{"id":2258,"date":"2007-09-19T11:33:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-19T17:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/09\/veterans-activist-many-not-run-for-congress-after-all\/"},"modified":"2007-09-19T11:33:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-19T17:33:00","slug":"veterans-activist-many-not-run-for-congress-after-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/09\/veterans-activist-many-not-run-for-congress-after-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran’s activist many not run for Congress after all"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A prominent Vietnam<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> veteran who said in July he was running against U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce<\/a>, R-N.M., is having second thoughts. <\/p>\n

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

Rick Bola\u00f1os<\/a> said today he is undecided about whether he wants to join two other Democrats in the race because he\u2019s having a hard time lining up the support he needs.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe\u2019ll probably know in the next 10 days,\u201d Bola\u00f1os said.<\/p>\n

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

Bola\u00f1os told me in mid-July<\/a> that he was \u201cabsolutely\u201d running and would officially declare his candidacy within days, but it never happened. Since then, Bola\u00f1os has not attended a number of Democratic Party events, including the recent Labor Day breakfast in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. Many Democrats said they hadn\u2019t seen or heard from him recently and were beginning to question whether he was serious about running.<\/p>\n

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

Bola\u00f1os said today that he has been out of touch for a couple of weeks because he was in Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>.<\/p>\n

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

Until recently, Bola\u00f1os lived in east El Paso<\/st1:city>, but he and 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:country-region><\/st1:place> 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 is the co-chair of the veteran\u2019s outreach team for Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s<\/a> 2008 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

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

Bola\u00f1os ran in 2006 against former U.S. 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:state><\/st1:place> 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

The other two Democrats in the race to take on Pearce next year are Do\u00f1a Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley<\/a> and Al Kissling<\/a>, who ran unsuccessfully against Pearce last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A prominent Vietnam veteran who said in July he was running against U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., is having second thoughts. Rick Bola\u00f1os said today he is undecided about whether he wants to join two other Democrats in the race because he\u2019s having a hard time lining up the support he needs. \u201cWe\u2019ll probably know […]<\/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-2258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2258","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=2258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}