{"id":2398,"date":"2007-10-18T07:42:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-18T13:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/vassilopoulos-decides-against-running-for-senate\/"},"modified":"2007-10-18T07:42:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-18T13:42:00","slug":"vassilopoulos-decides-against-running-for-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/vassilopoulos-decides-against-running-for-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Vassilopoulos decides against running for Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_IabUCQmoheQ\/RxdjAt0SX3I\/AAAAAAAADvE\/eQCQRj0BVMc\/s1600-h\/Vassilopoulos,+Spiro.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_IabUCQmoheQ\/RxdjAt0SX3I\/AAAAAAAADvE\/eQCQRj0BVMc\/s200\/Vassilopoulos,+Spiro.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5122671965107281778\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>Because of the entrance of U.S. Rep. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pearceforcongress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Steve Pearce<\/a>, R-N.M., into the Senate race, another GOP oilman has decided against running.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><a href=\"http:\/\/haussamen.blogspot.com\/2007\/10\/oil-man-to-challenge-wilson-in-primary.html\">Spiro G. Vassilopoulos<\/a>, a political newcomer, informed state Republican Party Chair <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gopnm.org\/images\/NM\/GOPNMBio2007.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Allen Weh<\/a> of his decision in an e-mail late Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\u201cCongressman Pearce entering the N.M. Senate race effectively is an end to what was (for me) an interesting peek into <st1:state st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> politics,\u201d he wrote. \u201cHe has my vote and I wish the good man well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\u201cThank you to one and all for the time that you devoted in hearing me out,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Vassilopoulos had considered for months the possibility of challenging Sen. <a href=\"http:\/\/domenici.senate.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\">Pete Domenici<\/a> in a primary before news of the senator\u2019s coming retirement broke earlier this month. Shortly after Domenici announced his retirement, Vassilopoulos told a GOP crowd in <st1:city st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Alamogordo<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> that he would run but, even then, he was praising Pearce.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\u201cI will begin my campaign this coming January,\u201d the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alamogordonews.com\/news\/ci_7107031\" target=\"_blank\">Alamogordo Daily News<\/a> quoted him as saying. \u201cAnd I feel my only serious competition will be Stevan Pearce, if he decides to run for the position. Pearce is a fellow oilman and someone I consider to be intellectually honest. I have great admiration for his abilities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Vassilopoulos\u2019 decision to stay out of the race leaves only Pearce and U.S. Rep. <a href=\"http:\/\/wilson.house.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\">Heather Wilson<\/a> in the GOP primary. The Democrats who are running for Senate are Albuquerque Mayor <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chavezforsenate.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Martin Ch\u00e1vez<\/a> and political newcomers <a href=\"http:\/\/www.donfornewmexico.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Don Wiviott<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jimhannan.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Hannan<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mothermedia.org\/2008platform.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Leland Lehrman<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Lt. Gov. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dianedenish.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Diane Denish<\/a>, a Democrat, is also considering the race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Because of the entrance of U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., into the Senate race, another GOP oilman has decided against running. Spiro G. Vassilopoulos, a political newcomer, informed state Republican Party Chair Allen Weh of his decision in an e-mail late Wednesday. \u201cCongressman Pearce entering the N.M. Senate race effectively is an end to what [&hellip;]<\/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-2398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2398","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=2398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}