{"id":27669,"date":"2011-03-25T01:30:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-25T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=27669"},"modified":"2011-03-28T20:48:47","modified_gmt":"2011-03-29T02:48:47","slug":"sanchez-says-wilson%e2%80%99s-time-has-passed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/03\/sanchez-says-wilson%e2%80%99s-time-has-passed\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanchez says Wilson\u2019s time has passed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

John Sanchez<\/p><\/div>\n

During a Thursday visit to Washington, D.C., Lt. Gov. John Sanchez<\/a> sounded very much like a candidate for U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n

In fact, in an interview with The Hill<\/a>, he called Republican U.S. Senate candidate Heather Wilson<\/a> a \u201cmoderate-type\u201d leader as he sought to portray himself as the conservative alternative.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Heather served honorably,\u201d The Hill quoted Sanchez as saying about the former congresswoman. \u201cBut if we consider the choices that were made by former establishment candidates, I think it\u2019s clear the choices will be very easy for the people of New Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo they want a return back to the days of moderate-type leaders (whose) conservative compasses (weren\u2019t) pointed in the right direction?\u201d he asked. \u201cOr are they looking for somebody who doesn\u2019t have to reinvent himself? I think the choice for U.S. Senate is abundantly clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanchez is considered by many to be the toughest potential GOP primary challenger to Wilson if U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce<\/a> stays out of the race. Sanchez, who was in Washington for a meeting of the National Lieutenant Governor\u2019s Association, was quoted by The Hill as saying he will make a decision on whether to run for Senate \u201cin the spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with the Washington Post<\/a>, Sanchez was quoted as saying he is \u201cvery close\u201d to entering the race.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

My analysis<\/h3>\n

The Washington Post reporter talked with me about the race and included my analysis in his article:<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Mexico political analyst Heath Haussamen said there is indeed an opening for Sanchez. \u2018There are Republicans in New Mexico who don\u2019t believe Wilson is conservative enough to be their party\u2019s nominee for U.S. Senate, and they\u2019re actively seeking an alternative,\u2019 Haussamen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaussamen added that Sanchez, who can self-fund to a limited extent, needs to prove that he can raise the amount of money for a tough open Senate race. He also said some Republicans are wary of nominating someone who is too conservative after the shellacking Rep.\u00a0Steve Pearce\u00a0(R-N.M.) took in an open-seat race in 2008. (Pearce narrowly edged Wilson in that race.)<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Haussamen said the race still revolves around Wilson, who has been securing support from some of those who backed Pearce three years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018If this comes down to being a race between two credible candidates, the anti-Wilson candidate has a shot,\u2019 he said. \u2018If not, Wilson has a huge advantage.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During a Thursday visit to Washington, D.C., Lt. Gov. John Sanchez sounded very much like a candidate for U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[156,107,116],"class_list":["post-27669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2012-election","tag-roundhouse","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27669","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=27669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}