{"id":14308,"date":"2010-03-10T00:00:58","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T07:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=14308"},"modified":"2010-03-10T18:01:28","modified_gmt":"2010-03-11T01:01:28","slug":"the-gop-can-be-nm%e2%80%99s-majority-party-sanchez-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/03\/the-gop-can-be-nm%e2%80%99s-majority-party-sanchez-says\/","title":{"rendered":"The GOP can be NM\u2019s majority party, Sanchez says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Republican Lt. Gov. candidate John Sanchez (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Lieutenant governor hopeful says his experience makes him the candidate for the job<\/h4>\n

New Mexico would be much different today if John Sanchez<\/a> \u2013 not Bill Richardson<\/a> \u2013 had been governor for the last seven-plus years, Sanchez says.<\/p>\n

The Republican says the state would be \u201cflush\u201d with cash instead of struggling to cope with massive budget shortfalls. Government would be more efficient \u2013 and more effective. The \u201cculture of corruption\u201d many believe is prevalent in state government \u201cwould not exist,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople would have looked at a John Sanchez administration and the State of New Mexico as being a light at the top of the hill,\u201d Sanchez said during a recent interview in Las Cruces. \u201cWe would have been an example.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanchez says he predicted when he was running against Richardson in 2002 that if Richardson won, the Legislature would become a rubber stamp for the governor\u2019s agenda, Richardson would use the state to try to win a national race, state spending would grow almost 50 percent, and pay-to-play would increase.<\/p>\n

All of that came true, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was almost prophetic,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cIf I were running for governor, I would be running an \u2018I told you so\u2019 campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Party building<\/h3>\n

But Sanchez isn\u2019t running for governor this year. He\u2019s one of four Republicans vying for the right to be the party\u2019s nominee for lieutenant governor. The others are state Sen. Kent Cravens<\/a> of Albuquerque, former state Rep. Brian Moore<\/a> of Clayton, and Santa Fe doctor and 2006 GOP gubernatorial candidate J.R. Damron<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sanchez says he\u2019s uniquely positioned among the candidates for lieutenant governor to use the job to help build the GOP into the majority party in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Sanchez said the first step toward building a stronger and more influential GOP is going on the offense. One of former Republican Gov. Gary Johnson\u2019s<\/a> flaws, Sanchez said, was that he didn\u2019t build the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cGary just didn\u2019t really understand, or maybe didn\u2019t believe, that party building was something he should be doing,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201c\u2026 We\u2019re simply playing defense right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going on the offensive, Sanchez said, means training and helping fund GOP candidates from the local level on up. He said the Democrats, through unions and other organizations that recruit and apprentice candidates, have invested in that long-term process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not seen that in Republican leaders,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n

Such party building also means issuing a challenge to voters of all parties to vote Republican \u2013 \u201cespecially those who are tired\u201d of Democratic control and what Sanchez calls \u201cthe Richardson experiment \u2013 turning all power over to one person.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are angry, and have a right to be,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n

After eight years of Sanchez focusing on party building, he predicted, the GOP would be \u201cvery close\u201d to controlling the New Mexico Senate \u201cand we would be within striking distance in the House.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s not theory. It\u2019s practice. I\u2019ve been there,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n

In 2000, Sanchez ran against then-House Speaker Raymond Sanchez \u2013 the most powerful lawmaker in the state \u2013 and defeated him.<\/p>\n

How would he use that knowledge to build up the state GOP? Sanchez said the primary election battle in New Mexico is for conservative, younger Hispanics \u2013 who he won in 2000. And he was keeping up with Richardson in the 2002 gubernatorial race until Labor Day, when Richardson shifted gears and spent the last few weeks \u2013 and millions of dollars \u2013 attacking Sanchez.<\/p>\n

If he had the money to keep up with Richardson, the end result would have been a much closer race, Sanchez said. \u201cRichardson understood that we were making inroads,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Hispanics are looking for \u2018someone to lead them\u2019<\/h3>\n

Today the political environment is ripe for the GOP, Sanchez said. Conservative, Hispanic Democrats and independents who went with Richardson in 2002 feel betrayed. He says he often comes across people who tell him they voted for Richardson instead of him and now regret it.<\/p>\n

Sanchez is the only Hispanic in the GOP primary race for lieutenant governor. He said he\u2019s \u201cnot playing the race card,\u201d but there\u2019s a difference when a Hispanic candidate tells Hispanics that it\u2019s OK to vote Republican.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll Hispanics are looking for in this state is someone to lead them,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cThey saw that in Richardson and followed him 100 percent, and today they have a bitter taste in their mouths.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked why he isn\u2019t running for governor, Sanchez said he\u2019s a father and businessman, and he knows from 2002 what it\u2019s like to have to raise lots of money and run in a tough primary. Five Republican candidates are currently battling in a very hotly contested gubernatorial primary.<\/p>\n

Sanchez said he was \u201cclose to pulling the trigger\u201d and entering the governor\u2019s race in the Spring of 2009 \u2013 at a time when former U.S. Reps. Steve Pearce<\/a> and Heather Wilson<\/a>, both Republicans, were also considering joining the race \u2013 but the Pearce\/Wilson U.S. Senate primary in 2008 was so divisive that he didn\u2019t want to get involved in further dividing the party.<\/p>\n

Though he chose the lieutenant governor\u2019s race, Sanchez said he believes he has the stature of a gubernatorial candidate. And he said if any other Democrat had been running for governor in 2002, he would have won that race.<\/p>\n

So putting him on the ticket alongside the party\u2019s gubernatorial nominee this year, Sanchez said, is \u201cbasically two gubernatorial candidates running in different parts of the state at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not always about a bigger opportunity for me. It\u2019s about a bigger party,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cI\u2019m committed to the cause.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Mexico would be much different today if John Sanchez \u2013 not Bill Richardson \u2013 had been governor for the last seven-plus years, Sanchez says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,107],"class_list":["post-14308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}