{"id":4785,"date":"2009-08-05T16:33:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-05T22:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/08\/padilla-forming-lt-gov-exploratory-committee\/"},"modified":"2009-08-05T16:33:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-05T22:33:00","slug":"padilla-forming-lt-gov-exploratory-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/08\/padilla-forming-lt-gov-exploratory-committee\/","title":{"rendered":"Padilla forming Lt. Gov. exploratory committee"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Matthew Padilla<\/a>, a law student and former U.S. Navy officer, plans to take an official step toward becoming a candidate for lieutenant governor next week by forming an exploratory committee.<\/p>\n

Padilla, a Democrat, wrote in a letter to supporters that he will file the paperwork to create the committee with the Secretary of State\u2019s Office sometime next week.<\/p>\n

Padilla wrote that he is \u201ceven more determined to add a fresh new perspective to New Mexico politics\u201d after learning this week that almost half<\/a> of high school seniors in New Mexico didn\u2019t graduate in 2008. Padilla had previously called the \u201ceducation emergency\u201d one of his top three priorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether we can begin to change the culture of failure in our education system, while taking the steps needed to promote local sustainable (green) development, as we maintain and strengthen our state\u2019s emergency preparedness system,\u201d Padilla wrote in the e-mail to supporters.<\/p>\n

In forming the exploratory committee, Padilla is wading into a crowded primary. Already in the lieutenant governor\u2019s race are Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano<\/a>, state Sens. Linda Lopez<\/a> and Gerald Ortiz y Pino<\/a> of Albuquerque and State Rep. Jose Campos<\/a> of Santa Rosa, who announced his candidacy earlier today<\/a>. Brian Col\u00f3n will resign from the position of chairman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico<\/a> on Saturday and enter the race.<\/p>\n

In addition, New Mexico State University Regent Javier Gonzales<\/a> and Lawrence Rael<\/a>, who heads the Mid-Region Council of Governments, are considering running.<\/p>\n

Padilla addressed the fact that the primary is crowded in his e-mail.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will not be easy. There are many candidates in the race who have been in and out of state government or Democratic party politics for many years,\u201d he wrote to his supporters. \u201cThey have already begun to form their organizations and have a head start on fundraising.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, I do believe that by getting new individuals like you involved in the process, we can begin to make headway in addressing the challenges that face New Mexicans,\u201d he wrote. \u201cTogether we can begin building our future today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Padilla, a graduate of Rio Grande High School in Albuquerque, earned his bachelor\u2019s from the University of Notre Dame and is working on his law degree from American University in Washington, D.C. Last year, he worked as an intern in the office of U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman<\/a>, D-N.M., and as a fellow in the office of U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse<\/a>, D-R.I.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew Padilla, a law student and former U.S. Navy officer, plans to take an official step toward becoming a candidate for lieutenant governor next week by forming an exploratory committee. Padilla, a Democrat, wrote in a letter to supporters that he will file the paperwork to create the committee with the Secretary of State\u2019s Office […]<\/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-4785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4785","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=4785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}