{"id":36117,"date":"2012-02-02T20:40:35","date_gmt":"2012-02-03T03:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=36117"},"modified":"2012-02-06T07:05:14","modified_gmt":"2012-02-06T14:05:14","slug":"sanchez-plans-to-quit-u-s-senate-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/02\/sanchez-plans-to-quit-u-s-senate-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanchez plans to quit U.S. Senate race"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATE, Feb. 2, 11:50 p.m.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0In response to this article, campaign spokesman Corbin Casteel said Sanchez \u201chas made no plans to exit the Senate race.\u201d He said any source stating otherwise is \u201csimply uninformed.\u201d NMPolitics.net stands by this article.<\/p>\n

\"Lt.<\/a>

Lt. Gov. John Sanchez<\/p><\/div>\n

A source with knowledge of the situation confirmed that Sanchez has decided to drop out of the race; the lieutenant governor told NMPolitics.net he is a U.S. Senate candidate \u2018as of today\u2019<\/h4>\n

Republican John Sanchez<\/a> has decided to drop out of the race to replace the retiring Jeff Bingaman<\/a> in the U.S. Senate, NMPolitics.net has learned.<\/p>\n

And while a spokesman said today that Sanchez has \u201cno interest\u201d in running for the First Congressional District seat being vacated by Democrat Martin Heinrich<\/a>, who is running instead for Bingaman\u2019s Senate seat, Sanchez was less clear in an interview with NMPolitics.net.<\/p>\n

Sanchez didn\u2019t confirm that he\u2019s dropping out of the Senate race during the interview, but a source with knowledge of the situation confirmed that Sanchez has made that decision.<\/p>\n

Heather Wilson<\/a> was the frontrunner in the GOP Senate primary already and remains in that position with Sanchez\u2019s departure. But his exit from the race may create an opening for the other Republican candidate, Greg Sowards<\/a>, who had been battling with Sanchez for anti-Wilson support and has stepped up his attacks on Wilson<\/a> lately.<\/p>\n

During his interview with NMPolitics.net, Sanchez sounded at times as though he intends to stay in the Senate race. For example, he said his campaign team is \u201cpreparing for the conventions and then obviously the final stretch in the spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

But instead of directly answering when asked if he would \u201cswear\u201d that he\u2019s \u201cnot dropping out of the Senate race,\u201d Sanchez, the state\u2019s lieutenant governor<\/a>, said this:<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell you as of today I am a candidate for the United States Senate.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThat sounds evasive,\u201d NMPolitics.net replied. Sanchez went on:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I can tell you that I am not a candidate, though, for CD1.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, NMPolitics.net asked, even if you drop out of the Senate race, you definitely won\u2019t run for the U.S. House?<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not a candidate for CD1,\u201d he said again before ending the interview.<\/p>\n

You can listen to portions of the interview here:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

If the player doesn\u2019t display, click here<\/a> to download the audio file.<\/p>\n

Campaign never got off the ground<\/h3>\n

NMPolitics.net does not know when Sanchez plans to announce his decision to leave the Senate race. He has been looking for a way to minimize the embarrassment of his botched campaign, the source said.<\/p>\n

But candidates for the Senate seat must officially file on Feb. 14, so Sanchez will likely announce his decision on or before that date.<\/p>\n

For Sanchez, the decision to drop out is an admission that the Senate campaign he launched in May<\/a> never got off the ground. The last poll<\/a> of the primary race, released in December, found 55 percent of Republican voters pledging support for Wilson, while Sanchez had the support of 20 percent and Sowards had 6 percent.<\/p>\n

Some thought national money would pour into Sanchez\u2019s campaign because of anti-Wilson sentiment<\/a> among many right-wing Republicans, but it hasn\u2019t happened. Sanchez\u2019s last publicly released finance report had him raising $164,000<\/a> in the third quarter of 2011 and ending it with $250,000 on hand.<\/p>\n

That compared with Wilson raising $530,000 in that quarter and ending it with more than $950,000 on hand, and Sowards raising $231,000 \u2013 much of it from himself \u2013 and ending it with $496,000 in the bank.<\/p>\n

End-of-the-year finance reports, which were due by Jan. 31, might have put Sanchez in an even tougher position. Wilson ended 2011 with about $1.1 million in the bank, and Sowards, who has largely self-financed his campaign, ended with more than $600,000.<\/p>\n

Sanchez\u2019s end-of-the-year report isn\u2019t yet available from the Federal Election Commission, and a Sanchez spokesman hasn\u2019t responded to an e-mail request for fundraising numbers. Asked today how much he raised in the fourth quarter of 2011, Sanchez told NMPolitics.net he didn\u2019t know. He said he had been busy with the ongoing legislative session in Santa Fe, but pledged to provide a copy of his report once it becomes public.<\/p>\n

Little activity for months<\/h3>\n

Many have suspected for months that Sanchez\u2019s Senate campaign was coming to an end. One of his last highly visible announcements was an endorsement in late September from U.S. Sen. Rand Paul<\/a>. Since then, there\u2019s been little activity on Sanchez\u2019s campaign website<\/a>, Facebook page<\/a> or Twitter account<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NMPolitics.net\u00a0has also learned that Sanchez has missed many GOP events that Wilson and Sowards attended in recent months, including one held Jan. 28 in San Miguel County. Sanchez did attend a right-to-life forum on Jan. 12.<\/p>\n

Sanchez\u2019s run may have been hampered from the start by his less-than-stellar relationship with Gov. Susana Martinez<\/a>. When Sanchez joined the race in May, Martinez said she would not give him any responsibilities in her administration beyond those granted by the Constitution. She said that was in an effort to keep the race \u201cfrom becoming a distraction.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Two days later, Martinez joined Wilson<\/a> for her address to an economic forum in Albuquerque. Many interpreted that as an implicit endorsement.<\/p>\n

What about CD1?<\/h3>\n

The Albuquerque Journal was the first to report<\/a> today on rumors about Sanchez joining the First Congressional District race, quoting a campaign operative as confirming that some were encouraging Sanchez to seek the House seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have heard that,\u201d the Journal quoted Manuel Gonzales, political director for Sanchez\u2019s Senate campaign, as saying. \u201cWhen Jon Barela announced he was not going to run in CD1, that started people talking and chattering. We\u2019ve had some informal conversations about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that he doesn\u2019t believe Sanchez will join the House race.<\/p>\n

Barela was the party\u2019s 2010 nominee for the House seat and recently decided against running again<\/a> this year. That leaves GOP primary voters to choose between three candidates many aren\u2019t happy with \u2013 former State Rep.\u00a0Janice Arnold-Jones<\/a>, Albuquerque City Councilor Dan Lewis<\/a>\u00a0and Army veteran\u00a0Gary Smith<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the Albuquerque Journal published its report, Sanchez spokesman Corbin Casteel was quoted by the National Journal<\/a> as saying Sanchez \u201chas no interest in running for Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, when asked by NMPolitics.net about the possibility of joining the CD1 race, Sanchez didn\u2019t say he won\u2019t become a CD1 candidate. He simply said he\u2019s not one right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not a candidate for CD1,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to make that very clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanchez doesn\u2019t have to give up his job as lieutenant governor to run for other offices. The seat isn\u2019t up for election until 2014.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(UPDATED) AUDIO: Republican John Sanchez has decided to drop out of the race to replace the retiring Jeff Bingaman in the U.S. Senate, NMPolitics.net has learned. Sanchez’s campaign spokesman disputes this report, but NMPolitics.net stands by it.<\/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":[228,156,107,227,116],"class_list":["post-36117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-1st-congressional-district-race","tag-2012-election","tag-roundhouse","tag-u-s-senate-race","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36117","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=36117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}