Thursday, November 01, 2007

Udall Considers Senate

Congressman Tom Udall is seriously looking at running for the Senate now. This sends even more shock waves across New Mexico's political spectrum. If he does that means that 4 out of 5 of New Mexico's delegation seats will be up for grabs. These would be considered open seats. Only Jeff Bingaman's seat remains not in play.

Winners on Udall's entry would be: Udall himself, the American people and New Mexicans, the Democratic party, America's journey back to status as a respected member of the international community, the environment and western public lands.

Losers on Udall's entry would be: Marty Chavez, the Republican Party, neocons, and the oil and gas industry(my favorite).

The dam of candidates for Udall's seat will burst forth soon. Ben Ray Lujan, Peter Wirth and any number of other folks could get into it. Interestingly, since the all New Mexico State Senators in the legislature are running in this cycle we will see if any from that district take the leap. As a friend of mine told me, they are all probably wishing the Senate still had staggered terms. That was changed a few years back. New Mexico may be the most politically active place in the country right now, other than Iowa.

I attended a speech by Governor Richardson today in Santa Fe. He once again reiterated that he is not running for the Senate but for President. He was quite clear about it.

1 comment:

Prabhu Singh said...

I'd vote for him in a second. If he won maybe I'd even vote for Ron Dolin, who ran against Tom last time, to replace him in the House. My family/community has known Tom forever, however I've spent more time with Ron myself (he taught me at UNM-LA).
I'm not opposed to real Republicans, just all the fake ones. Same with Democrats. We don't really have good people in Washington. We just have corporate slaves who do as their masters bid. The house always wins (the banks!) and the people and environment always loose. Some people like Dennis Kucinich, who is a vegan, actually live their ideals. But he's a rare species amongst the morally-bankrupt.