{"id":1578,"date":"2007-04-10T17:05:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-10T23:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/04\/domenici-aims-to-discourage-potential-challengers\/"},"modified":"2007-04-10T17:05:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-10T23:05:00","slug":"domenici-aims-to-discourage-potential-challengers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/04\/domenici-aims-to-discourage-potential-challengers\/","title":{"rendered":"Domenici aims to discourage potential challengers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici<\/a> is going to report Monday that he has already raised $500,000 for the 2008 campaign, and his aides are touting the total in an effort to keep potential competitors away. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Albuquerque Tribune<\/a> is reporting that Domenici has raised $393,000 this year and hopes to have more than $1 million by June. He plans to raise more than $4 million for the race.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows he\u2019s running an aggressive campaign,\u201d Domenici\u2019s campaign finance director, Heidi Fuller, was quoted by the Tribune as saying.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Federal reports, including those for presidential candidates, must be filed by Monday.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

No one has stepped forward to challenge Domenici, but concerns about his health, coupled with the nagging U.S.<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> attorney scandal and the pending ethics inquiry, have fueled speculation that Democrats might seek a serious challenger. Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias alleges that Domenici, in a phone call last October, tried to pressure him to speed indictments in a public corruption investigation to sway voters in the November election.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

One person recruited by some Democrats is state Economic Development Secretary Rick Homans<\/a>, who is considering instead challenging U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson<\/a>, R-N.M. Lt. Gov. Diane Denish<\/a>, who plans to run for governor in 2010, has also resisted pressure to get into the race.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

A blogger<\/a> who keeps an eye on U.S. Senate races has suggested that U.S. Rep. Tom Udall<\/a>, D-N.M., should challenge Domenici. He\u2019s not alone: A source in Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> tells me that \u201cthe strong feeling of Democrats at a national level is that Tom Udall would be the strongest contender in this race.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But Udall told me in January he\u2019s not interested, and his press secretary referred me back to that statement when I asked today if anything had changed.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have nothing new to add at this time,\u201d Marissa Padilla told me today.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Besides presidential candidate Bill Richardson<\/a>, Udall is the only potential candidate who doesn\u2019t have to be in a hurry to get into the race: He can raise money for his congressional campaign and use it to run for Senate if he decided later to go that route.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

A cardinal mistake<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I should note that Fuller, speaking to the Tribune, made a cardinal mistake: In response to a question about why senators from many other states raise much more money for re-election campaigns, she said Domenici has an easier time because New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> only has one television market that broadcasts to the entire state.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cComparing New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> races to other states is like apples and oranges,\u201d the Tribune quoted her as saying.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Wrong! Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename> \u2013 which represents one-tenth of the state\u2019s population \u2013 is in the El Paso<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> television market, thank you very much. We should get Albuquerque<\/st1:city> television stations, in addition to those from El Paso<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. Clovis<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> has such a dual-market situation.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But it would take the work of Domenici and others in Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> to make that happen. Maybe the senator should get to work on that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici is going to report Monday that he has already raised $500,000 for the 2008 campaign, and his aides are touting the total in an effort to keep potential competitors away. The Albuquerque Tribune is reporting that Domenici has raised $393,000 this year and hopes to have more than $1 million by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1578","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=1578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1578\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}