Note: Daily Kos diarist Environmentalist had a great guest post at Democracy for New Mexico on this subject.  Also a recced diary at Kos.

This is crossposted at New Mexico FBIHOP.

You may wonder what New Mexico, as landlocked as any state, has to do with off-shore drilling.  Let's just say isn't much threat of oil platforms dotting the landscape of Tingley Beach.

But with Pete Domenici as the ranking member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Jeff Bingaman as the chairman of that same committee, New Mexico holds some significant sway in any energy policy discussion.  Add in the fact that our governor, Bill Richardson, is a former Secretary of Energy under Bill Clinton and we have even more clout in energy policy discussions.  

Read more about it below.

There's more...

Add another Senator to Obama's endorsement list:

Sen. Bingaman to Endorse Obama

That makes 18 Democratic Senators for Obama and only 13 for Clinton, according to DemConWatch.

There's more...

Dear Dr. Chair Governor Dean,

Thanks for sticking to your guns with the 50 State Strategy that resulted in new business cards being printed for Madame Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid.

I am writing today to join with Harry Reid, Max Baucus, Jon Tester, Jeff Bingaman, Byron Dorgan, Kent Conrad, Maria Cantwell, Tim Johnson, Ben Nelson and nearly 50 members of the House of Representatives in respectfully asking you to give Denver the 2008 Democratic Party Convention.

Thanks for your consideration.

There's more...

I'm not sure why Rasmussen decided to waste time polling these two races.  There is a much more competitive and important race in NM in the First Congressional district, with Patricia Madrid and Heather Wilson neck and neck.

But at least this is some good news for Democrats.  Richardson and Bingaman both have hefty leads, and look to cruise to victory.  Which leads to a question -- what can they do to help those down on the ballot?

First, the poll numbers.

There's more...

The first independent polls of the campaign have been released; the Sanderoff-Journal polls are generally very accurate, and Sanderoff is a respective New Mexico pollster.

If you have read my blog before, you can guess which Congressional race is in play -- yup, the Patricia Madrid - Heather Wilson matchup in the First Congressional District.  Let's take a look at that race and its poll first.

Brian Sanderoff had his poll 45-42, with Wilson in the lead.  Ten percent are undecided, and the rest (three percent) say they aren't going to vote for either; the margin of error is 4.8 percent.  This is in line with the Dem poll taken a couple weeks back.

Crossposted at New Mexico FBIHOP and Daily Kos

There's more...