{"id":658,"date":"2006-10-03T10:05:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-03T16:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/cervantes-may-have-gubernatorial-aspirations\/"},"modified":"2006-10-03T10:05:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-03T16:05:00","slug":"cervantes-may-have-gubernatorial-aspirations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/cervantes-may-have-gubernatorial-aspirations\/","title":{"rendered":"Cervantes may have gubernatorial aspirations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>State Rep. Joseph Cervantes<\/a>, D-Las Cruces, might run for governor in the future. <\/p>\n

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

The representative made the comment today on the Michael Swickard<\/a> show.<\/p>\n

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

Swickard was commenting that, when Gov. Bill Richardson leaves office sometime in the next four years, there will be a vacuum for others to fill. He asked whether Cervantes would be interested in holding statewide office.<\/p>\n

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

\n

\u201cI\u2019d look forward to doing that,\u201d Cervantes said, adding that no one from Las Cruces has held a statewide office since Garrey Carruthers was governor from 1987-1991. Attorney General Patricia Madrid grew up in Las Cruces<\/st1:city>, but moved to Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> and was a district judge there before running for statewide office.<\/p>\n

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

As chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Cervantes said he holds the second most powerful chairmanship, which gives him the opportunity to work closely with the governor\u2019s office and legislative leaders.<\/p>\n

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

Swickard asked whether Cervantes would be interested in being governor. Cervantes said he might.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI\u2019ve learned a great deal about our state and the great assets we have in our state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

Cervantes, a lawyer who is currently unopposed in his bid for re-election, is popular in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>, even among many conservatives. He has spent four years in the legislature and was a county commissioner before that.<\/p>\n

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

Though Cervantes wasn\u2019t speaking specifically about the 2010 race, some speculate that\u2019s the best time for a candidate from somewhere outside Albuquerque<\/st1:city> and Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> to win a Democratic primary. Many anticipate a crowded field that includes Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez and, if she loses the congressional race, Attorney General Patricia Madrid (though her chances of winning the congressional race look pretty good right now).<\/p>\n

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

Cervantes\u2019 first cousin Laura Garcia is running Richardson<\/st1:city>\u2019s reelection campaign in Southern New Mexico<\/st1:place>. Some speculate that whatever portion of Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s campaign organization is left behind when he runs for president might be used by Garcia to run a Cervantes gubernatorial campaign in 2010. The Albuquerque<\/st1:city> and Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> candidates might split that vote, allowing one strong candidate from another area of the state to pick up enough rural votes to be victorious in a Democratic primary.<\/p>\n

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

Is Cervantes that candidate? Stay tuned.<\/p>\n

\n

A prior version of this posting did not clarify Madrid<\/st1:state>\u2019s ties to Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/o:p><\/i><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, might run for governor in the future. The representative made the comment today on the Michael Swickard show. Swickard was commenting that, when Gov. Bill Richardson leaves office sometime in the next four years, there will be a vacuum for others to fill. He asked whether Cervantes would be […]<\/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-658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658","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=658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}