On Monday, former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson announced she will run for U.S. Senate. Wilson quickly picked up endorsements from prominent New Mexico Republicans, including former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, and criticisms from Democrats, who noted her involvement in the scandal of fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias.

Wilson’s announcement came after U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman announced that he would not seek re-election in 2012. Bingaman has served in the U.S. Senate since 2012.

“Mother, wife, small business owner, Air Force officer, member of Congress, I am and have been all of these things,” Wilson said. “And today, you can add one more: I am a candidate for the United States Senate.”

Wilson said she’s running because she is “deeply concerned about the future of our country.” The choices made by the current White House and “a Democratic-led Senate are pointing us in the wrong direction,” she said.

Federal government has had a 24 percent increase in federal spending over the last two years. “They’ve gone on a spending spree,” Wilson declared.

This would be Wilson’s second attempt at becoming a U.S. Senator. After Domenici decided not to run in the 2008 elections, Wilson ran and lost in the primary to Steve Pearce. Both Wilson and Pearce had left their seats in the U.S. House for the run.

Pearce was defeated in the general election by Tom Udall, who also left his seat in the House for the Senate run.

The former congresswoman received some high profile endorsements out of the gate. Domenici, who also endorsed her in 2008, said in a statement, “The nation needs her, and it’s up to us to send her there. I endorse her candidacy wholeheartedly and I’m going to do everything I can to help her win.”

Wilson said that “almost half of the Republicans in the House or in the Senate are endorsing me today.”

Wilson also received the endorsement of former U.S. Congressmen Bill Redmond and Manuel Luján.

“I watched Heather serve in the House for ten years,” Lujan said in a statement. “She stood up for policies that help small businesses create jobs and was known by everyone as the ‘go to’ person when people had problems with the federal government.”

Former Republican gubernatorial candidates Allen Weh, Janice Arnold Jones and Pete Domenici, Jr., were also in attendance at the announcement.

Democrats quickly reacted to the entrance of Wilson, the first top-tier candidate in the race to replace Bingaman. The state Democratic Party referenced her role in the scandal of Iglesias.

“New Mexico voters will not soon forget the image of a desperate Heather Wilson trying to influence a federal investigation to benefit her campaign in 2006,” Democratic Party of New Mexico chair Javier Gonzales said in a statement. “That’s the kind of politics you get with Heather Wilson and it’s the wrong kind of politics for New Mexico.”

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee created a video painting Wilson as a Washington, D.C., insider.

Pearce also weighed in on Wilson’s announcement.

“Right now, I am working hard at the job that the people of New Mexico sent me to Congress to do,” Pearce said in a statement. “The filing deadline is still nine months away, and I have plenty of time to make decisions. I’ll reach out to my supporters, but now, for New Mexicans, the stakes are higher than personal ambition.”

Weh, who gave more than 1 million to his gubernatorial campaign earlier this year, has been admired as a strong fundraiser. For Country will “lend support” to candidates who share his views, he said in a press release. Weh reiterated his support for limited government, free enterprise and a strong national defense.

“In the 21st century, our country faces more challenges as a nation than it has since its inception. International Islamic terrorists seek to destroy our country. There is a virtual combat zone in Mexico that is beginning to spill over into the United States. And our economy remains frail and vulnerable because of policies that have weakened our free enterprise system,” Weh said in the release.

Weh’s newly launched website is www.AllenWeh.com.

Martinez, shown here outside her campaign office in Mesilla. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)

One thing is sure after Tuesday’s primary election: New Mexico will elect its first woman governor in November.

Doña Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez set up an all-female contest with Democratic Lt. Gov. Diane Denish on Tuesday after easily dispatching state GOP chairman Allen Weh in the GOP gubernatorial primary.

“We are one step closer to taking New Mexico back,” Martinez said in a late Tuesday speech before enthusiastic supporters. “We are saying no to the status quo. We are saying no to the corruption that has deprived New Mexico of the integrity it deserves.”

Denish immediately congratulated Martinez on her victory and then signaled that the governor’s race was entering the next stage — the general election season.

“This is going to be a competitive election and I am going to need all the help I can get,” Denish said in a news release. “My opponent has shown she will do anything to win – even take $450,000 from the man behind the disgraceful Swiftboaters.”

Martinez definitely showed she had electoral muscles to flex Tuesday, easily besting Weh, her closest competitor, by nearly 19 percentage points and out-performing the expectations that many had for her campaign.

Martinez’s victory Tuesday belied the difficulties she confronted in the waning days of the primary election season when she and Weh engaged in a two-person battle, ignoring the other three GOP gubernatorial competitors. Negative attack ads by both candidates ramped up the tension in an increasingly heated electoral contest that, at times, veered toward the personal.

Leaders say GOP must unify

The back-and-forth between the two candidates left some bruised feelings in its wake – a situation seemingly exacerbated by New Mexico GOP Chairman Harvey E. Yates a week ago, when he stepped into the middle of the battle between Martinez and Weh.

Yates defended Martinez against attack ads from Weh that claimed she didn’t pay taxes while saying Martinez’s attack ads against Weh on illegal immigration were fair.

“I did it because of an issue of honesty,” Yates said Tuesday when asked about his decision to get involved. “How can we win and clean up this state and base the campaign on things that are less than honest.”

Former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici Sr., acknowledged that the 2010 GOP gubernatorial race was more divisive than usual. “We’ve never had five candidates before,” he told The Independent. “It’s hard to keep five candidates in check.” Domenici’s son, Pete Jr., was one of the GOP gubernatorial candidates.

But the 36-year veteran of the U.S. Senate said there’s plenty of time for the party to get ready for the general election in November.

Noting the five months between the primary and general elections, the former U.S. senator said “There’s a lot of time to heal.”

The day’s events point to November

Martinez’s victory capped a primary election day in which both major political parties selected nominees to represent them in numerous contests during the November general election.

But as closely watched as Tuesday’s primaries were there were reminders that Tuesday was only a prologue.

Steve Pearce, the former 2nd District congressman, greeted voters in Lea County on Tuesday, reminding them that he and U.S. Rep. Democrat Harry Teague are vying in what is shaping up to be one of the closely watched congressional elections in November. Teague won the 2nd Congressional District.

A round up of races

The GOP gubernatorial contest may have been the headliner of Tuesday’s primary election, but nominees for a number of down-ballot races were picked Tuesday by both major political parties.

Brian Colon edged out Lawrence Rael in a six-person field of Democrats that included House Rep. Jose Campos, state senators Linda Lopez and Jerry Ortiz y Pino to become the party’s Lieutenant Governor nominee.

On the Republican side, John Sanchez won his party’s nomination despite a four-person field, including Sen. Kent Cravens and former House Rep. Brian Moore.

Democrat Ray Powell bested Sandy Jones and Harry Montoya to win his party’s nomination for state Land Commissioner. He will run against Republican Matt Rush who bested Bob Cornelius on the GOP side.

Republicans selected Tom Mullins over Ron Paul acolyte Adam Kokesh to run against 3^rd Congressional District U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan.

Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said in a statement, “Congratulations to all the New Mexican Republican candidates who won their primaries, and especially to Susana Martinez, who today becomes the first Hispanic woman nominated for Governor by either of the major parties in the United States. Republicans everywhere can be proud of Martinez’s landmark achievement and the major national significance of her nomination by the Republican Party to be the next Governor of New Mexico.”

As of this writing, Martinez has nearly 50 percent of the votes in the Republican primary, Weh has 31. 3 percent, Doug Turner has 10.8 percent, Pete Domenic has 6.9 percent and Janice Arnold Jones has 2.9 percent.

Things are still early — and much can change — but Martinez took the first battle.

Doug Turner had 9.92 percent of the early and absentee votes, Pete Domenici Jr. had 4.89 percent and Janice Arnold Jones had 2.99 percent of the early and absentee votes.

In the Democratic Lt. Gov. primary, Brian Colón took a narrow lead in early and absentee ballots in the state’s most populous county over Lawrence Rael – 32.15 percent to 30.30 percent.

On the Republican side, Kent Cravens and John Sanchez were in a very close race, which Cravens leading Sanchez 42.56 percent to 41.67 percent in Bernalillo County.

Weh trails Republican opponent Susana Martinez in recent polls of the upcoming Republican gubernatorial primary by double digits.

Weh has funded a significant chunk of his campaign — he has loaned his campaign $1.6 million according to the most recent campaign finance reports.

From The Huffington Post report:

Weh’s CSI Aviation, which brokers charter flight packages, has benefited from the U.S. government’s increased privatization of its detention and deportation operations. CSI Aviation received contracts worth more than $218 million over the past five years, according to federal records. The contracts were awarded by ICE, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the office within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security responsible for deportations. On any given day, CSI Aviation has six planes in the air transporting illegal immigrants for ICE as well as for the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS) operated by the U.S. Marshall’s Service. It also arranges deportation flights around the world, mostly to Central America.

According to the story, the company is paid up to “$700 per passenger for flights within the Americas” and “nearly 20 times as much” for those deported to areas outside of the Americas.

This money wasn’t just from under George W. Bush’s administration (though CSI Aviation’s “contracts skyrocketed during Bush presidency.”) The Huffington Post story mentioned a contract that was under the Barack Obama administration, “a $527,300 contract with ICE for a flight providing ‘relocation services’ to Cape Verde, Lebanon, and Iraq.”

The Huffington Post concludes, “The one certain effect of immigration crackdowns will be to benefit certain entrepreneurs–such as Allen Weh.”

Martinez is in a tight race with former Republican Party chairman Allen Weh, who lent another $600,000 to his campaign recently. That makes a total of $1.6 million he’s lent himself.

As The Independent wrote last year, Perry has put hundreds of thousands of dollars into New Mexico politics. The Institute on Money in State Politics has documented Perry’s financial involvement over the last three cycles (more under the name Robert Perry.)

As for Weh, he has not had to go across state lines to find large sums of money to help fund his campaign — he hasn’t even had to leave his house. But other than the $600,000 Weh lent himself on May 13, Weh raised just more than $41,000 in the period.

No single donation to Weh’s campaign was more than $2,500.

Attorney Pete Domenici, Jr. raised more than $80,000 in the period. That total included $55,000 in loans the candidate made to his campaign.

Doug Turner announced raising more than $26,000 in the period; he did not loan his campaign any more money.

Janice Arnold-Jones reported raising more than $22,000 in the period, including a nearly $9,000 loan from Roger Nagel, a CPA from Albuquerque.

Yesterday, Democratic candidate Diane Denish announced raising nearly $465,000 in the fundraising period.

The primaries are on Tuesday, June 1.

This comes a day after his prime opponent, Susana Martinez, released her own ad bereft of negative charges.

In this most recent poll, Denish leads former state party chair Allen Weh 39 to 45; state Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones 45 to 31, PR firm owner Doug Turner 47 to 31 and former Senator’s son Pete Domenici Jr. 47 to 30.

From Rasmussen:

The survey of 500 Likely Voters in New Mexico was conducted on May 25, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Martinez leads former Republican Party chairman Allen Weh by 10 points and leads Democratic Lt. Gov. Diane Denish by 6 points in the poll, which was commissioned by KOB-TV.

Denish, the only Democratic gubernatorial candidate, beats all the other Republican candidates, according to the SurveyUSA poll.

Martinez leads Denish 49 percent to 43 percent.

Martinez leads Weh 43 percent to 33 percent in the Republican primary. None of the other three Republican candidates reached double-digits in support.

Attorney Pete Domenici, Jr. and PR firm owner Doug Turner both had eight percent of support in the Republican primary, according to the poll, and state Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones had just three percent.

Another poll released today for the Republican primary showed Martinez with an 11 point lead. That poll was commissioned by New Mexico Politics with Joe Monahan and was conducted by Dialing Services, LLC.

Martinez leads the Republican primary “in almost every category” when it comes to demographics according to KOB reporter Stuart Dyson. The same was true for Martinez in the Dialing Services, LLC poll.

The Republican primary poll was conducted by automatic telephone dialing of 464 likely Republican voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percent. The poll of the general election was of 1,405 likely voters, according to KOB.

The poll was conducted from May 23 to May 25.

Update 10:00 pm

In an e-mail to supporters, Martinez called the news that she was leading Denish “exciting.”

Denish’s camp quickly responded with a statement saying that Martinez has been on the air for longer and spent more money on TV advertisements.

“Susana Martinez has been airing TV ads for weeks, so we take this with a grain of salt. When New Mexicans hear from both candidates, the choice will be clear,” Denish campaign manager Chris Cervini said. “Diane Denish will be a different kind of Governor — someone who stands up for regular families, while Susana Martinez is a failed prosecutor best-known for plea-bargaining drunk drivers and cutting deals with violent felons.”