SANTA FE — The national chairman of the Republican Party said Tuesday that the GOP is targeting New Mexico in the presidential race and is taking sides in one of the state’s contested primary campaigns for a congressional seat.
“New Mexico is a battleground target state for us,” Republican National Committee chairman Mike Duncan told The Associated Press. “We recognize it’s going to be an important state for us.”
State GOP chairmen from across the country are gathering in New Mexico this week for a meeting in the Albuquerque area at a resort hotel operated by Santa Ana Pueblo.
New Mexico was the first state for the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, to air a campaign ad.
Duncan said McCain should run strongly in New Mexico because he’s a Westerner from neighboring Arizona. McCain also should appeal to independents and moderate-to-conservative Democrats who are New Mexico’s swing voters, Duncan said.
“He has the same kind of crossover appeal that Ronald Reagan had in 1980,” he said.
New Mexico has been a battleground state in recent presidential elections because of its voters who swing back and forth between Democratic and Republican candidates from election to election.
The 2004 presidential race in New Mexico was among the closest in the country. Republican incumbent President Bush won the general election with 49.8 percent of the vote — a 5,988-vote margin over Democratic Sen. John Kerry.
The 2000 presidential election in New Mexico was even closer. Democrat Al Gore won the state by 366 votes — receiving 48 percent of the vote to George W. Bush’s 47.8 percent.
Duncan said the RNC is backing Darren White in the June primary election in the Albuquerque-area 1st Congressional District. White, the Bernalillo County sheriff, faces state Sen. Joseph Carraro in that race.
It’s unusual for the national or state party to openly take sides in a contested primary race, but Duncan said party rules allow that when requested by a state’s RNC members.
New Mexico’s three RNC members, who include state chairman Allen Weh, submitted a letter to the national party asking it to treat White as the presumptive nominee. The letter was sent after White received 85 percent of the vote of delegates at the party’s preprimary nominating convention in mid-March.
Candidates need 20 percent support at the convention to earn an automatic place on the primary ballot. Carraro has submitted additional petitions to gain primary ballot access.
Duncan said the party is behind White because he was “such an overwhelming choice” at the convention.
Republicans have held the 1st District seat for decades.
Incumbent Heather Wilson won it in 1998. However, she is running for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate this year along with Steve Pearce.
