{"id":6514,"date":"2009-09-21T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2009-09-21T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=6514"},"modified":"2009-09-21T17:50:29","modified_gmt":"2009-09-21T23:50:29","slug":"wilson-says-she%e2%80%99s-still-considering-governor-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/09\/wilson-says-she%e2%80%99s-still-considering-governor-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilson is still considering running for governor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Wilson,

Wilson, shown here during the Domenici Public Policy Conference at NMSU last week. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018This isn\u2019t my first rodeo, but it isn\u2019t my last, either,\u2019 former congresswoman says<\/h4>\n

Former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson<\/a> is usually a decisive person. But she says she still hasn\u2019t made a decision on whether she\u2019s going to run for governor next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still considering it, and I honestly haven\u2019t made a decision, which is very unlike me,\u201d Wilson said Thursday during an interview in Las Cruces.<\/p>\n

Wilson says she\u2019s torn. She believes she \u201cwould be a good and effective governor\u201d and could help the state address fiscal accountability and ethics problems.<\/p>\n

But the Republican, who represented the 1st Congressional District in Washington for 10 years, said she isn\u2019t the sort of person who needs to hold an elected office. She said she has a number of opportunities to serve and find satisfaction, \u201cand choosing one means forgoing others.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, Wilson, who left Congress nine months ago, said she\u2019s enjoying not having her life scheduled into 15-minute segments. She and her husband and children are watching movies together as a family. Her children have been asking for a dog for years, and they recently got one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose things seem pretty trivial compared to the needs of the state, but they are life\u2019s luxuries,\u201d Wilson said. \u201c\u2026 I\u2019m enjoying having a bit more normal family life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s indecisiveness keeps in flux a Republican primary field that currently includes four other candidates and likely candidates — state Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones<\/a>, Do\u00f1a Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez<\/a>, public relations professional Doug Turner<\/a> and former state GOP Chairman Allen Weh<\/a>. Some analysts have said Wilson would enter the race as the favorite, and other candidates may have a difficult time raising money and gathering support until Republicans know<\/a> what Wilson plans to do.<\/p>\n

Wilson said she has no timetable for making a decision on whether to run.<\/p>\n

Sounding like a candidate<\/h3>\n

When she speaks about the issues, Wilson sounds a candidate. During the interview, she said Santa Fe needs change because of corruption, the state\u2019s historically high unemployment rate<\/a> and the unacceptably low high-school graduation rate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish<\/a>, the only Democrat who has entered the 2010 gubernatorial race, hasn\u2019t done enough to stop corruption or address other problems, Wilson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like Mrs. Denish,\u201d Wilson said, \u201cbut she\u2019s been there for eight years, and when did she draw the line?\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson said the state\u2019s other problems are related to its corruption. For example, she said rewarding friends and donors with investment contracts means the state hasn\u2019t always made the smartest investments with public money.<\/p>\n

On education, Wilson said she has never heard Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> \u201ctalking passionately,\u201d and said, \u201cI haven\u2019t heard anything from his sidekick on that either.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Not a target\u2019 of U.S. attorney probe<\/h3>\n

Some have said one potential stumbling block Wilson might face in trying to win an election is the ongoing investigation into the 2006 firings of New Mexico\u2019s David Iglesias<\/a> and several other U.S. attorneys. Iglesias alleges that Wilson and former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici<\/a>, R-N.M., pressured him weeks before the 2006 election to speed indictments in an ongoing criminal investigation involving a high-ranking Democrat — a charge both deny.<\/p>\n

At the time, Wilson was in a tough re-election battle that she ended up winning by fewer than 1,000 votes out of about 211,000 cast. Days after the election, Iglesias was fired.<\/p>\n

Some, including Iglesias, have suggested that Wilson, Domenici or others might face obstruction-of-justice charges. But no statements from officials close to the investigation or media reports have indicated that Wilson is a target of the probe.<\/p>\n

Wilson said that\u2019s because she\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a target or a subject of the investigation,\u201d she said, adding that she has cooperated with investigators from the start.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t Wilson\u2019s last rodeo<\/h3>\n

Wilson was a top target, however, of Democrats in Washington and New Mexico during her entire tenure in Congress. Her races were always listed among the top 10 in the U.S. House. Because of that, millions of dollars were spent casting her in a negative light on television across most of the state, and she was almost constantly running for re-election.<\/p>\n

And last year, when she opted not to seek re-election so she could run for the Senate seat being vacated by Domenici, Wilson lost a divisive primary against former U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wilson mentioned those tough election fights as she discussed the trouble she\u2019s having making a decision about running for governor. She said she won\u2019t enter the race unless she\u2019s fully committed. Though she\u2019s aware that most politicians don\u2019t have to fight as many bloody battles as she did to keep her House seat, that history enters into her consideration about whether to run for another office.<\/p>\n

Another factor is that Wilson is 48.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t my first rodeo, but it isn\u2019t my last, either,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t feel that kind of compulsion that it\u2019s now or never.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of different ways to use your gifts,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cYou pray for guidance and then you wait for the answer. So far, I wish that He would speak up.\u201d<\/p>\n

A prior version of this posting incorrectly stated that Wilson is 49.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson is usually a decisive person. But she said last week in an interview that she still hasn\u2019t made a decision on whether she\u2019s going to run for governor next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,107],"class_list":["post-6514","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\/6514","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=6514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6514\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}