{"id":3662,"date":"2008-09-03T09:41:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-03T15:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/new-mexico-swing-state\/"},"modified":"2008-09-03T09:41:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-03T15:41:00","slug":"new-mexico-swing-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/new-mexico-swing-state\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico — swing state"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Pat Rogers<\/span> <\/p>\n

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

MINNEAPOLIS\/ST. PAUL — New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> is in the front row of the Republican convention<\/a>. Will Cavin, the Chaves County Republican Party chair, and Phil Archuletta, the New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> delegate with the most seniority, insist that the TV networks want them close to the cameras for ratings purposes. Stu Spillar, the history teacher from Hobbs<\/st1:city>, talks about New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s history of close elections and our \u201cswing state\u201d status.<\/p>\n

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

No other state is bracketed by a neighbor president on one side and a presidential candidate on the other. Laura Bush<\/a> dropped by the New Mexico<\/st1:state> delegation for lunch yesterday and invited her \u201cNew Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> neighbors\u201d to Crawford to visit anytime. No small state is so spoiled.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Yesterday we had breakfast with the Louisiana<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> delegation. No, the grits did not have any green chile. The Louisiana\/New Mexico breakfast had been planned for some time before Louisiana<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s latest troubles. Almost all of that state\u2019s delegation was in good spirits, with the good news from home of only (so far) two hurricane-related deaths. The scope of the evacuation is difficult to appreciate. The loading and transportation of more than the entire population of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> occurred in just a few days. <\/p>\n

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

Heather Wilson<\/a> was the main speaker at the breakfast, along with Gov. Huntsman<\/a> of Utah<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. Sen. Burr<\/a> of North Carolina<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, co-chair of the platform committee, and Charlie Black, senior advisor to the McCain<\/a> campaign, had comments as well. One of McCain\u2019s POW comrades introduced a Medal of Honor winner.<\/p>\n

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

Our Louisiana<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> friends are serious political junkies. Several asked about Heather\u2019s chances for a cabinet appointment.<\/p>\n

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

The chairman of their delegation said his notes were prepared weeks ago and he wanted to thank New Mexico<\/st1:state> for \u201csending your New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> help\u201d in the aftermath of Katrina. We all were aware that Darren White<\/a> had spent weeks in Louisiana<\/st1:state> with other law enforcement officials from New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, but we also found out that Heather\u2019s husband, Reserve Colonel Jay Hone, was also deployed to that state in Katrina\u2019s wake.<\/p>\n

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

Heather is appearing almost hourly on national radio and TV (MSNBC<\/a>, CNN<\/a>, PBS<\/a> and most importantly, of course, KOB<\/a>). <\/p>\n

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

I attended several events for the new national committee members. Hours of the minute details of federal law, about campaign restrictions. A collection of bad lawyer jokes kept going through my mind. Mike Duncan<\/a> is the national chairman of the Republican National Committee and a former general counsel. He cautioned people that the job does not include booking Gov. Palin<\/a> for campaign visits.<\/p>\n

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

Rogers<\/st1:city> is the RNC\u2019s national committeeman from New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. He is blogging from this week\u2019s convention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Pat Rogers MINNEAPOLIS\/ST. PAUL — New Mexico is in the front row of the Republican convention. Will Cavin, the Chaves County Republican Party chair, and Phil Archuletta, the New Mexico delegate with the most seniority, insist that the TV networks want them close to the cameras for ratings purposes. Stu Spillar, the history teacher […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3662","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=3662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}