{"id":37391,"date":"2012-02-29T09:56:06","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T16:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=37391"},"modified":"2012-02-29T18:34:04","modified_gmt":"2012-03-01T01:34:04","slug":"rodefer-to-challenge-sapien-in-senate-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/02\/rodefer-to-challenge-sapien-in-senate-primary\/","title":{"rendered":"Rodefer to challenge Sapien in Senate primary"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sen.<\/a>

Sen. John Sapien, left, and former State Rep. Ben Rodefer<\/p><\/div>\n

Ben Rodefer said Democratic primary voters will have \u2018a clear choice\u2019 between him and Sapien.<\/h4>\n

Sen. John Sapien<\/a>, who\u2019s already being targeted by Republicans in this year\u2019s election, was hoping to avoid a Democratic primary; he learned today that he won\u2019t be so lucky.<\/p>\n

Former State Rep. Ben Rodefer<\/a>, D-Corrales, announced that he\u2019s running against Sapien, another Corrales Democrat, in the June primary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0look forward to a spirited campaign with Senator Sapien,\u201d Rodefer said in a news release. \u201cElections are about choices, and I think there is a clear choice for voters\u00a0to make this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodefer is generally considered more liberal than Sapien. In his news release he cited his work to block a \u201c$400 million taxpayer giveaway to bankrupt California developers SunCal,\u201d and his efforts to \u201cincrease clean energy jobs and to close the loophole in New Mexico\u2019s tax code that allows\u00a0out-of- state corporations to get out of paying the same state taxes that New Mexico companies pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sapien told NMPolitics.net earlier this month that his more moderate voting record is a better fit for the Senate district. This year\u2019s redistricting<\/a>\u00a0shifted the voting performance of the district three percentage points to the left, to 50.5 percent Democratic and 49.5 percent Republican. Before the Obama wave of 2008, the district had long been Republican-leaning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of my voting record. We\u2019ll go ahead and take whoever or whatever comes,\u201d he said earlier this month, before Rodefer\u2019s announcement. \u201c\u2026 Anybody left of me will have a tough time in the general election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. David Doyle<\/a>, R-Albuquerque \u2013 who unseated Rodefer in 2010 \u2013 has announced his candidacy for the Senate seat as well, and it\u2019s likely the winner of the Sapien\/Rodefer primary will face him in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping that people who are more liberal than me recognize that I\u2019m the right candidate for the district,\u201d Sapien said earlier this month in expressing his hope that he wouldn\u2019t have a primary challenge. \u201cThe progressive side of my party will have me 85 percent of the time\u2026 but I think my voting record shows that I voted to my electorate in District 9, and I\u2019ll continue to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Governor targeting Sapien<\/h3>\n

Gov. Susana Martinez<\/a>, a Republican, has already revealed her intention to unseat Sapien<\/a> this year. The week after the recent legislative session ended, her political action committee sent a mailer to voters in Sapien\u2019s district contrasting his vote against her push to repeal the law that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver\u2019s licenses with Doyle\u2019s vote in favor of her proposal, which has thus far been unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to John Sapien, New Mexico is one of only two states in the entire country that gives driver\u2019s licenses to illegal immigrants,\u201d the mailer<\/a>\u00a0states. \u201c\u2026 When New Mexicans tried to stop this by repealing the law, John Sapien blocked them and voted to continue giving driver\u2019s licenses to illegal immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of agreeing to the governor\u2019s proposed repeal of that law, Sapien and many other Democrats have supported amendments they say would help combat fraud while ensuring that more people who drive on New Mexico\u2019s roads are licensed.<\/p>\n

Sapien told NMPolitics.net this month he\u2019s confident in his ability to defend that stance and said voters are more concerned about the economy and jobs.<\/p>\n

But before he can focus on defending himself against the governor\u2019s attacks, Sapien will have to focus on defeating Rodefer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. John Sapien, who\u2019s already being targeted by Republicans in this year\u2019s election, was hoping to avoid a Democratic primary; he learned today that he won\u2019t be so lucky.<\/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],"class_list":["post-37391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2012-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37391","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=37391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37391\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}