{"id":2806,"date":"2008-01-31T16:26:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-31T22:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/01\/two-women-join-race-to-replace-heather-wilson\/"},"modified":"2008-01-31T16:26:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-31T22:26:00","slug":"two-women-join-race-to-replace-heather-wilson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/01\/two-women-join-race-to-replace-heather-wilson\/","title":{"rendered":"Two women join race to replace Heather Wilson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Two women \u2013 former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron<\/a> and Jessica Wolfe, a former cabinet aide to Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> \u2013 are jumping into the race to replace Heather Wilson<\/a> in Congress. <\/p>\n

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

Both Democrats, the two join former Albuquerque City Councilor Martin Heinrich<\/a> and former state Health Secretary Michelle Lujan-Grisham<\/a> in the Democratic Primary.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThis is my home,\u201d Wolfe, an Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> native, said in a news release announcing her candidacy. \u201cAnd the time has come for someone to step up and fight for the people of this district.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Wolfe served as special assistant to cabinet affairs for Richardson<\/st1:city> and worked on issues including water cooperatives, capital and infrastructure projects in rural New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> and domestic violence. She recently returned from Iowa<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, where she volunteered for the governor\u2019s presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

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

Wolfe said she has also worked to increase access to and improve the quality of the nation\u2019s health-care system. She is in the process of setting up a campaign team and gathering signatures to get on the ballot, according to the news release.<\/p>\n

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

Vigil-Giron, meanwhile, confirmed in an e-mail that she will run for the First Congressional District seat. She is set to make a formal announcement at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Hilton Hotel, 1901 University Boulevard<\/a> in Albuquerque<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

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

Vigil-Giron, according to talking points she released to me, is set to argue that she is the best candidate because she\u2019s a Hispanic woman \u2013 the district is 53 percent female and 43 percent Hispanic \u2013 and \u201cis an experienced, nationally recognized leader and a proven vote-getter.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cGetting out the vote may very well be the key to winning in a district that hasn\u2019t elected a Democrat to Congress in decades,\u201d her talking points state. \u201cAs a former chief state election official who increased voter participation by 26 percent in 2004, Rebecca knows how to get people to the polls. She is also a skilled communicator who can motivate potential voters with her message.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Vigil-Giron served three terms as secretary of state. She\u2019ll use that experience to argue she is qualified, and is also prepared to defend herself against any criticism of her tenure. The Secretary of State\u2019s Office had a $3 million shortfall during her last year as its leader in 2006. Federal and state officials have probed the situation, and the state\u2019s Department of Finance and Administration identified some problems that it blamed on Vigil-Giron.<\/p>\n

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

Vigil-Giron blamed the situation on the Legislature, saying she had to implement new federal regulations and the state\u2019s shift to paper ballots, which was an unfunded mandate, and was told by lawmakers to run the election and come back later to seek supplemental funding to cover expenses.<\/p>\n

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

It remains to be seen whether either candidate can build the momentum to be a serious contender for the Democratic Party\u2019s nomination. Heinrich is the frontrunner, but there are some who haven\u2019t been happy with the Democratic candidates in the race \u2013 especially in light of the fact that the popular Bernalillo<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> sheriff, Darren White<\/a>, is the frontrunner for the GOP nomination \u2013 and there might be an opportunity for an inspiring, grassroots campaign to build some momentum.<\/p>\n

\n

The other Republican in the race is state Sen. Joe Carraro<\/a> of Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two women \u2013 former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron and Jessica Wolfe, a former cabinet aide to Gov. Bill Richardson \u2013 are jumping into the race to replace Heather Wilson in Congress. Both Democrats, the two join former Albuquerque City Councilor Martin Heinrich and former state Health Secretary Michelle Lujan-Grisham in the Democratic Primary. \u201cThis […]<\/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-2806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2806","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=2806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}