{"id":2555,"date":"2007-11-26T11:17:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-26T17:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/11\/chavez-hits-udall-over-proposed-lab-funding-cuts\/"},"modified":"2007-11-26T11:17:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-26T17:17:00","slug":"chavez-hits-udall-over-proposed-lab-funding-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/11\/chavez-hits-udall-over-proposed-lab-funding-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Ch\u00e1vez hits Udall over proposed lab funding cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Albuquerque Mayor Martin Ch\u00e1vez<\/a> is hitting U.S. Rep. Tom Udall<\/a> hard as the two battle for the Democratic Party nomination for the Senate seat being vacated by Pete Domenici<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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

In a weekend news release, Ch\u00e1vez announced that he is meeting in Los Alamos<\/st1:place> today with employees of the national lab located there. A pending and controversial bill that Udall supported would cut about $400 million from the budget for the state\u2019s two labs compared to the previous fiscal year.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>\u201cNumerous members of the LANL community have been in touch with us about this devastating blow,\u201d Ch\u00e1vez said in the release. \u201c(Today) I\u2019ll be taking the message up to the hill to Los Alamos that New Mexicans must send a senator to Washington who will stand up for them, not someone who supports job cuts at our state\u2019s national laboratories.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Then the attack, from Ch\u00e1vez campaign manager Mark Fleisher:<\/p>\n

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

\u201cTom Udall now has the dubious distinction of being the only member of Congress from New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> in history to vote in favor of decreased funding and cutting jobs at LANL and Sandia,\u201d he said. \u201cUdall owes these families and other lab workers an apology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fleisher also said Udall has broken his promise to the people of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cTom Udall said he would fight for New Mexico<\/st1:state> in Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when the time came, he joined forces with the Beltway insiders against our state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attack had the same tone as criticism from the GOP that has been directed at Udall for months. Udall has said the cuts would be part of a push to shift the focus at the labs in part to developing renewable energy. In a statement published Sunday in The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a>, his campaign elaborated:<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe budget cuts at the lab, if they occur, are part of a larger issue involving our nation\u2019s nuclear footprint. Tom Udall\u2019s vote did not affect those larger issues,\u201d the campaign said. \u201cTom Udall has always supported the lab, its valuable employees and (its) core mission. He has always worked to direct the lab toward a future, sustainable workforce. For the mayor to focus on possible job cuts demonstrates a lack of understanding of the issues and a penchant for putting politics ahead of the best, long range interests of LANL employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Ch\u00e1vez is focusing on winning the support of the moderate wing of his party. He\u2019s called Udall a liberal since before the congressman entered the Senate race and is highlighting his own moderate record. In addition to appealing to LANL employees, Ch\u00e1vez recently visited the other conservative stronghold in Udall\u2019s House district, Farmington<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. His campaign is highlighting on its Web site an article from the Farmington Daily Times<\/a> that covered his visit. Ch\u00e1vez told the newspaper he knows he will \u201cdo well in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename>\u201d and on the east side of the state, and hopes to win Albuquerque<\/st1:city> and do well in Northern New Mexico<\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s unusual to appeal to moderates in a primary, but Ch\u00e1vez is trailing Udall in the polls and Udall has the support of most Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> insiders, so Ch\u00e1vez has to do something unique to set himself apart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Albuquerque Mayor Martin Ch\u00e1vez is hitting U.S. Rep. Tom Udall hard as the two battle for the Democratic Party nomination for the Senate seat being vacated by Pete Domenici. In a weekend news release, Ch\u00e1vez announced that he is meeting in Los Alamos today with employees of the national lab located there. A pending and […]<\/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-2555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2555","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=2555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}