{"id":2895,"date":"2008-02-19T17:53:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-19T23:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/02\/geise-replaces-sanchez-at-state-democratic-party\/"},"modified":"2008-02-19T17:53:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-19T23:53:00","slug":"geise-replaces-sanchez-at-state-democratic-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/02\/geise-replaces-sanchez-at-state-democratic-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Geise replaces Sanchez at state Democratic Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Laura Sanchez has resigned from her job as executive director of the Democratic Party of New Mexico<\/a> after a presidential caucus plagued by problems. <\/p>\n

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

Replacing Sanchez is Josh Geise, a veteran Democratic political operative, state party Chairman Brian Col\u00f3n confirmed in a news release naming him the interim executive director.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cAs we move forward to November, our singular focus is carrying New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> for our Democratic presidential nominee, electing Tom Udall<\/a> to the U.S. Senate and winning all three open congressional seats,\u201d Col\u00f3n said in the news release. \u201cThis is a historic year in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> and I\u2019m excited to have Josh leading our staff at the party as we move forward to November.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Sanchez resigned over the weekend, and Geise said in an interview that he began work today after meeting with Col\u00f3n on Monday. He said he doesn\u2019t know how long he will serve as interim director.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI think we\u2019ll sort of address that at a later date,\u201d Geise said.<\/p>\n

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

The change comes after a Feb. 5 caucus that was plagued by problems. A lack of funding, planning and organization led to the party being overwhelmed by huge voter turnout. It took nine days for the party to finalize results and declare Hillary Clinton<\/a> the winner, and even after that many have questioned the integrity of the results because of concerns about the reliability of the voter list the party used and other issues.<\/p>\n

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

Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> and Albuquerque Mayor Martin Ch\u00e1vez<\/a> were among the critics of the way the caucus was run. The news release announcing the personnel moves didn\u2019t mention the caucus problems.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Geise said in the release that he is excited to take the job \u201cin what is shaping up to be the most intense campaign cycle in New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> history.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe have a lot of long days and nights ahead of us and, with the leadership of Chairman Col\u00f3n, I am confident Nov. 4 is going to be a very good night for New Mexico Democrats,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

Geise most recently worked on Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s presidential campaign as the early states political director. He was the coordinated campaign director for the state\u2019s Democrats in 2006 and, last year, ran the successful campaign for approval of the spaceport tax in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> for lobbyist Butch Maki\u2019s campaign consulting arm, The Victory Group.<\/p>\n

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

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

Col\u00f3n hired Sanchez in August following a national search. At the time he called the Deming native \u201ca model Democrat\u201d and said her experience as an attorney and political activist would serve the state well.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cLaura did a tremendous job during my first year as chairman as we embarked on an unprecedented listening tour around our state to reach out to Democrats in all corners of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>,\u201d Col\u00f3n said in today\u2019s news release. \u201cLaura\u2019s work ethic and dedication to the Democratic Party have never wavered, and I wish her the best of luck in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Col\u00f3n and Sanchez could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laura Sanchez has resigned from her job as executive director of the Democratic Party of New Mexico after a presidential caucus plagued by problems. Replacing Sanchez is Josh Geise, a veteran Democratic political operative, state party Chairman Brian Col\u00f3n confirmed in a news release naming him the interim executive director. \u201cAs we move forward to […]<\/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-2895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2895","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=2895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}