Candidates to Oppose Tom Udall in 2014

In an earlier post (Tom Udall), I noted that Tom Udall supported the Feinstein-sponsored legislation to limit magazine capacity and also pressured the IRS in a letter to restrict organizations, like the various tea parties, from obtaining 501C(4) status.  I suggested then that we need to get rid of him as New Mexico's senior Senator.  Today I will examine the possible contenders for his senatorial seat.  The leading contenders appear to be Republicans John Sanchez, Jon Barela, and Richard Berry but Susana Martinez could conceivably run and win.


In terms of experience in running for the Senate, John Sanchez has the lead, having run against Heather Wilson in the 2012 primary.  Although endorsed by now Senator Rand Paul, he was outspent by by the other Republicans in the race.  Sanchez is currently New Mexico's Lieutenant Governor and hailing from Los Ranchos is a native New Mexican.  He is a successful businessman and claims to have founded Right Way Roofing.  He unsuccessfully ran against Bill Richardson for Governor in 2002.  Sanchez has some name recognition, Albuquerque roots, and could make a run against Udall if he were to win the Republican primary next year.  Sanchez has an "A" rating from the NRA.

Jon Barela has the most impressive education with a BA and a law degree from Georgetown University.  He narrowly lost his 2010 election bid to unseat Martin Heinrich.  He is a former Assistant Attorney General for New Mexico and worked for Intel.  He also co-founded Cerelink, a company that failed in 2012 but maintained that he had backed out of daily operations in 2009 and held less than a 1% stake.  He currently serves on Governor Martinez's cabinet as Secretary of Economic Development.  Barela has an impressive resume as outlined above and also having worked as an aide to former New Mexico Congressman Joe Skeen while in law school.  He is not a career politician.  Barela has an "A" rating from the NRA.

Richard Berry, currently Albuquerque's mayor, has lived in New Mexico since attending college here at the University of New Mexico.  As mayor of the largest city in the state, he has ample name recognition and a good record since becoming mayor in 2010.  He has filed a valid petition to run again and certainly has a good chance against his chief rival, Pete Dinelli.  Should he win or lose, he still would be an excellent candidate for Senate.  Berry has an "A" rating from the NRA and an A+ rating from the NRA Political Victory Fund.

At this stage, this is more like fantasy football than political handicapping but I would rate the likely candidates as Berry strongest because of name recognition and record followed by Barela for his experience and then Sanchez.  All would be good Senators but of the three, Berry would have the greatest chance to knock off Udall.  Keeping the fantasy football theme, suppose we could convince Susana Martinez to run against Udall and Berry to run for Governor.  The likely Democratic candidate for Governor in 2014 is Gary King.  Personally I think Berry could beat King but the way things work, he would have to be fund raising now and right now Martinez is openly running for Governor.

The Mayoral race is this year and the Senate race next year.  Berry could run in both and we should encourage him to consider running for the Senate next year.  Of course he will have to disavow any interest in the Senate in order to will the Mayoral race.