{"id":2910,"date":"2008-02-25T09:10:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-25T15:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/02\/turnout-high-at-gop-county-convention-in-las-cruces\/"},"modified":"2008-02-25T09:10:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-25T15:10:00","slug":"turnout-high-at-gop-county-convention-in-las-cruces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/02\/turnout-high-at-gop-county-convention-in-las-cruces\/","title":{"rendered":"Turnout high at GOP county convention in Las Cruces"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost 300 Republicans showed up to Saturday\u2019s Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> party convention to select delegates to the March 15 state preprimary nominating convention, almost tripling the usual turnout at the county meeting.<\/p>\n

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

Several longtime Republicans said they had never seen more than 100 people at a county convention in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cGreat turnout. Fantastic turnout,\u201d was how the county\u2019s interim party chair, Mark Van Dyke, characterized it.<\/p>\n

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

Republicans have reported similarly high turnout at county conventions across the state, which may suggest, coming on the heels of the record turnout for the Democratic Party\u2019s Feb. 5 presidential caucus, that interest in both parties is high this year.<\/p>\n

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

All eyes were on the Second Congressional District candidates at Saturday\u2019s meeting. A source close to Ed Tinsley\u2019s<\/a> campaign said he picked up at least 30 delegates at county conventions around the district this weekend, including at least half the 28 delegates from Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>. A candidate needs about 28 delegates from around the district to earn the 20 percent necessary to get on the ballot.<\/p>\n

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

Sources close to two other campaigns disputed the claim that Tinsley picked up half the Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> delegates, saying C. Earl Greer<\/a> won more of the county\u2019s delegates than any other candidate.<\/p>\n

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

The reality is that the campaigns should have a good idea of how much support they\u2019ve secured at this point, but there will be some undecided delegates at the March 15 state convention.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cAnyone who takes the delegate count for granted \u2013 I wouldn\u2019t do that,\u201d congressional candidate Monty Newman<\/a> said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

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

He estimated that 30-40 percent of delegates have already decided with certainty who they\u2019ll support going into the March 15 convention. He said he secured all 13 delegates from Lea<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>, and he believes Aubrey Dunn Jr.<\/a> picked up most of the delegates in Lincoln and Chaves counties.<\/p>\n

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

Other campaigns said the percentage of delegates who are committed to a candidate going into the March 15 convention is much higher than 30-40 percent. And Tinsley sounded very happy about his chances for securing more than 20 percent at the state convention. The situation appears much better for him now than it did last weekend, when Dunn surprised many with strong organization that resulted in him winning most or all of the delegates from Otero and Lincoln counties.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI feel like they ran right past us for a touchdown on the opening kickoff, but we came back,\u201d Tinsley said Saturday. Campaign spokeswoman Sarah Lenti added that the Tinsley campaign has shown \u201cthat we can mount an offensive throughout the entire district.\u201d She said it\u2019s now on to the second quarter of the game.<\/p>\n

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

After speaking with a number of people close to the campaigns and other Republicans on Saturday, here\u2019s where I think things stand: Dunn has the support of more than 20 percent of delegates. Tinsley and Greer probably do as well. At this point Newman, Terry Marquardt<\/a> and Greg Sowards<\/a> do not. Sowards, the only Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> candidate, was not successful this weekend in his attempt to become a delegate to the state convention.<\/p>\n

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

However, there are a number of undecided delegates out there, and there are three weeks for heavy lobbying before the preprimary nominating convention. In addition, the governor told me Friday he would sign a bill that would provide an alternate path to the ballot for candidates who don\u2019t win 20 percent at the convention. They\u2019ll have a few days to gather a large number of signatures, assuming the governor actually signs the bill.<\/p>\n

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

He has until March 5 to do that.<\/p>\n

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

As for the U.S. Senate race, it appears that Steve Pearce<\/a> and Heather Wilson<\/a> both have the support to get on the ballot at the state convention. No surprise there. Both \u2013 and particularly Pearce \u2013 appeared tired at the Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> meeting. It was the last of 33 county conventions both candidates visited in a seven-day period.<\/p>\n

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

Here are some photos from the convention in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost 300 Republicans showed up to Saturday\u2019s Do\u00f1a Ana County party convention to select delegates to the March 15 state preprimary nominating convention, almost tripling the usual turnout at the county meeting. Several longtime Republicans said they had never seen more than 100 people at a county convention in Las Cruces. \u201cGreat turnout. Fantastic turnout,\u201d […]<\/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-2910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910","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=2910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}