E-mail Story
Print Friendly
Send E-mail
Reprint story
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Ortiz y Pino Throws Hat Into Ring for Lt. Gov.
By Sean Olson
Journal Staff Writer
State Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino of Albuquerque is the latest to join a long list of Democrats running for lieutenant governor.
Ortiz y Pino, who had been contemplating a run for the post for months, made the announcement last week.
"New Mexicans want a clear choice of honest, ethical, productive and progressive leadership that my campaign represents," Ortiz y Pino, a social worker, said in a statement Friday.
In the Senate since 2005, Ortiz y Pino has pushed for universal health care, gay rights, children's issues and alternative energy, among other things.
"I stand today as not just a Democratic Party candidate for lieutenant governor, but as a leader of all New Mexicans no matter how they vote, how they live, how they work or how they love," he said.
Ortiz y Pino joins former Democratic Party of New Mexico Chairman Brian Colón, Mid-Region Council of Governments Executive Director Lawrence Rael, Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, Santa Rosa Mayor Jose Campos and Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano in the race.
DEFENDING DENISH: Sen. Tim Eichenberg, D-Albuquerque, was reported by a blogger as saying, after he dropped out of the race, that he wouldn't have felt comfortable running as lieutenant governor on a Diane Denish ticket because she hadn't used her standing to ferret out corruption.
Other Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor couldn't disagree more.
Mid-Region Council of Governments executive director and lieutenant governor candidate Lawrence Rael said the lieutenant governor candidate who wins the June 2010 nomination will be part of "a winning candidate's team."
Former state Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colón, another candidate, said "people are excited" to vote for Denish.
"Unequivocally, in the last 24 hours, I can say that I have received phone calls from all sorts of people that have no idea what (Eichenberg) is talking about," Colón said.
Republicans have been criticizing Denish for months about what they call her inaction in the face of a New Mexico culture of corruption. Denish has responded that she is the only governor candidate who has proposed or passed ethics legislation.
Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, who is running for lieutenant governor, said ethics will be a big issue for Democrats in the 2010 elections, but that Denish isn't to blame.
"I think she's just been essentially blocked out of the inner workings of the (governor's) administration. I don't know what she could have done," he said.
You also can send comments via our comment form
|
|
