I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
As expected, former U.S. Senate candidate Allen McCulloch announced today that he’s running to be the next chairman of the Republican Party of New Mexico.
McCulloch made the announcement in a letter to members of the party’s state central committee. You can read the letter here.
“We are at a cross-road of our Republican future. We can cease on the opportunity to come together and re-build a stronger more responsive party or sink further into irrelevancy,” he wrote in the letter.
McCulloch’s announcement has been widely anticipated. He already has been waging an active, albeit unofficial, campaign that included a guest column on my personal blog in which he laid out his vision for the future of the GOP.
“If this utter electoral disaster has taught us anything, it is that our state party is in desperate need of new leadership and vision,” McCulloch wrote in that November column. “Our party needs the kind of change that does not pit Republican against Republican, retaliate against its own members in the Legislature, or turn a deaf ear and blind eye toward building strong county organizations. We must now start a process of rebuilding, so we have the ability to not only defend existing Republican turf, but also pick up what ground has been lost. We must all come together to achieve this vision.”
McCulloch touched on similar themes in today’s letter.
“As your next chairman, I am committed to ensuring our county chairs, activists and legislators have a seat at the New Mexico Republican table,” he wrote.
McCulloch is expected to be challenged for the chairman position by outgoing U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce — who said he is considering running but did not officially announced his candidacy — and possibly others as well.
The new chairman or chairwoman, who will be elected in January, will replace Allen Weh. Weh built a reputation as a strong fundraiser, but during his tenure the GOP lost a lot of ground in state government and the congressional delegation.
