{"id":3564,"date":"2008-08-13T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-13T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/08\/obama-needs-to-win-new-mexico-his-campaign-says\/"},"modified":"2008-08-13T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-13T12:00:00","slug":"obama-needs-to-win-new-mexico-his-campaign-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/08\/obama-needs-to-win-new-mexico-his-campaign-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama needs to win New Mexico, his campaign says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n

Top GOP official also talks about the state\u2019s importance in presidential race<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Barack Obama\u2019s<\/a> campaign says almost every scenario that would give him the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency in November requires beating John McCain<\/a> in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>.<\/p>\n

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

That\u2019s why the campaign of the Democratic presidential candidate has already opened 23 offices around the state and is giving attention to rural areas that have never received much attention in presidential races, including Anthony, Raton and Shiprock.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Democrat Al Gore<\/a> won New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> by 366 votes in 2000. In 2004, New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> flipped red, with President Bush<\/a> narrowly winning by 5,988 votes.<\/p>\n

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

Steve Hildebrand, Obama\u2019s deputy campaign manager, said on a conference call on Tuesday with reporters that the campaign will focus on population centers including Santa Fe<\/st1:city>, Albuquerque<\/st1:city> and Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, but what\u2019s unusual about the campaign is its focus on and early success in rural areas.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe believe that with a very strong, very active and very New Mexico-centered campaign, Barack will be in a very good position to win this state come November,\u201d Hildebrand said. To back it up, his campaign released a document<\/a> highlighting its blueprint for victory here.<\/p>\n

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

Adrian Saenz, Obama\u2019s New Mexico director, said during the call that on Tuesday the campaign had 4,038 active volunteers in New Mexico, with a quarter of them living in rural areas. He said 34,000 New Mexicans have signed up to receive Obama campaign e-mails, with a third of those people living in rural areas.<\/p>\n

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

The campaign is opening its 24th office today in Espa\u00f1ola and plans additional offices in cities including Carlsbad<\/st1:city> and Roswell<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe are making every effort to get into every region of the state, and not just establish a presence but get to know the region,\u201d Saenz said.<\/p>\n

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

GOP is ready to do battle<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Republican National Committee Deputy Chairman Frank Donatelli<\/a> said in an interview that Obama and the Democrats might top McCain and the GOP in spending in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, but the RNC\u2019s victory campaign has been in place through several election cycles and has a strong system for targeting voters. It helps coordinate the state and national Republican parties with the McCain campaign to ensure efficiency and a consistent message.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI don\u2019t know that we\u2019re going to match Obama dollar for dollar, but we will work more effectively,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 We\u2019re going to have a large number of offices too. \u2026 We\u2019ll have a large presence, a large number of staffers here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Neither the Obama campaign nor Donatelli would release staffing numbers.<\/p>\n

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

Donatelli was in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> on Tuesday to meet with state officials and help coordinate the campaign. He said the meetings were productive and he\u2019s confident about McCain\u2019s chances in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. He said the GOP will direct significant resources to the state.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt\u2019ll be enough to get the job done,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 I am very optimistic. I think we\u2019re seeing the energy issue cutting in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> the same way it\u2019s cutting in the rest of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Some 60-70 percent of Americans say in polls that they support increased domestic and offshore drilling — a position more commonly associated with Republicans.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI don\u2019t know if we\u2019re a couple of points ahead or a couple of points behind at this point, but that doesn\u2019t really matter,\u201d Donatelli said. \u201cWhat matters is that we\u2019re on the right side of the issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u2018An unprecedented showing of grass-roots support\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

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

But Lt. Gov. Diane Denish<\/a>, who was on the Obama conference call, said it\u2019s Obama whose message is resonating with New Mexicans. She just returned from a two-week tour of rural New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> and said everywhere she went she found some level of organization for the Obama campaign.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt\u2019s clear to me that New Mexicans are ready for change. I think there\u2019s an unprecedented showing of grass-roots support,\u201d Denish said.<\/p>\n

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

Daniel Vela, the college Democrats\u2019 president at Eastern<\/st1:placename> New Mexico<\/st1:placename> University<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> in Portales, is a volunteer for the Obama campaign and participated in today\u2019s conference call.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThere seems to be a good base of support here, and this is a conservative area, so I have no doubt that Barack has a good chance of winning New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>,\u201d Vela said.<\/p>\n

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

Last weekend the Obama campaign conducted a statewide canvass with more than 1,000 volunteers. One of the largest outreaches was in Raton, which Saenz said was \u201csomewhat shocking to us, but it was a great indicator of the level of support around the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Just as Donatelli promised that McCain will spend more time in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> before November, Saenz said the same about Obama, though he said it\u2019s too early to say where or when he\u2019ll visit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Top GOP official also talks about the state\u2019s importance in presidential race Barack Obama\u2019s campaign says almost every scenario that would give him the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency in November requires beating John McCain in New Mexico. That\u2019s why the campaign of the Democratic presidential candidate has already opened 23 offices […]<\/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-3564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3564","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=3564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}