{"id":2596,"date":"2007-12-04T16:22:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-04T22:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/12\/indian-affairs-secretary-to-run-for-udalls-house-seat\/"},"modified":"2007-12-04T16:22:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-04T22:22:00","slug":"indian-affairs-secretary-to-run-for-udalls-house-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/12\/indian-affairs-secretary-to-run-for-udalls-house-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian affairs secretary to run for Udall’s House seat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Benny Shendo, Jr.<\/a>, cabinet secretary for the state\u2019s Indian Affairs Department, confirmed today that he will run for the Third Congressional District seat being vacated by Tom Udall<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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

He has been considering the race for some time.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe\u2019re beyond the thinking stage,\u201d he said today. \u201cWe are going to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Shendo, a Democrat, said he hasn\u2019t set a date to formally announce his candidacy, but hopes to make the announcement \u201cwithin the next couple of weeks.\u201d He said his campaign budget will be \u201c$500,000, minimum.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Raising that amount of money will help him keep pace with the bar that has been set by Santa Fe green builder Don Wiviott<\/a>, who has pledged at least $325,000 of his own money to the race.<\/p>\n

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

The only other announced candidate is Santa Fe County Commissioner Harry Montoya. Several other Democrats, including Public Regulation Commission Chairman Ben Ray Lujan<\/a>, Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano and former state Rep. Patsy Trujillo say they\u2019re considering the race, and Lujan is expected to run.<\/p>\n

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

No Republicans have entered the race, but Los Alamos National Laboratory engineer Ron Dolin and state Rep. Brian Moore are among those considering running.<\/p>\n

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

Shendo said he hopes to have \u201cseveral thousand people contributing small amounts of money\u201d to his campaign, and said he has a plan to make that happen.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe\u2019ll do well,\u201d he said. \u201cThere will be the big-money people but you also have to involve people who don\u2019t have lots of money in the campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

He said his platform will include environmental issues but will be centered on education. Most of his career has been in education.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cCertainly, education will be my core, and from there we\u2019ll build,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody talks about education, but I\u2019ve done it. It\u2019s an easy thing to talk about but the hardest thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Shendo, a native of the Jemez Pueblo, was appointed to his current position by Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> in 2004 and is the first to hold the relatively new cabinet position for Indian affairs. He has served in various management positions, including running the Native American program at the University<\/st1:placetype> of New Mexico<\/st1:placename> and being assistant dean for students and director for the American Indian and Alaskan Native program at Stanford<\/st1:placename> University<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

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

He has served as 2nd and 1st lieutenant governor for his pueblo and co-founded there the first charter school on an Indian reservation in the state.<\/p>\n

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

Shendo has two children, Eileen and Benjamin, and is a graduate of the University<\/st1:placetype> of Colorado<\/st1:placename> at Boulder<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Benny Shendo, Jr., cabinet secretary for the state\u2019s Indian Affairs Department, confirmed today that he will run for the Third Congressional District seat being vacated by Tom Udall. He has been considering the race for some time. \u201cWe\u2019re beyond the thinking stage,\u201d he said today. \u201cWe are going to move forward.\u201d Shendo, a Democrat, said […]<\/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-2596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596","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=2596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}