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July 8, 2001
Dragonslayer Sanchez Ready To Enter Governor's Race
By Loie Fecteau
Journal Politics Writer
First-term Republican legislator John Sanchez of Albuquerque is starting to sound serious about running for governor in 2002.
The 38-year-old Sanchez is known as the dragonslayer in some Republican circles because of his success in knocking off House Speaker Raymond Sanchez, D-Albuquerque, a longtime GOP target, in the last general election.
Sanchez, an Albuquerque roofing contractor, told me he believes he can duplicate his success against Raymond Sanchez in House District 15 in a statewide run for governor. He is undaunted that his only other political experience was serving for three years as a trustee for the village of Los Ranchos.
"What we did in District 15, we have all the confidence we'll do across the state," Sanchez said. "I'm very seriously considering running for governor."
Sanchez plans to form an exploratory committee in September. He will make a final decision in January about seeking the Republican nomination in 2002. Other possible GOP candidates for governor include: Lt. Gov. Walter Bradley; former Gov. Garrey Carruthers; Rep. Rob Burpo, R-Albuquerque; Albuquerque radio talk show host Larry Ahrens; and former House Minority Leader Richard Cheney of Farmington.
Sanchez noted he was one of the only Republican candidates to carry House District 15 in the 2000 general election. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 55 to 45 percent in the district, which spans Albuquerque's North Valley. Sanchez beat Raymond Sanchez, who had held the seat for 30 years, by 206 votes.
Republican President George W. Bush trailed Democrat Vice President Al Gore by 1,058 votes in the district. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., trounced Republican challenger Bill Redmond by 3,222 votes there.
Republican Rep. Heather Wilson won re-election to New Mexico's 1st Congressional District, but Democratic challenger John Kelly beat her by 176 votes in House District 15.
"If we can win in House District 15 against the speaker of the House, we think we'd do extremely well statewide, even against a Bill Richardson," Sanchez said. He was referring to the former New Mexico congressman, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Energy secretary, who is mulling a run for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2002.
To test the gubernatorial waters, Sanchez spent more than $18,000 to conduct a poll last month among 400 Republicans who said they were likely to vote in a GOP primary race. The poll was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies of Alexandria, Va., which worked with Sanchez on his successful campaign against Raymond Sanchez.
The poll found, among other things, that 53 percent of Republicans surveyed knew who Sanchez is largely because of his defeat of Raymond Sanchez. "They (Public Opinion Strategies) said they had never seen a first-term state representative with that kind of name recognition," Sanchez said.
Sanchez said his pollsters told him: "You shouldn't only consider running for governor; you need to run."
Sanchez also was encouraged by a whirlwind trip he made to Washington, D.C., two weeks ago to discuss his possible candidacy with officials from the White House, the Republican National Committee and the Republican Governors' Association.
"They would love to see a Hispanic Republican run for governor and there's no state with a better chance for a Hispanic Republican to win than New Mexico," Sanchez said. "This goes right along with President Bush's commitment to growing the party, particularly with Hispanics."
Sanchez said the White House and national GOP groups told him they would not get involved in a GOP primary race. But he already has gotten some help from the Bush White House to increase his visibility.
He was among a group of Hispanics invited to the White House to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. And Bush invited Sanchez to attend a ceremony in New York City this coming week to honor immigrants at Ellis Island.
Other Republicans apparently are beginning to take Sanchez seriously as a possible gubernatorial contender. Bradley, who has his own GOP gubernatorial aspirations, recently met with Sanchez and tried to talk him into running for lieutenant governor.
Sanchez said he politely declined: "I'm not interested in running for lieutenant governor. If I'm going to answer the call, it'll be for governor."
Sanchez, who spent thousands of dollars of his own money to defeat Raymond Sanchez, is prepared to plunk down some serious cash if he runs for governor.
Sanchez said his wife, Debby, walked into his office at Right Way Roofing after they got his poll results and symbolically waved a check from one of their personal bank accounts. The check was made out for $250,000 to his as-yet-unformed gubernatorial campaign.
"She said, 'I'm in. I support you,'" John Sanchez said. "We understand what it takes to prime the pump and we're ready to do that."
Write to 328 Galisteo, Santa Fe, NM, 87501. E-mail: lfecteau@abqjournal.com