NM-01: Vigil-Giron to Formally Announce Entry Into Race on Saturday

Note: David Alire, of KNME's New Mexico in Focus, has snagged an exclusive interview with Vigil-Giron about her decision to run for Congress. You can see a video here.

Former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron will make her official entry into the Dem Congressional race in NM-01 at a public event this Saturday, February 2, 2008, at 2:30 PM at the Albuquerque Hilton. She has a campaign website at www.RebeccaForCongress.com.

Vigil-Giron enters the race with three other Dems already in the running: Martin Heinrich, Michelle Lujan Grisham and Robert Pidcock. Another is on the way in the form of political neophyte Jessica Wolfe, who has announced she's gathering nomination signatures. Wolfe was a cabinet aide to Gov. Richardson and worked on issues like domestic violence, water cooperatives and rural projects.

Clearly, Vigil-Giron has her work cut out for her if she's to get on the primary ballot and win the nomination. For one thing, the very popular Martin Heinrich has a huge headstart. His campaign has raised considerable and consistent amounts of money every quarter and earned several very important endorsements. Plus Heinrich has built strong grassroots support within the Dem Party's active membership, which will control who gets on Party's primary ballot during the pre-primary convention set for March 15th.

Why does Vigil-Giron think there's a niche for another candidate at this late date? One reason she cites is the appeal of her gender and ethnic background -- even though Lujan Grisham is a match for those and already has respectable fundraising totals and reachout efforts. In talking points, Vigil-Giron's campaign claims she's the best candidate because she’s a Hispanic woman in a Congressional district that's 53% female and 43% Hispanic. She's also stressing her background as "an experienced, nationally recognized leader and a proven vote-getter.”

This wouldn't be Vigil-Giron's first experience with a Congressional race. In 1990 she ran unsuccessfully against incumbent Republican Congressman Steve Schiff for a U.S. house seat in NM-01. Most recently, Vigil-Giron was unsuccessful in seeking the job of Executive Director of the Democratic Party of New Mexico. Overall, she served three times as Secretary of State, from 1987 to 1990, and from 1999 to 2006. She's also held several positions with national organizations related to elections and voting.

Her last SOS term was somewhat rocky. She was criticized for using federal voter education funds for ads in which she was prominently featured, and for leaving the SOS budget in the hole to the tune of about $3 million. The financial problems prompted both federal and state probes. The NM Department of Finance and Administration identified several problems with her budget management. Vigil-Giron's view is that the passage of paper ballot legislation was primarily to blame because it was essentially an unfunded mandate to reconfigure the state's voting system.

Vigil-Giron has a BA in French and Social Science from New Mexico Highlands University and is a graduate of the Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program at Harvard University. According to her profile on Wikipedia,

Vigil-Giron once said she became interested in politics after running a successful campaign for homecoming queen at New Mexico Highlands University in 1975. In a 1998 interview she claims to have run a full-fledged campaign for the spot going, "door to dormitory door," with the help of the campus Young Democrats who sponsored her effort. [Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico) September 27, 1998 --3 Vow To Get Voters to Polls]