{"id":1978,"date":"2007-07-16T09:14:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-16T15:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/07\/veterans-activist-to-battle-for-right-to-take-on-pearce\/"},"modified":"2007-07-16T09:14:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-16T15:14:00","slug":"veterans-activist-to-battle-for-right-to-take-on-pearce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/07\/veterans-activist-to-battle-for-right-to-take-on-pearce\/","title":{"rendered":"Veterans’ activist to battle for right to take on Pearce"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A prominent Vietnam veteran who has run unsuccessfully for Congress in the past plans to fight for the right to take on U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce<\/a>, R-N.M. next year. <\/p>\n

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

Democrat Rick Bola\u00f1os<\/a> said he is \u201cabsolutely\u201d running and plans to officially declare his candidacy later this week.<\/p>\n

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

Until recently, Bola\u00f1os lived in east El Paso<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, and he ran in 2006 against former Rep. Henry Bonilla<\/a>, R-Texas. Mid-way through that election cycle, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld most of the controversial 2003 Texas<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> redistricting, but forced the redrawing of Bonilla\u2019s district.<\/p>\n

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

It also ordered a vote on Election Day 2006 that included all candidates who wanted to run, with a runoff in December if no candidate received 50 percent.<\/p>\n

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

Bola\u00f1os was already in the race at the time, but he was joined by five other Democrats after the ruling. He withdrew before the election, saying lack of funding was a factor but also that he \u201ctook one for the team\u201d because, with so many Democrats in the race, Bonilla was likely to be re-elected. Democrat Ciro Rodriguez<\/a> ended up winning the race.<\/p>\n

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

According to records from the Federal Election Commission<\/a>, Bola\u00f1os raised about $28,000 for that race.<\/p>\n

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

Bola\u00f1os said he isn\u2019t deterred, however, by the fact that one of two other Democratic challengers to Pearce, Do\u00f1a Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley<\/a>, has already raised almost $140,000, and that Pearce has almost $400,000 in the bank for his re-election campaign.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe\u2019ve already been working the district,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n

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

He said his family moved to La Mesa<\/st1:city> in southern Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> in January and opened a personal health care business there. <\/p>\n

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

Bola\u00f1os and his three brothers served in Vietnam<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> at the same time, and they have become nationally known veterans\u2019 activists who traveled with John Kerry<\/a> during the 2004 presidential race. Bola\u00f1os has publicly endorsed Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s<\/a> 2008 presidential bid, introduced him at one public event and said he\u2019s the co-chair of the governor\u2019s veteran\u2019s outreach team.<\/p>\n

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

Bola\u00f1os said he plans to run on a platform of securing the border, health care and education reform, veterans\u2019 issues and campaign finance reform. He said he has written a book, \u201cAmerica<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> the Whore,\u201d which is being published by a private financer and deals with \u201chow we\u2019ve prostituted our nation and how political leaders don\u2019t vote their constituents any more. They vote their donors.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

It will be published in a few months, he said.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt\u2019s a sad thing that you would use that kind of title but I wanted it to be a shocking title so people would read it and find out what is really going on with our political system,\u201d Bola\u00f1os said.<\/p>\n

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

Whether Bola\u00f1os likes it or not, money is a big factor in any race, so the fundraising gap is significant, especially given the fact that he had to drop out of his last race in part because of a lack of financing. In addition, he will probably have to fight charges that he\u2019s a carpetbagger.<\/p>\n

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

At the same time, Bola\u00f1os\u2019 prominence will help him gain some attention. And he has some allies in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> among the veterans\u2019 community.<\/p>\n

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

His entrance means there are two Anglo candidates \u2013 McCamley and Al Kissling<\/a> \u2013 and one Hispanic in the race, which adds a whole new dimension to the contest. As the two lesser-known candidates, if Kissling and Bola\u00f1os both stay in the race, Kissling will likely have a harder time getting the 20 percent of votes needed at next Spring\u2019s preprimary nominating convention to get on the ballot. And Bola\u00f1os won\u2019t be as easy for McCamley to ignore as Kissling is because he\u2019s Hispanic and a veteran.<\/p>\n

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

McCamley remains far out front in the race for the right to take on Pearce, but Bola\u00f1os could make the contest interesting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A prominent Vietnam veteran who has run unsuccessfully for Congress in the past plans to fight for the right to take on U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M. next year. Democrat Rick Bola\u00f1os said he is \u201cabsolutely\u201d running and plans to officially declare his candidacy later this week. Until recently, Bola\u00f1os lived in east El Paso, […]<\/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-1978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978","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=1978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}