Ex-Communication Would Not Worry NM Senate Leader

On Thursday night, June 18th, Bernalillo County democrats heard Senator Michael Sanchez (D-Valencia) tell them who his heroes are, and why he's exploring a run for governor in 2010.

What they may not have expected to hear is a story he told them about attending church in his hometown of Belen.

Sanchez told the crowd that a priest in his parish doesn't "much care for me." Sanchez believes it's because of his support for a woman's right to choose and domestic partnership measures.

In front of his wife and daughter, who attended the meeting at UNM Law School with him, Sanchez told about 50 people he doesn't care if he's ex-communicated from the church for his public policy stands.

Sanchez told the story in response to a question about the Catholic Church's influence defeating a domestic partnership bill in the state senate. Note: We did not have the camera rolling at the time he made his statement about ex-communication.



In this video Sanchez remembers his heroes, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, and baseball heroes Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente. He say's they taught him to work hard and care for other people.

At 5:48 minutes into the video, Sanchez talks about his disappointment Senate Bill 12's defeat.


Sanchez announced he would be forming an exploratory committee to run for governor on his Facebook page in May, but has not updated his wall since then.

Lt. Governor Diane Denish, who was on vacation last week, was represented by her daughter, Susan Schreiber, who talked about her mother's record for the last eight years.

Three candidates for lieutenant governor, Senators Gerald Ortiz y Pino & Linda Lopez, along with Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano (who is currently the only one of the three candidates with a campaign blog, Twitter account and Facebook page), each had five minutes to address the crowd.

Incumbent Bernalillo County Assessor Karen Montoya, and Bernalillo County Sheriff candidate Sylvester Stanley, an army vet and FBI National Academy graduate, with 30 years of law enforcement experience, also spoke at the meeting.