker Ben Lujan could not be immediately reached for comment. Every member of the Legislature is up for re-election this year, and a number are facing contested primaries on June 3. Continue Reading

Pearce claps for controversial ‘Tiger Woods’ comment

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At a veterans’ event in Washington on Wednesday, David Bellavia, a co-founder of the group Vets for Freedom, introduced GOP presidential nominee John McCain with a quote that is being discussed on television and the Internet. “You can have your Tiger Woods. We’ve got Sen. McCain,” he said. After applause, to leave no doubt that he was referring to Barack Obama, Bellavia said, as he gestured to McCain, “My friends, this is the real audacity of hope.” The Audacity of Hope is the title of one of Obama’s books. The situation is interesting in New Mexico because of who was standing next to Bellavia when he made the comments: U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, who is running for Senate this year. Continue Reading

Heinrich raises $200K during first quarter of 2008

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First Congressional District Democratic candidate Martin Heinrich raised $200,000 during the first quarter of 2008 and had almost $350,000 on hand on March 31, according to a news release from his campaign. “I’m proud and humbled by the outpouring of support I’ve received from folks across this district,” Heinrich said in the release. “For months, we have focused on building both the grassroots and fundraising infrastructure that we will need to win in June and in November – and our huge successes at the convention and in this most recent fundraising period are proof that this campaign has what it takes to succeed.” The news from the candidate many consider to be the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination comes as the likely GOP nominee, Darren White, announced that he raised $233,509 during the first quarter of 2008 and began the second quarter of the year with about $300,000 on hand. Heinrich’s release stated that he has raised $665,000 during the 2008 election cycle, which means he has spent more than $300,000. He has received contributions from more than 2,000 individuals. Continue Reading