{"id":28565,"date":"2011-04-20T15:26:42","date_gmt":"2011-04-20T21:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=28565"},"modified":"2011-04-21T08:17:23","modified_gmt":"2011-04-21T14:17:23","slug":"balderas%e2%80%99-decision-on-senate-coming-within-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/04\/balderas%e2%80%99-decision-on-senate-coming-within-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Balderas\u2019 decision on Senate coming within days"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

State Auditor Hector Balderas<\/p><\/div>\n

State Auditor Hector Balderas<\/a> will decide by April 30 whether to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Jeff Bingaman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to a source with knowledge of the situation, who said Balderas is still \u201cseriously considering\u201d running. The source gave no clues about which way Balderas is leaning.<\/p>\n

Entering the Senate race would put Balderas up against U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich<\/a> in a Democratic primary battle. Heinrich recently reported that he has nearly $350,000 in the bank<\/a>, and Balderas would start from scratch. If Balderas is going to enter the race, he needs to do it soon, so the timing of his decision makes sense.<\/p>\n

There are signs that Democrats in Washington expect Heinrich to face a credible challenger. For example, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee\u2019s chairwoman recently said she won\u2019t endorse in the New Mexico Senate primary<\/a>, even though she did endorse in a race in another state.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

No Democrats except Heinrich and little-known community activist\u00a0Andres Valdez<\/a> have entered the race. Balderas is the high-profile Democrat said to be most seriously considering challenging Heinrich for the party\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n

In fact, Politico has reported that Balderas is\u00a0\u201c95 percent in\u201d<\/a> the Senate race.<\/p>\n

On the Republican side, former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson<\/a> and two lesser-known candidates \u2013\u00a0Greg Sowards<\/a> and\u00a0William S. English<\/a> \u2013 have entered the race. Lt. Gov.\u00a0John Sanchez<\/a> is seriously considering<\/a> entering the race, and U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce<\/a> says he\u2019s also considering running.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State Auditor Hector Balderas will decide by April 30 whether to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Jeff Bingaman, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.<\/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-28565","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\/28565","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=28565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}