{"id":724,"date":"2006-10-16T11:56:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-16T17:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/gop-oil-and-gas-target-hatch-house-member\/"},"modified":"2006-10-16T11:56:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-16T17:56:00","slug":"gop-oil-and-gas-target-hatch-house-member","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/gop-oil-and-gas-target-hatch-house-member\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP, oil and gas, target Hatch House member"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Republican Isaac Chavez is raising a lot of money in his bid to unseat Rep. Andy Nu\u00f1ez, D-Hatch. <\/p>\n

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

House District 36<\/a> stretches all the way from northwestern Las Cruces<\/st1:city> up to Hatch<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>. Nu\u00f1ez, a retired educator, was first elected in 2000, and has become a target of the oil and gas industry because of a bill he has twice sponsored.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Chavez, who lives in Las Cruces, started the last reporting period with $1,637 in the bank, but raised $44,069 in cash and $1,770 in in-kind gifts, bringing in more than any other House candidate in the area. He spent $24,173, leaving him with $21,533 in the bank.<\/p>\n

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

His donations included $20,000 from Bob and Doylene Perry of Houston, the primary financial backers of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the political action committee that went after John Kerry in 2004. He also received $5,600 in gifts from the oil and gas industry and almost $10,000 from other business groups.<\/p>\n

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

Chavez, who owns a laundromat and is one of several owners of a startup company that plans to send people\u2019s ashes into space from Spaceport America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, attributed the gifts from the Perrys to his business connections and the fact that he is a young, Hispanic Republican.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThere are a lot of people around this country who would like to see younger candidates,\u201d said Chavez, 34. \u201cIt\u2019s really rare to see young, Hispanic Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Nu\u00f1ez started the reporting period with $5,002 in the bank. He raised $17,092 in cash and $9,435 in in-kind gifts, and spent $6,821, leaving him with $15,273 in the bank.<\/p>\n

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

Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s contributions included $6,000 from labor groups, thousands of dollars from various political actions committees, many tied to agriculture, a $5,300 in-kind gift from the campaign of Gov. Bill Richardson and an in-kind gift of $4,135 from the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.<\/p>\n

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

Nu\u00f1ez met with oil and gas officials in Artesia last week, and said they told him they will pump another $20,000 into Chavez\u2019s campaign in the next three weeks.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThey know where I\u2019m coming from, and they don\u2019t bother me,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez said. \u201cMoney doesn\u2019t buy elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Chavez thinks otherwise. He said Nu\u00f1ez raised more than $70,000 during the 2004 election cycle, and he has to raise a lot of money to compete.<\/p>\n

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

Nu\u00f1ez has sponsored a bill in the past two sessions \u2013 and said he will sponsor it again in January \u2013 that would make oil and gas operators liable to surface owners for damages sustained as a result of their operations. It also requires operators to reclaim all surface directly affected by their operations, and to provide notice to surface owners of their plans on their property before they begin work.<\/p>\n

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

The bill has earned Nu\u00f1ez the ire of the oil and gas industry and the praise of farmers, ranchers and conservationists.<\/p>\n

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

Chavez says all Nu\u00f1ez does is support agriculture.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cHe\u2019s a one-issue man,\u201d Chavez said. \u201cI actually have opinions on issues that are not just agriculture.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Chavez listed concerns related to animal protection, child abuse, his support of the death penalty and a desire to implement mandatory jail time for all first-time drunken drivers.<\/p>\n

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

Nu\u00f1ez said Chavez is wrong about him, saying he has carried many bills for New Mexico<\/st1:placename> State<\/st1:placetype> University<\/st1:placetype> and the City of Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. He listed capital outlay money for Las Cruces<\/st1:city>\u2019 downtown revitalization project and the Munson<\/st1:placename> Senior<\/st1:placename> Center<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> as examples.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cHe has no idea because he\u2019s na\u00efve,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez said. \u201cHe has no idea what I\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Nu\u00f1ez said a Democratic Party poll has him ahead either 55-34 percent or 52-38 percent, depending on how the numbers are analyzed. Chavez said his party\u2019s poll shows that the race is a statistical \u201cdead heat.\u201d Another Republican Party official confirmed that.<\/p>\n

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

Chavez also pointed out the dozens of pages on his finance report that list small donations from \u201cregular people.\u201d Chavez, who said he has 500 relatives living in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>, has many more small contributions than Nu\u00f1ez.<\/p>\n

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

He said that\u2019s evidence that Nu\u00f1ez \u201cjust doesn\u2019t represent the whole constituency.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Nu\u00f1ez said the voters know differently, pointing out that 50 school teachers are walking his district to encourage people to vote for him.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI have no worries,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez said. \u201cI feel great.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican Isaac Chavez is raising a lot of money in his bid to unseat Rep. Andy Nu\u00f1ez, D-Hatch. House District 36 stretches all the way from northwestern Las Cruces up to Hatch. Nu\u00f1ez, a retired educator, was first elected in 2000, and has become a target of the oil and gas industry because of a […]<\/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-724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724","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=724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}