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Udall cousins seek western Senate seats

Heather Clark
Associated Press
Vail, CO Colorado

ALBUQUERQUE ” Two cousins in the House now want to become two cousins in the Senate. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., is joining Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., in seeking Senate seats of retiring Republicans.

Tom Udall initially said he would stay in the House after veteran Republican Sen. Pete Domenici announced he would retire in 2009 because of an incurable brain disease. He says he reconsidered at urging of Democrats throughout New Mexico.

“I went places and people said, ‘Run, Tom, run. Get out there and do this,'” Udall said in an interview after announcing his candidacy Thursday for the Democratic nomination to succeed Domenici. “There was truly a very sincere draft Tom Udall movement that made a big impact on me.”



Udall said Americans made a clear choice in the 2006 election that they wanted a change and cited a bill he co-authored to cap carbon emissions blamed for global warming.

“Conservation is the legacy of the Udall family,” said the candidate, who was joined Thursday on the podium by his father, former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall.

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Udall will face Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez and Leland Lehrman, who publishes an alternative newspaper in Santa Fe, in the June 3 primary. A fourth Democrat, Jim Hannan, finance director of a Santa Fe housing trust, dropped out of the race and endorsed Udall.

Competing for the GOP nomination to succeed Domenici are Republican Reps. Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce of Hobbs.

Mark Udall, Eagle County’s congressman and the son of the late Democratic Rep. Morris Udall of Arizona, is seeking the nomination in Colorado to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Wayne Allard.

Stewart Udall was an Arizona congressman for six years, then headed the Interior Department for eight years under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Morris Udall was in the House for three decades.


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