{"id":1606,"date":"2007-04-18T23:43:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-19T05:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/04\/homans-wont-challenge-wilson-in-2008-but-other-democrats-move-toward-becoming-official-candidates\/"},"modified":"2007-04-18T23:43:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-19T05:43:00","slug":"homans-wont-challenge-wilson-in-2008-but-other-democrats-move-toward-becoming-official-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/04\/homans-wont-challenge-wilson-in-2008-but-other-democrats-move-toward-becoming-official-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"Homans won’t challenge Wilson in 2008, but other Democrats move toward becoming official candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>New Mexico Economic Development Secretary Rick Homans<\/a> has decided he won\u2019t challenge U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson<\/a>, R-N.M., next year, but a number of other Democrats are moving closer to becoming official candidates and battling for the right to face her. <\/p>\n

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

Homans, whose potential candidacy had the backing of Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a>, said he has decided against running \u201cafter serious consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cMy reasons for not running are personal and logistical and I believe that the Democrats have a very real opportunity to win the seat in 2008 if we put up a strong candidate,\u201d Homans said Wednesday. \u201cI look forward to supporting that candidate and helping our party bring Heather Wilson back home to New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>He didn\u2019t elaborate, but his decision follows a meeting last week with a representative of the Democratic Congressional Ca<\/a>mpaign Committee<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Meanwhile, a number of other Democrats are seriously considering getting into the race. Former<\/st1:placename> University<\/st1:placetype> of New Mexico<\/st1:state> President Louis Caldera<\/a> was in Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> on Wednesday to talk with a number of officials about the possibility of running for the First Congressional District seat. The former secretary of the Army and California<\/st1:state> state assemblyman\u2019s potential candidacy is interesting: He\u2019s the son of Mexican immigrants and was born in El Paso<\/st1:city>, but grew up in California<\/st1:state> and didn\u2019t live in the Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> area until becoming UNM president in 2003.<\/p>\n

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

When relations between Caldera and the university\u2019s regents soured last year, Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> came to the defense of Caldera and said the regents should keep him as president.<\/p>\n

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

He stepped down from that position in August, and is on paid leave until July, at which time he is set to join the faculty as a law professor.<\/p>\n

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

State Auditor Hector Balderas<\/a> is also considering running against Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. Albuquerque City Councilor Martin Heinrich<\/a> and former Councilor Eric Griego<\/a> say they\u2019re headed toward becoming candidates.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI am very close (to making a decision) and I\u2019m certainly leaning in that direction,\u201d Heinrich said late Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019m not ready to declare yet, but I\u2019m getting very positive feedback from folks.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Griego said the seat, which represents his hometown, \u201cmeans a lot for me personally.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI want to make sure we put our best candidate forward,\u201d Griego said. \u201cIn that regard, if there is a candidate with stronger ties to the district, who has a stronger record than I do on two key issues in this race, ethics reform and a coherent foreign policy platform, including ending the war in Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, I will consider not running. Otherwise, I will run.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Terry Brunner, state director for the office of U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman<\/a>, D-N.M., said he\u2019s still considering running after meeting with the DCCC official last week.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI\u2019m going to stay interested and see where this thing goes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Mexico Economic Development Secretary Rick Homans has decided he won\u2019t challenge U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., next year, but a number of other Democrats are moving closer to becoming official candidates and battling for the right to face her. Homans, whose potential candidacy had the backing of Gov. Bill Richardson, said he has decided […]<\/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-1606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606","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=1606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}