{"id":4695,"date":"2009-06-29T21:16:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-30T03:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/06\/gops-turner-says-he-brings-new-energy-to-guvs-race\/"},"modified":"2009-06-29T21:16:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-30T03:16:00","slug":"gops-turner-says-he-brings-new-energy-to-guvs-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/06\/gops-turner-says-he-brings-new-energy-to-guvs-race\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP’s Turner says he brings ‘new energy’ to guv’s race"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Doug Turner<\/a> says his age is one thing that sets him apart from other potential 2010 Republican gubernatorial candidates. At 40, he\u2019s younger than the others who are running or openly considering it.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI think I would probably bring a different energy,\u201d Turner said today in a phone interview. \u201c … I think I bring a sense of the possible to the table. I\u2019m one of these people who believes anything is possible if you get the right people together behind the right ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Turner, who described himself as a moderate Republican, is the CEO of the Albuquerque-based public relations firm DW Turner<\/a>. He was state director for former Gov. Gary Johnson\u2019s<\/a> first campaign in 1994 and manager of his re-election campaign in 1998. Turner was also deputy political director for Steve Forbes\u2019<\/a> unsuccessful 2000 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

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

He has been traveling the state to meet with people and done polling, and said he is \u201cjust trying to get my finger around what the vibe is.\u201d Turner said he\u2019ll make a final decision on whether to run in six or eight weeks. In the meantime, he won\u2019t form an exploratory committee, as some others have done.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI\u2019m either going to do it or not do it,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n

\u2018A significant battle ahead of me\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

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

If he runs, Turner will probably face some serious competition in the GOP primary. Albuquerque financial adviser and Army National Guard brigadier general Greg Zanetti<\/a> has formally announced his candidacy. State Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones<\/a> and former state GOP Chairman Allen Weh<\/a> have formed exploratory committees.<\/p>\n

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

Former Republican U.S. Reps. Steve Pearce<\/a> and Heather Wilson<\/a> are also considering the race. Wilson said Friday she hasn\u2019t made a decision<\/a> on whether to run. Pearce now says his decision will come toward the end of July<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Meanwhile, the only declared Democratic candidate is Lt. Gov. Diane Denish<\/a>. Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez<\/a> says he\u2019s formed an exploratory committee<\/a> as he considers challenging Denish for the nomination.<\/p>\n

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

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

Because he\u2019s been a political operative and spent his career in public relations and communications, Turner knows what it takes to run for office, he said. He\u2019s aware that he has very low name identification, \u201cso I know that I have a significant battle ahead of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Turner said his work has taught him \u201ca lot about a lot of the issues affecting the state in a very deep sense,\u201d and he mentioned energy and education. He said he has spent only a handful of days in the Roundhouse, so he will \u201chopefully bring a breath of fresh air to a party I think wants it and that believes that, with the right candidates and the right energy, we can win in 2010.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI think there is a need and a desire for some new energy,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doug Turner says his age is one thing that sets him apart from other potential 2010 Republican gubernatorial candidates. At 40, he\u2019s younger than the others who are running or openly considering it. \u201cI think I would probably bring a different energy,\u201d Turner said today in a phone interview. \u201c … I think I bring […]<\/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-4695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4695","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=4695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}