{"id":22407,"date":"2010-10-13T08:18:56","date_gmt":"2010-10-13T14:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=22407"},"modified":"2010-10-14T08:20:15","modified_gmt":"2010-10-14T14:20:15","slug":"governor-sos-land-commissioner-are-hottest-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/10\/governor-sos-land-commissioner-are-hottest-races\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor, SOS, land commissioner are hottest races"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Susana Martinez (left, courtesy photo) and Diane Denish (photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Heading into the final three weeks of 2010 election, a look at who the GOP is giving money to reveals which statewide races the minority party believes it has the best chance to win. The top three are the contests for governor, secretary of state and land commissioner.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a breakdown of finance reports filed Tuesday:<\/p>\n

Governor<\/h3>\n

Republican Susana Martinez<\/a> has more money than Democrat Diane Denish<\/a> heading into the final stretch.<\/p>\n

In the last reporting period, Martinez raised $1,444,431.34 and spent $1,128,375.49, according to her finance report<\/a>. She ended the reporting period with $1,345,984,74 on hand.<\/p>\n

Denish, by comparison, raised $820,595.48 and spent $1,176,147.49, according to her finance report<\/a>. She ended the reporting period with $950,606.77 on hand.<\/p>\n

Martinez received a massive contribution from the Republican Governors Association \u2013 $500,000. Denish received $50,000 from the Democratic Governors Association and $100,000 from AFSCME.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t tell the whole story in the governor\u2019s race. Also noteworthy is the $385,000 the DGA spent during the last reporting cycle<\/a> on TV ads in support of Denish.<\/p>\n

Secretary of state<\/h3>\n

The secretary of state\u2019s race is noteworthy because of a big contribution from the GOP to Republican Dianna Duran<\/a>, and because of how little Democratic incumbent Mary Herrera<\/a> raised.<\/p>\n

Herrera raised $9,425, spent $32,489.71 and ended the reporting period with $51,400.33, according to her report<\/a>. Duran raised $54,121.62, spent $5,022.26 and ended the reporting period with $84,990.84 on hand, according to her report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Duran\u2019s only large contribution was $25,000 from the Republican Party of New Mexico \u2013 noteworthy because only Duran and the Republican candidate for land commissioner received such contributions from the state party.<\/p>\n

Land commissioner<\/h3>\n

In the land commissioner race, Republican Matt Rush<\/a> accepted $25,000 from the state GOP as he significantly outraised Democrat Ray Powell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rush raised $93,705, spent $153,537.98 and ended the reporting period with $63,198.30 on hand, according to his report<\/a>. Powell raised $33,352.01, spent $56,866.73, and ended the reporting period with $47,565.13 on hand, according to his report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lieutenant governor<\/h3>\n

In the lieutenant governor\u2019s race, Democrat Brian Col\u00f3n<\/a> reported raised $7,450.04, spent $15,851.51 and ended the reporting period with $11,966.57 on hand, according to his report<\/a>. Republican John Sanchez<\/a> raised $31,615, spent $9,342.67 and ended the reporting period with $58,625.02 on hand, according to his report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Attorney general<\/h3>\n

In the attorney general race, Democrat Gary King<\/a> raised $73,875, spent $275,221.08 and ended the reporting period with $139,002.78 on hand, according to his report<\/a>. Republican Matt Chandler<\/a> raised $54,976.14, spent $112,040.53 and ended the reporting period with $109,389.72, according to his report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Treasurer<\/h3>\n

In the state treasurer race, Democrat James B. Lewis<\/a> raised $17,701.67, spent $3,853.16 and ended the reporting period with $26,716.02 on hand, according to his report<\/a>. Republican Jim Schoonover<\/a> raised $1,330, spent $1,411.55 and ended the reporting period with $458.84 on hand, according to his report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Auditor<\/h3>\n

In the state auditor race, Democrat Hector Balderas<\/a> raised $22,789.82, spent $13,344.13 and ended the reporting period with $150,022.87 on hand, according to his report<\/a>. Republican Errol Chavez<\/a> raised $910, spent $2,619.29 and ended the reporting period with $10,967.73 on hand, according to his report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chavez\u2019s problems with filing his reports on time<\/a> continued. He filed this one almost 4.5 hours after the required deadline.<\/p>\n

The bottom line<\/h3>\n

The bottom line is that groups on both sides continue to pump big money into the governor\u2019s race, meaning that, despite Martinez\u2019s lead in the polls<\/a>, Democrats haven\u2019t given up on Denish. Republicans apparently also think they have a shot at winning secretary of state and land commissioner, as evidenced by the big contributions to their candidates in those races.<\/p>\n

Chandler has raised enough money to make the AG\u2019s race interesting, but there\u2019s an increasing sense among Republicans I\u2019ve spoken with that King may be headed for re-election. They think Chandler needs to be significantly beating King in the money race and using his cash to explicitly tear King down in TV ads \u2013 which Chandler hasn\u2019t been doing.<\/p>\n

The races for treasurer and auditor, as I wrote<\/a> following the filing of the last finance reports, appear to already be over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A look at who the GOP is giving money to reveals which statewide races the minority party believes it has the best chance to win. The top three in the last reporting period were the contests for governor, secretary of state and land commissioner.<\/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-22407","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\/22407","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=22407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}