A New Senator for New Mexico

New Mexico is going to have an interesting campaign for its Senate seat this fall.

I didn't follow the situation in New Mexico very closely in recent months, but, apparently, the Democratic candidate for the seat of retiring Sen. Pete Domenici (pictured at right) will be Rep. Tom Udall and the Republican candidate will be Rep. Steve Pearce.

So the entire New Mexico House delegation will be freshmen in 2009 because Pearce won the GOP nomination by barely edging New Mexico's other House representative, Rep. Heather Wilson.

The Republican primary was competitive and offered voters a choice. Wilson is regarded as a moderate Republican. Pearce is considered farther to the right. New Mexico Republicans responded more to the conservative voice than the moderate one.

The left-leaning Udall, son of JFK Cabinet official Stewart Udall and nephew of Mo Udall, was unopposed in the Democratic primary. His candidacy against Pearce gives New Mexico voters a clear choice for the Senate seat -- one that could be important in the presidential vote.

It remains to be seen which of New Mexico's representatives will be successful in making that jump from the House to the Senate, but the campaign might affect the outcome of the presidential race in New Mexico -- and the state's reputation as a national bellwether.

"New Mexico in statewide political races long has taken comfort in straddling the ideological fence," writes David Roybal in the Albuquerque Journal. "Given the opportunity, voters here usually settle in as moderates come Election Day. This fall, however, we're going to be forced out of our comfort zone."

The Udall-Pearce matchup "ensures that Domenici's successor will be no moderate," says Roybal.

With Domenici's retirement, New Mexico's junior senator, Democrat Jeff Bingaman, will become the state's senior senator, and he's hardly a newcomer to his chamber. Bingaman has been in the Senate since 1983.

Domenici is finishing his sixth term in the Senate. He was first elected in 1972, the year Richard Nixon was re-elected in a 49-state landslide.

I'm not sure why Gov. Bill Richardson didn't run for the seat. I guess part of me kept thinking he would, even while he was running for president.

But that may be a good thing for Barack Obama. Richardson would be available to run for vice president if Obama asks him.

Roybal, who was a speech writer for Richardson when he served in Bill Clinton's Cabinet, doesn't speculate on what Richardson will do. (Of course, Richardson hasn't been asked to do anything yet.) But Richardson's presence on the national ticket -- or absence from it -- could be important in both the presidential and Senate campaigns in New Mexico.

"My guess: The conservative Pearce will lose if the liberal Obama wins in New Mexico," writes Roybal. "But would it be Obama that helps carry Udall to victory, or would it be Udall that carries Obama?"