{"id":613762,"date":"2018-08-13T09:07:27","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T15:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=613762"},"modified":"2018-08-13T09:07:50","modified_gmt":"2018-08-13T15:07:50","slug":"democratic-former-gov-apodaca-endorses-pearce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/08\/democratic-former-gov-apodaca-endorses-pearce\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Gov. Apodaca, a Democrat, endorses Republican Pearce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Sunday, former governor Jerry Apodaca, a Democrat, endorsed Steve Pearce for governor. Pearce is the Republican nominee.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/1207906\/pearce-is-willing-to-reach-across-the-aisle.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an\u00a0<i>Albuquerque Journal<\/i>\u00a0op-ed<\/a>, Apodaca did not mention any of Pearce\u2019s policies. Rather, he wrote that Pearce responded to his request to speak with each of the candidates. He said he did not hear from Michelle Lujan Grisham, the Democratic candidate.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_516726\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 250px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-516726\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Apodaca-Jerry.jpg\" alt=\"Jerry Apodaca\" width=\"250\" height=\"270\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy photo<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jerry Apodaca<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Apodaca\u2019s son, Jeff Apodaca, lost in the Democratic primary to Lujan Grisham, receiving just 22 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was surprised how open [Pearce] was and how we agreed on about 80% of the issues that plague New Mexico,\u201d Jerry Apodaca wrote. \u201cI found him to be straightforward and an honest man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jerry Apodaca compared Pearce, a member of the arch-conservative Freedom Caucus, to former president John F. Kennedy and \u201cmoderate Democrats and Republicans\u201d from New Mexico. He mentioned Republicans, former U.S. Rep. Joe Skeen and former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, and Democrats, former Gov. Bruce King and former U.S. Rep. Harold Runnels. Runnels\u2019 widow, Dorothy Runnels, recently endorsed Pearce.<\/p>\n<p>Democratic Party of New Mexico chairwoman Marg Elliston called the endorsement \u201csour grapes on the part of a candidate who didn\u2019t win his primary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSteve Pearce is a Trump Republican and founding member of the Tea Party Freedom Caucus, not a JFK Democrat,\u201d Elliston said. \u201cHis work to roll back civil rights protections, fight organized labor, and put corporations ahead of people are a disservice to JFK\u2019s legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pearce embraced the endorsement, sending a press release Sunday morning with a portion of Jerry Apodaca\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGovernor Apodaca is a great New Mexican and I appreciate his endorsement,\u201d Pearce wrote.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Jeff Apodaca recently joined New Mexico Democrats for Democracy, a PAC critical of Lujan Grisham. The organization touts itself as progressive and advocates for legalization of marijuana and universal health care.<\/p>\n<p>Jeff Apodaca recently appeared at a Pearce campaign event, but said he was not endorsing the Republican. Apodaca also recently began a weekly talk show at the conservative Albuquerque radio station KKOB. The station airs conservative content throughout the day, including syndicated radio shows from Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpoliticalreport.com\/869006\/democratic-ex-governor-endorses-pearce\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico Political Report<\/a>,\u00a0a nonprofit news organization\u00a0focused on promoting a greater public understanding of politics and policy in the state of New Mexico.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The endorsement comes after Apodaca\u2019s son lost the Democratic primary for governor to Michelle Lujan Grisham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":516726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2238,3676,107,3306],"class_list":["post-613762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2018-election","tag-jerry-apodaca","tag-roundhouse","tag-steve-pearce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613762","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=613762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}