{"id":37594,"date":"2012-03-05T11:21:08","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T18:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=37594"},"modified":"2012-03-06T07:16:43","modified_gmt":"2012-03-06T14:16:43","slug":"eleanor-chavez-giving-up-house-seat-to-run-for-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/03\/eleanor-chavez-giving-up-house-seat-to-run-for-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Eleanor Chavez giving up House seat to run for Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rep.<\/a>

Rep. Eleanor Chavez, D-Albuquerque<\/p><\/div>\n

Chavez is the third House member to announce a run for an open Senate seat rather than seeking re-election this year.<\/h4>\n

State Rep. Eleanor Chavez<\/a> announced today that she\u2019s running for an open Senate seat<\/a> rather than seeking re-election to the House this year.<\/p>\n

Chavez, D-Albuquerque, will run for the Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Eric Griego<\/a>, who is giving up that seat to run for the U.S. House<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 27 years, I have made this community my home,\u201d Chavez said in a news release. \u201cI have raised my four children here and am now the proud grandmother of three. I know that working families need access to the best schools, access to a quality, affordable health care, and good jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chavez joins a primary that includes Democrat Michael Padilla<\/a>, the CEO of Altivus CRM Solutions<\/a>. She\u2019s already taking a shot at Padilla, pointing this out in her news release:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2007, ten female employees at the city of Albuquerque\u2019s 311 and 911 call center filed a hostile work environment complaint against Padilla. In 2011, Altivus was also hired by MVD officials to handle calls coming in from 10,000 immigrants whose driver\u2019s licenses were called for review by\u00a0the Martinez Administration.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Senate<\/a>

Senate candidate Michael Padilla<\/p><\/div>\n

Chavez also provided this link<\/a> to an article about Padilla.<\/p>\n

The Roundhouse shakeup<\/h3>\n

Chavez is the third House member to announce a run for an open Senate seat rather than seeking re-election this year. The others are Democrats Bill O\u2019Neill<\/a>\u00a0of Albuquerque, who is running for the Senate seat being\u00a0vacated by Dede Feldman<\/a>; and\u00a0Joseph Cervantes<\/a> of Las Cruces, who is running for the seat\u00a0Cynthia Nava is vacating<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other House members who aren\u2019t seeking re-election \u2013 they\u2019re all Democrats \u2013 include Joni Gutierrez<\/a>\u00a0of Mesilla, who is instead seeking the political position of\u00a0Democratic national committeewoman<\/a>\u00a0for New Mexico; Al Park<\/a>\u00a0of Albuquerque, who is running for a seat on the Public Regulation Commission; and Speaker\u00a0Ben Luj\u00e1n<\/a>\u00a0of N\u00e1mbe and\u00a0Danice Picraux<\/a>\u00a0of Albuquerque, who are retiring (read about Luj\u00e1n\u2019s retirement\u00a0here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Several senators are also not seeking re-election. In addition to Democrats Griego<\/a>, Feldman<\/a> and Nava<\/a>, they include Republicans\u00a0Clinton Harden<\/a>\u00a0of Clovis,\u00a0Vernon Asbill<\/a>\u00a0of Carlsbad and\u00a0Mark Boitano<\/a>\u00a0of Albuquerque, and Democrat Steve Fischmann<\/a> of Mesilla Park, who are all retiring. Read about Harden\u2019s departure\u00a0here<\/a>, Asbill\u2019s\u00a0here<\/a>, Boitano\u2019s\u00a0here<\/a> and Fischmann\u2019s here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No one has yet jumped into the race to replace Chavez in the House.<\/p>\n

Chavez\u2019s pledges<\/h3>\n

In her news release, Chavez said she has been a \u201cchampion for increasing access to quality, affordability health care and to a quality education. She also supported and championed legislation to close tax loopholes for out of state corporations to level the playing field for New Mexico\u2019s small businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s a community organizer and the former director of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees District 1199 N.M.<\/p>\n

As a senator, Chavez pledged to work to support small businesses, increase teacher pay and school funding, oppose cuts to Medicaid, advocate for safe and fair working conditions, and increase transparency in the state budget. She sponsored a tax-expenditure budget bill<\/a>in 2011, but the governor vetoed it.<\/p>\n

Update, March 6, 7:15 a.m.<\/h3>\n

Padilla sent his own announcement with a number of endorsements, including that of State Rep. Kiki Saavedra<\/a>, D-Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how he characterized the issues Chavez raised:<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael is the founder of Albuquerque\u2019s highly successful 311 Citizen Contact Center.\u00a0After three years of building 311 into a world class government service, Michael was asked to fix the massive problems plaguing Albuquerque\u2019s 911 center. He exposed massive problems at 911, and offered a series of recommendations to fix the problems.\u00a0\u2018It was my privilege to serve the citizens of Albuquerque by building 311 and fixing the problems at 911, and I will not back down when it comes to the challenges of Albuquerque\u2019s South Valley, Southwest Mesa, and South Broadway areas,\u2019 Padilla said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael\u2019s company also fought hard to win the contract to ensure that immigrants were treated fairly and with respect while their driver\u2019s licenses were being checked by the Martinez Administration. \u2018I wanted to make sure that all immigrants were treated fairly and with respect while the Martinez administration checked thousands of driver\u2019s licenses last fall,\u2019 said Padilla.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED: State Rep. Eleanor Chavez announced today that she\u2019s running for an open Senate seat rather than seeking re-election to the House this year.<\/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-37594","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\/37594","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=37594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}