“Domenici, an attorney who hasn’t held elected office....”
All things being equal, I’d rather have an elected District Attorney like Susana Martinez running for Governor than a state legislator or someone without electoral experience. And if Martinez does relatively well among Hispanics (which must be the case in her elections in Doña Ana County given the electorate there) it could be enough to put her over the top in a good GOP year even against a better-known Democrat such as Lt. Gov. Denish.
If Martinez gets the nomination, it will be an all-Hispanic GOP ticket for Gov/Lt Gov as fmr. State Rep. John Sanchez (Richardson’s opponent in ‘02) will do whatever is necessary to get the #2 slot and use his money to help the ticket win.
Your point about Pete, Jr. running for a downballot statewide office is a good one, but the problem is, the GOP usually is on the losing end for those races and, in fact, no Republican has gone from a lower statewide office (exclusive of Lt Governor) to the Governorship since statehood. Also, remember the last two of our GOP Governors never held or ran for public office before their election (Garrey Carruthers and Gary Johnson).
Oops, forgot to add that his father FIRST ran for Governor in 1970 against Bruce King (narrowly losing) before he ran for the Senate in ‘72 (although Pete was holding office, just coming off a 2 1/2 year stint as the ex-officio Mayor of Albuquerque).