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.
One of New Mexico’s most famous residents is once again telling people in the press that he wants to run for governor.
According to The Hill actor Val Kilmer is still thinking about running for New Mexico’s top job in 2010 when the current governor, Bill Richardson, is term-limited out of office.
And Kilmer hinted that he has the backing of Gov. Bill Richardson.
The Hill reports that Kilmer said the mysterious “they” have asked him to run.
He told The Hill at Monday’s Huffington Post party at the Newseum that he has been approached to run for the highest office of the state where he owns a ranch and has family roots.
“Actually, they’ve asked me to run for governor,” he said, not specifying who “they” are. “People seem to want me to.”
But the most eyebrow-raising part of the article comes further down, where it looks as if Kilmer is claiming to have the backing of Richardson.
Richardson publicly declared his support for a potential Kilmer candidacy last year, and on Monday the actor returned the praise to the current governor, who now plans to stay put after an ongoing ethics investigation forced him to decline President Obama’s invitation to become Commerce secretary.
Last year, a Richardson spokesman told the Santa Fe New Mexican that Richardson did not endorse a run for governor. Instead, Richardson seems supportive of the idea of Kilmer’s running, saying of Kilmer, “If he jumps in a race he’s got name ID, so it can’t be discounted.”
I still think that if people want to learn a little more about Kilmer– besides that he was Doc Holliday in “Tombstone,” Iceman in “Top Gun” or Batman in “Batman Forever” — the Chuck Klosterman profile for Esquire is a good place to start.
This exchange is particularly … well, just read it.
[Klosterman]: You mean you think you literally had the same experience as Doc Holliday?
Kilmer: Oh, sure. It’s not like I believed that I shot somebody, but I absolutely know what it feels like to pull the trigger and take someone’s life.
[Klosterman:] You understand how it feels to shoot someone as much as a person who has actually committed a murder?
[Kilmer] I understand it more. It’s an actor’s job. A guy who’s lived through the horror of Vietnam has not spent his life preparing his mind for it. He’s some punk. Most guys were borderline criminal or poor, and that’s why they got sent to Vietnam. It was all the poor, wretched kids who got beat up by their dads, guys who didn’t get on the football team, couldn’t finagle a scholarship. They didn’t have the emotional equipment to handle that experience. But this is what an actor trains to do. I can more effectively represent that kid in Vietnam than a guy who was there.
