Check out your facts again from the 2000 election. W very much needed Florida to obtain the majority of the electoral college and hence the presidency, regardless of the outcome in New Mexico.
As it turned out, the 'Rats won New Mexico in 2000 under very suspicious circumstances. It's hard to describe what happened there, but Bush seemed to have won the state over Gore by a couple of hundred votes with all the precincts reporting. Then, early in the morning the next day, about 500 Gore ballots were somehow "discovered," switching the state to Gore. The GOP didn't bother to challenge that strange event in New Mexico, because it would have been a waste of time and effort to divert attention from the crucial struggle in Florida.
Somebody picked Forida to be the challenge state ~ with NM we had an easier target ~ remember, 12 years back ~