{"id":2356,"date":"2007-10-10T07:49:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-10T13:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/pearce-still-working-toward-decision-on-senate\/"},"modified":"2007-10-10T07:49:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-10T13:49:00","slug":"pearce-still-working-toward-decision-on-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/pearce-still-working-toward-decision-on-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Pearce still working toward decision on Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>After hours of meetings on Tuesday, news broke that U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce<\/a>, R-N.M., had put together a finance committee<\/a> as he determines whether he can raise the money for a Senate run \u2013 a move that could indicate he\u2019s gone beyond considering whether he wants to run and is now trying to make it happen. <\/p>\n

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

Pearce\u2019s plan at the start of Tuesday\u2019s meetings, as I originally reported<\/a>, was to decide whether he would run and make an announcement later in the day. As I reported late Tuesday<\/a>, that changed when Pearce and staffers worked into the evening and Pearce still hadn\u2019t made a decision. Apparently, there\u2019s more work to be done. There\u2019s a lot to consider.<\/p>\n

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

It\u2019s no secret that Pearce has long coveted one of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s two U.S. Senate seats. But an unsuccessful run would also cost him his House seat and, if he helps finance his own campaign, some of his personal wealth.<\/p>\n

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

Pearce is more conservative than U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson<\/a>, R-N.M., and moderate Republicans are historically more likely to win statewide races. But moderate Republicans must first get through primaries, contests in which they are often at a disadvantage.<\/p>\n

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

The weekend SurveyUSA poll<\/a> that found Pearce to be significantly stronger statewide than Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> in potential head-to-head contests against Democratic opponents had to be encouraging for Pearce\u2019s camp. More polling is being done and, regardless of whether the public sees it, the results will be a factor in the coming days.<\/p>\n

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

The money is critical. Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> already has $750,000 in the bank and is putting together a budget in anticipation of spending more than $8 million on the primary and general election contests. Pearce has personal wealth of at least $5 million, and could use his own money to help finance his campaign. Would he? Will he find that he can raise the money he needs?<\/p>\n

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

Time will tell. How much time? After yesterday\u2019s situation, I\u2019m not inclined to take a stab at that question until plans are set. The situation is too fluid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After hours of meetings on Tuesday, news broke that U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., had put together a finance committee as he determines whether he can raise the money for a Senate run \u2013 a move that could indicate he\u2019s gone beyond considering whether he wants to run and is now trying to make it […]<\/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-2356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356","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=2356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}