{"id":6216,"date":"2009-09-16T07:11:08","date_gmt":"2009-09-16T13:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=6216"},"modified":"2009-09-16T14:48:35","modified_gmt":"2009-09-16T20:48:35","slug":"some-shuffling-in-dem-lieutenant-governor%e2%80%99s-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/09\/some-shuffling-in-dem-lieutenant-governor%e2%80%99s-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Shuffling in lieutenant governor primary race"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Brian

Brian Col\u00f3n, shown here, picked up the endorsement today of Matthew Padilla, another Democrat who had been considering entering the race. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

There\u2019s been some shuffling in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor recently, with two potential candidates deciding against running and another becoming serious enough about his consideration of the race that he\u2019s attending tonight\u2019s candidate forum in Santa Fe.<\/p>\n

Early today, a Democrat who had been openly considering entering the race, law student and former U.S. Navy officer Matthew Padilla<\/a>, announced that he won\u2019t run and endorsed former state Democratic Party Chairman Brian Col\u00f3n<\/a> for the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that the next lieutenant governor must be a person of strong character who can bring fresh new perspectives to our political debate,\u201d Padilla said in a prepared statement. \u201cWhile there are many candidates who bring diverse experiences to this race, one candidate in particular stands out above the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Padilla said Col\u00f3n \u201cwill be a voice for the voiceless\u201d and \u201ccan bring fresh ideas from outside of Santa Fe into the Roundhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, Espa\u00f1ola Mayor Joseph Maestas<\/a>, who had been considering the race, said he won\u2019t run, according to The Santa Fe New Mexican\u2019s Kate Nash<\/a>. Maestas said although he believes he possesses the type of leadership the state needs, \u201cthe time is simply not right for me to enter this race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there\u2019s a forum for the Democratic lieutenant governor candidates tonight in Santa Fe. In addition to Col\u00f3n, those who have formally entered the race are Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano<\/a>, state Sens. Linda Lopez<\/a> and Gerald Ortiz y Pino<\/a> of Albuquerque, State Rep. Jose Campos<\/a> of Santa Rosa, and Lawrence Rael<\/a>, executive director of the Mid-Region Council of Governments.<\/p>\n

A news release the Santa Fe County Democratic Party sent out earlier this week about the forum also lists Sen. Tim Eichenberg<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, as a candidate who will attend tonight\u2019s forum, according to Democracy for New Mexico<\/a>. Eichenberg has been telling Democrats for some time that he is thinking about running, but he has not formally announced his candidacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The recent changes in the dynamics of the Democratic primary include today\u2019s announcement that Matthew Padilla won\u2019t run. In making that announcement, Padilla endorsed Brian Col\u00f3n for the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,107],"class_list":["post-6216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6216","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=6216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}