{"id":29476,"date":"2011-05-23T15:40:20","date_gmt":"2011-05-23T21:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=29476"},"modified":"2011-05-24T01:05:01","modified_gmt":"2011-05-24T07:05:01","slug":"sanchez-formally-enters-senate-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/05\/sanchez-formally-enters-senate-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanchez formally enters Senate race"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Lt. Gov. John Sanchez (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Lt. Gov. John Sanchez<\/a> has formally entered the race to replace Jeff Bingaman<\/a> in the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n

The Republican filed a statement of candidacy<\/a> with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday. And the National Journal<\/a> reported this afternoon that Sanchez will announce his campaign on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The lieutenant governor\u2019s spokesman, Mark Van Dyke, had no immediate comment.<\/p>\n

Sanchez, a former state lawmaker and Republican gubernatorial nominee, joins former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson<\/a> and two lesser-known Republicans \u2013\u00a0Greg Sowards<\/a> and\u00a0William S. English<\/a> \u2013 in the GOP Senate primary.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll enter the race at a financial disadvantage \u2013 Wilson raised more than $300,000<\/a> in the first quarter of the year and Sowards loaned his campaign $150,000<\/a> \u2013 but Sanchez could gain ground quickly if he opts for self-financing. He loaned his lieutenant governor campaign\u00a0almost $274,000<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

Van Dyke confirmed that Sanchez was considering entering the Senate race in early march<\/a>. At the time, he called Sanchez a \u201cproven conservative\u201d and a businessman who is \u201cnot going to change his position based on who he\u2019s talking to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanchez later said that Wilson\u2019s time had passed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Heather served honorably,\u201d the D.C. publication The Hill quoted Sanchez as saying in late March. \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

On the Democratic side, U.S. Rep.\u00a0Martin Heinrich<\/a> and State Auditor\u00a0Hector Balderas<\/a> have entered the Senate race, as has little-known community activist\u00a0Andres Valdez<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lt. Gov. John Sanchez has formally entered the race to replace Jeff Bingaman in the U.S. Senate by filing a statement of candidacy. He reportedly plans to announce his campaign on Tuesday.<\/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-29476","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\/29476","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=29476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}