{"id":7450,"date":"2009-10-07T01:19:16","date_gmt":"2009-10-07T07:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=7450"},"modified":"2009-10-08T08:30:33","modified_gmt":"2009-10-08T14:30:33","slug":"what-does-berry%e2%80%99s-victory-mean-for-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/10\/what-does-berry%e2%80%99s-victory-mean-for-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"What does Berry\u2019s victory mean for 2010?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A

A screen shot of the Albuquerque Journal\u2019s online coverage of Berry\u2019s victory.<\/p><\/div>\n

Does it reveal a GOP rebound? Anti-incumbent sentiment? A divided Democratic Party? Politicos share their thoughts as NM heads into next year\u2019s mid-term election<\/h4>\n

There was lots of celebrating among Republicans on Tuesday evening as Albuquerque elected its first GOP mayor since 1985 and gave Republicans a sorely needed victory in a state in which they\u2019ve moved close the brink of irrelevancy in recent years.<\/p>\n

Republicans also took control of the Albuquerque City Council.<\/p>\n

Even Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele<\/a> noticed the victory by incoming Mayor Richard Berry<\/a>, saying it \u201cdemonstrates the continuing popularity of conservative principles not only in New Mexico but nationwide.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we approach elections this fall and in 2010, I am confident we will see many more Americans choosing Republicans to represent their best interests,\u201d Steele said in a news release. \u201cCandidates like Richard J. Berry, who are active proponents of lower taxes, smaller government and small businesses, are the future of the Republican Party, and I look forward to helping them all toward victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Republican activist and blogger Mario Burgos<\/a> of Cedar Crest said Berry\u2019s victory had more to do with anti-incumbent sentiment than it did a swing of the pendulum back to the GOP.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Republicans still have their work cut out for them in 2010, but it\u2019s definitely a notice to all incumbents — which the majority in this state are Democrats — that there is an anti-incumbent sentiment out there, and it hasn\u2019t gone away,\u201d Burgos said in an interview. \u201c\u2026 People in New Mexico have had enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

The GOP is trying next year to take back two congressional seats it lost in 2008 and win the governor\u2019s race. The last is critical for the party because if Republicans don\u2019t have the governor on their side, they\u2019ll have almost no influence in redistricting in the next decade and risk being pushed further toward irrelevancy in state government.<\/p>\n

Michael Ray Huerta of Las Cruces, a member of the Democratic Party\u2019s state central committee, said in an interview that it\u2019s up to Democrats to ensure the GOP doesn\u2019t gain ground next year. He pointed to the fact that two Democrats were on the ticket competing with Berry on Tuesday and may have split the left\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n

The majority of voters — 56 percent — did pick either Martin Ch\u00e1vez<\/a> or Richard Romero<\/a>. The fact that those voters weren\u2019t united behind one candidate, Huerta said, reveals \u201ca divide between the progressives and the more moderate Dems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something that Democrats need to stop from happening,\u201d Huerta said. \u201cBecause we can\u2019t let this happen to Harry Teague<\/a>. We can\u2019t let this happen to Martin Heinrich<\/a>. And we can\u2019t let this happen to Diane Denish<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need for Democrats to come together to decide where our party stands,\u201d Huerta said.<\/p>\n

The Democratic vote probably wasn\u2019t split only between Ch\u00e1vez and Romero. Some analysts said it appeared that Berry also picked up the support of a significant number of Democratic voters — maybe as high as 15-20 percent.<\/p>\n

Berry referred to that in a statement released by his campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a victory for a broad-based coalition of Albuquerque residents hungry for common-sense leadership,\u201d he said. \u201cI look forward to being the mayor for all of Albuquerque.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does it reveal a GOP rebound? Anti-incumbent sentiment? A divided Democratic Party? Politicos share their thoughts as New Mexico heads into next year\u2019s mid-term election.<\/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":[108,139],"class_list":["post-7450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-albuquerque"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7450","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=7450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}