Mayor Marty: Big Plans for NM 10-50 Years Down the Road

According to an Albuquerque Journal article today, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez is already setting things in motion for a possible run for NM Governor in 2010. That's right, 2010, three years hence. We presume he'll be running as a Democrat, although he's been making nice with many Repubs during his last two mayoral campaigns. On Friday he formed a committee called 'Marty Chavez for New Mexico' to raise campaign bucks. Next week, ex-Ambassador to Spain Ed Romero, a powerful local Dem, is hosting a $2000 a person "exploratory kickoff event," although he's claiming he's not taking sides yet.

I guess Mayor Chavez is feeling threatened (or movitated) by current Lt. Governor Diane Denish's frequent announcements that she'll be running for guv in '08, as well as her accumulated $1 million campaign fund as of the end of '06. Denish, who's already well known and liked all over the state and is a past Chair of the Democratic Party of NM, will also have the advantage of increased media coverage when she''s in charge of running the store during Gov. Richardson's out of state trips to campaign for the presidency. Chavez had this say about his plans:

"It's pretty hard to deny I would like to be governor," he said, "and I've got very, very strong ideas about where I'd like to see New Mexico 10 years, 50 years down the road. But it's premature for those right now. I've got the biggest city in the state to run and that's my number one priority."

I don't know, isn't it customary for candidates to want to represent their CONSTITUENTS' ideas and viewpoints more than their own when expressing a desire to run for office? Not in this case. Then again, the Mayor has a habit of suggesting citizens take his way or the highway with issues like APS Board appointments, minimum wage raises for the city, roads through the Petroglyph National Monument, Downtown event centers and bars that offer fenced off areas for underage music fans. I can only imagine what he's hatching for New Mexico 10-50 years down the line. One thing we can be sure of is that the plans will almost certainly match the desires of big donor developers, some of his biggest contributors.

Recently, Mayor Chavez has also expressed an interest in running for Pete Domenici's Senate seat, but only if Domenici chooses not to run for another term in 2008. Of late, Sen. Domenici has been emphasizing he will, indeed, run again.

So far, Chavez hasn't had any success with running for statewide office. In 1998 he ran for governor, with Denish running for Lt Governor, but lost to Repub incumbent Gov. Gary Johnson by a margin of 54% to $46%, or 34,000 votes. Denish was also defeated, by Repub incumbent Lt. Gov. Walter Bradley.