{"id":1649,"date":"2007-04-28T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-28T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/04\/colon-to-lead-dems-weh-keeps-top-gop-position\/"},"modified":"2007-04-28T15:30:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-28T21:30:00","slug":"colon-to-lead-dems-weh-keeps-top-gop-position","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/04\/colon-to-lead-dems-weh-keeps-top-gop-position\/","title":{"rendered":"Col\u00f3n to lead Dems, Weh keeps top GOP position"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Brian Col\u00f3n was elected chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico<\/a> and Allen Weh<\/a> was re-elected chair of the Republican Party of New Mexico<\/a> in separate committee meetings held today. <\/p>\n

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

At a meeting held in Las Cruces<\/st1:city>, Democrats overwhelming picked the Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> lawyer to lead them for the next two years. Col\u00f3n received 295 votes, while Michael Olguin of Socorro, a former House majority leader, received 68 votes, and Gideon Elliot of Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, who runs the liberal blog New Mexico Matters<\/a>, received 21 votes.<\/p>\n

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

Col\u00f3n said he was honored that Democrats wanted him to be their leader. During his nomination speech, he spoke about growing up poor and said some types of government aid, including the free lunch system in the schools, helped him overcome poverty and become successful so that, today, his son has more than he did.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe system works when we reach out and give people a hand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

He was nominated by his wife, Maria, who said Col\u00f3n is \u201cthe Energizer Bunny. He just goes on and on and on. He never stops.\u201d The nomination was seconded by his son Rafael, who spoke in English and Spanish.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>In Albuquerque<\/st1:city>, Weh, of Albuquerque<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>, overcame a late challenge by C. Earl Greer<\/a> of Truth or Consequences to win 182-137. The victory was upheld by a recount.<\/p>\n

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

I was unable to reach Weh for comment.<\/p>\n

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

Democrats re-elected Annadelle Sanchez as vice chair and Republicans re-elected Ceil Levatino as their vice chair. The only Republican candidate among the Greer slate to win was Mike Kakuska of Roswell<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, who was elected the party\u2019s Second Congressional District delegate. He beat out Terry Marquardt of Alamogordo<\/st1:city>, a former state representative, after the entire delegation from Roswell<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> supported Kakuska.<\/p>\n

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

It\u2019s noteworthy because some of this infighting in the Republican Party originates in Roswell<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. Kakuska and Nora Espinosa were in a nasty House primary in Roswell<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> last year, but Espinosa ended up supporting Kakuska over Marquardt.<\/p>\n

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

It\u2019s also interesting that Marquardt has gone from the House minority whip to someone who failed to win a leadership position in the party.<\/p>\n

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

I\u2019ll have more coverage from the Democrats\u2019 event and photos later today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brian Col\u00f3n was elected chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico and Allen Weh was re-elected chair of the Republican Party of New Mexico in separate committee meetings held today. At a meeting held in Las Cruces, Democrats overwhelming picked the Albuquerque lawyer to lead them for the next two years. Col\u00f3n received 295 […]<\/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-1649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649","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=1649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}