{"id":2442,"date":"2007-10-29T15:12:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-29T21:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/cope-joined-chavez-team-after-campaign-made-claim\/"},"modified":"2007-10-29T15:12:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-29T21:12:00","slug":"cope-joined-chavez-team-after-campaign-made-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/cope-joined-chavez-team-after-campaign-made-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"Cope joined Ch\u00e1vez team after campaign made claim"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Hobbs<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> oilman Johnny Cope will serve on the finance committee for the U.S. Senate campaign of Albuquerque Mayor Martin Ch\u00e1vez<\/a>, but said he did not agree to do so until after Ch\u00e1vez listed him among the committee\u2019s members last week. <\/p>\n

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

\u201cThere was a little mix-up there, but the answer is I\u2019m going to raise money for Marty, and if he wants me on his committee, I\u2019m fine doing it,\u201d Cope said today.<\/p>\n

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

Cope\u2019s statement reveals further uncertainty about Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s Thursday announcement of the members of his committee. The confusion comes at a time when many Democrats, unsatisfied with their candidates who are vying for the right to take on either US. Rep. Steve Pearce<\/a> or Heather Wilson<\/a> in the Senate race next year, are pushing for Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a>, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish<\/a> or U.S. Rep. Tom Udall<\/a> to enter the race.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>A Thursday news release from Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s campaign listed Paul Blanchard, who serves on Richardson\u2019s national finance committee, and Javier Gonzales, a former Santa Fe County commissioner, as members of Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s finance committee.<\/p>\n

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

Though his name wasn\u2019t included in the news release, Ch\u00e1vez told me during a Thursday interview that Cope, a big supporter of Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> and Denish, was also a member of his finance committee. Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s campaign manager told the same to the Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> publication Roll Call<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

But Gonzales told me Friday that he did not agree to serve on the committee. He said he would raise money for Ch\u00e1vez just like he would for other Democrats. And Blanchard refused to comment on whether he is a member of the committee. You can read more about the situation by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Cope\u2019s statement means there was confusion surrounding the inclusion of at least three of the 12 people Ch\u00e1vez said on Thursday had agreed to be members of his campaign. Apparently, the situation is being clarified.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cMarty and I talked about it after the news release came out, and I agreed to do it,\u201d Cope said.<\/p>\n

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

Ch\u00e1vez could not immediately be reached for comment. When I spoke with him Friday, just before Gonzales told me he was not on the committee, Ch\u00e1vez insisted that Blanchard, Cope and Gonzales had all agreed on Thursday to serve on the committee.<\/p>\n

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

The situation was created in part because some of the governor\u2019s closest supporters have quietly told a handful of his biggest financial backers considering who they should support in the U.S. Senate race to \u201ckeep your powder dry for awhile.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hobbs oilman Johnny Cope will serve on the finance committee for the U.S. Senate campaign of Albuquerque Mayor Martin Ch\u00e1vez, but said he did not agree to do so until after Ch\u00e1vez listed him among the committee\u2019s members last week. \u201cThere was a little mix-up there, but the answer is I\u2019m going to raise money […]<\/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-2442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442","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=2442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}