Domenici at Opening
The Bush-Cheney campaign kickoff in ABQ last night landed another kick on the backside of State GOP Chair Ramsay Gorham. She was noticeably absent as Sen. Domenici, Nat'l Bush Chair Marc Racicot, NM GOP National Committeeman Mickey Barnett, ex-State GOP Chair Dendahl and other Repub heavyweights officially opened the Bush re-elect headquarters. It was the second blow to Gorham this week, with the GOP's John Ryan, exec director of the GOP under Dendahl, landing the other roundhouse announcing he will challenge Gorham for her state senate seat and calling on her to resign while she seeks another senate term.

The knockdown, drag-out fight over what role Gorham and the state party will play in the Bush re-elect has apparently been won by the Barnett-Domenici forces who have the inside track with the Republican National committee. On top of all this, sources tell me former Light Guv Walter Bradley is waffling on his previous declaration that he would seek to oust Barnett from his committeeman's post this June. Former State Rep. George Buffet has announced he will take on Barnett, but Bradley is seen as the stronger candidate to take down attorney-lobbyist Barnett, and pave the way for the Gorham forces to take full control.

Ramsay's wing is saying she was invited to the event last night, but that her son's baseball game interfered, and that things have settled down between the state party chair and the Bush campaign.

But the failure to bring Gorham fully aboard leaves the Prez with a potentially divided GOP in a state he lost in 2000 by a handful of votes. Ramsay and her husband Frank (also not on hand last night) will have to sit back and watch events from the sidelines. If this election is as close as pundits predict and Bush runs into trouble in NM, she will have the option of pointing fingers at the
Dendahlites. The fight, as we have long reported, was not so much about ideology as personality conflicts, power and money; who gets the juicy contracts from that multimillion dollar Bush war chest.

Meanwhile, Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White has been named chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Bernalillo County. County GOP Chair Ken Zangara, a Gorham groupie, has also apparently been squeezed out as the Bush team consolidates. The Bushies blame it all on Ramsay, saying she was unreasonable and hard to work with. But she continues to see Barnett and Dendahl as threats to her chairmanship. It seems this is a transition time for the state GOP. If Bush wins big here those who ran his campaign will bask in the glow, but if they blow it, Gorham stands to benefit, albeit, unintentionally. It's a heck of a way to run a railroad, not to mention a big time presidential campaign in a key swing state upon which the presidency could be won or lost.

ANOTHER ANCHOR ADIEU

It was just last month (see my Feb. archives) that KOAT-TV's Craig Nigrelli left his longtime anchor perch, and now, the chief competitor of Nigrelli's, KRQE-TV anchor Kathy Wyatt, is also exiting the stage. Kathy went up against Nigrelli as they both anchored the noon news in a tight battle for the number one position. In addition, Wyatt, a 13 year veteran of 13, spent the last couple of year co-anchoring the 4 p.m. hour with NM TV news dean Dick Knipfing. She tells me that will end in May when she moves to Tucson, AZ where her husband Andy has landed a top sales job at ABC affiliate KGUN-TV. Wyatt is "weighing her options" when it comes to staying in the news biz, but if the Purdue University grad stays out she will still have plenty to do. Her other "job" is raising two youngsters aged 6 and 10.

Make our site one of your 'favorites.' Bookmark it now and send a link to interested friends. Interested in advertising to NM's large political community? Email me or call 505-243-4059 for details.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2004
Not for reproduction without permission of the author