A laugher for Heinrich is more sad than funny
Republicans like to say competition is healthy, the all-American way of keeping everyone alert and hard at work.
The moribund GOP of New Mexico defies that theme. State Republicans don’t yet have a candidate to challenge Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich in the 2024 election.
Maybe the Republicans enjoy dawdling and losing. What else can explain their indifference? They do nothing while Heinrich each day collects more money in his bid for a third term.
Heinrich had $1.9 million in his campaign treasury through March, a figure that will climb when the next federal reports are filed in July. Ben Franklin is Heinrich’s best defense against a competent, reasonable Republican entering the Senate race.
With Heinrich steaming ahead, someone has to step up to take a gut punch for the GOP. But who?
“We’re getting late in the game. I’m still hanging onto the theory they’ll carry it into a crisis cycle and we’ll hear from Steve Pearce again,” said Bob Graham, former chairman of Santa Fe County’s Republican Party.
Pearce, 75-year-old chairman of the state Republican Party, runs his operation as if blue New Mexico were ruby-red Texas. He twice lost statewide elections, for the Senate in 2008 and for governor in 2018. Voters know Pearce well, which means Heinrich would welcome a matchup with the Republican chairman.
Former two-term Gov. Susana Martinez would be a stronger candidate than Pearce if she attempted a return to public life. Even with a late start, Martinez could probably match Heinrich in fundraising.
The downside for Republicans is Martinez bumbled through her last three years as governor. She was slow to react when revenue plunged and the state couldn’t pay its bills.
Martinez also lost a lawsuit because she refused to explain why she vetoed 10 measures by Democratic legislators. All those bills became law, a humiliating defeat for Martinez. She never improved at the art of working with lawmakers, preferring the unproductive role of autocrat.
Republicans could always sacrifice a lesser-known retread for a run against Heinrich. The party of Pearce attracts fringe characters who make wild claims but still end up filling slots on ballots.
Audrey Trujillo, a failed candidate for secretary of state, is one of them.
Trujillo last month was on Twitter, typing false, hackneyed statements. She claimed Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham stole the November election. “[Lujan Grisham] is ranked last in everything good and still was reelected, thanks to the shenanigans in the election,” Trujillo wrote.
As for evidence of wrongdoing, Trujillo provided nothing — exactly what she offered as a candidate. She would have no chance of winning against Heinrich, though her continual whining might provide Pearce and his wing of the Republican Party with an occasional headline.
New Mexico also is home to a Republican who’s a more seasoned denier of election results.
John Eastman, a Santa Fe-based
lawyer for defeated President Donald Trump, concocted a scheme to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in 2020. Eastman’s plan failed, leaving him in a fight for his professional life.
He is in a disbarment hearing this week in California. The charge is Eastman maneuvered to keep Trump in power through a coup.
Eastman told me he will win the disbarment proceeding, provided the law is followed.
It’s odd to hear the rule of law at the forefront of Eastman’s comments. Law was nowhere to be found when Eastman proposed that then-Vice President Mike Pence could single-handedly block Biden from the White House.
If Eastman is stripped of his law license, he might want a new career at the same time the GOP needs a nominee for the Senate. What a spectacle it would be if he became the Republican candidate for the very body he hoped to stop from certifying Biden’s election.
The Republican Party in New Mexico has many capable members with significant experience. Some of the more talented ones are installed in other political jobs or avocations that make it unlikely they’ll ever again run against Heinrich or any other Democrat.
There’s J. Miles Hanisee, a studious and plain-spoken judge on the state Court of Appeals. He could win crossover votes if he ever left the bench to pursue a different public office.
Another formidable Republican is former state Sen. Bill Payne, an attorney who retired from the Navy after serving as a SEAL and rear admiral.
Payne, 71, had enough of the state Senate after serving for 24 years. “The admiral,” as other politicians called him, now is one of seven members of the University of New Mexico Board of Regents.
With less than a year until the primaries, Senate races across the country will be hard-fought. Not in New Mexico.
Pearce’s GOP didn’t win any statewide elections in 2022. Nothing has changed for the Republicans.
They’re in slow motion, and Heinrich is on his way to a laugher.
With less than a year until the primaries, Senate races across the country will be hard-fought. Not in New Mexico.