Nella Domenici

Nella Domenici is trying to buy time on what could be a deciding issue in her contest with Dem US Senator Martin Heinrich.

Quiet with the media for the over two months since announcing her bid for the GOP Senate nod, Domenici broke her silence last week in a newspaper interview in which she lived up to the "No Answer Nella" nickname pinned on her by state Dems. 

Unopposed in the June 4 primary and unmoved by the early attacks, Domenici refused to give a direct answer on the hottest of hot button issues: 

Asked her stance on abortion, Domenici responds. . .“I very, very much want to focus on how to reduce abortions.” Citing this as an example of her independent thinking, she said she has examined what she calls the root issues of the subject, and her focus will be on “unintended pregnancies.” “One out of every three unintended pregnancy resulted in abortions,” she said referring to statistics she has studied. Asked if her answer was pro-choice or anti-abortion, she said her answer is to “reduce abortions,” through more efforts on birth control.

Domenici was only mildly pressed in follow-up questions by the publisher of the Republican-owned Rio Grande Sun who conducted the first print interview with the candidate. 

In her first campaign radio interview videotaped with KSVP in Artesia abortion did not come up. (See March 27 entry). However, she did slam Heinrich for "arrogance"and repeated rumors that Heinrich, if re-elected, would then run for Governor and if he were to win in '26 would appoint MLG to his Senate vacancy.

(Here is more video of Domenici from five years ago when she spoke at a behavioral health meeting. Her appearance begins at 4:35)

Domenici's mum is the word act will serve her for the primary where friendly voters will look the other way. But post-June 4 the summer heat generated by the Dems and the GOP hard-right will be like a blast from a furnace and force her hand.

The complex web of question she faces are all potential minefields for a Republican running in a Dem state. Mifepristone ? IVF? The high court Dobbs ruling overturning Roe? Abortion up to six weeks? 20 weeks? 

DOMENICI AND RONCHETTI

Smotherman

It was abortion that upended '22 GOP Gov nominee Mark Ronchetti who held a disastrous summer meeting with ABQ evangelical leader and Pastor Steve Smotherman who revealed from his pulpit that Ronchetti promised behind closed doors that he was committed to ending abortion in the state. 

That revelation came after Ronchetti publicly proposed allowing abortion up to 15 weeks of pregnancy. He later also proposed a public referendum on abortion which fell like a lead balloon. 

The Ronchetti flip-flop helped decimate his candidacy on both the left and right. He went on to lose to MLG by 6.4 points.

How much wiggle room, if any, will pro-life advocates allow Domenici so they can capture the prize of a US Senate seat, something the Republicans have not had since Sen. Pete Domenici--Nella Deomenici's father--left the Senate in 2009? 

History says Domenici is between a rock and a hard place with a softer abortion stance risking her GOP base and a lack of movement to the center making it nearly impossible for her to break though in big Bernalillo County which is essential for having any shot at the upset. 

Further complicating Domenici's path forward is her ambiguity about Donald Trump. In that interview she said: 

. . .She was not “looking for his endorsement… and “not anticipating giving him an endorsement.” She said she has both agreed and disagreed with Trump. “The only endorsement I care deeply about is the endorsement of the voters of the state.”

That's not going to please either side. She can only hope the race is not nationalized by Trump's presence or abortion--a truly high hope.

Domenici is a new face with a lot of name ID and the cash to go the distance but so was TV weathercaster Ronchetti who faced the exact same problems now confronting Domenici.

In the 2024 US Senate race the names have changed but the game is the same. 

HEINRICH STANCE

Meanwhile Heinrich, seeking a third, six year term and fully aware of the predicament of his opponent, is bolstering his pro-choice credentials in preparation for the fall face-off:

A group of U.S. Senate Democrats, including Sen. Martin Heinrich, is pitching a plan to establish a grant program to expand the availability of abortion and other reproductive health care services in states where it remains legal.

THE LEGACY 

Sen. Pete Domenici was the longest-serving US senator in state history. His legacy is centered on his ability to bring back to the state billions in federal funding and his appeal to Democrats and independents. 

But Domenici's moral lapse in fathering a child out of wedlock with a young DC lobbyist while serving in the Senate and today's politics, where moderate political figures are not as prized as they once were, has cast a shadow over that legacy. In her interview Nella Domenici commented: 

When I announced there was a series of articles that came out the day after saying his legacy was weak and maybe his legacy doesn't exist. . . I really feel with me running it's almost like I am reigniting his spirit in this way I never, never imagined because people come up to me all the time. They don't only come up to me to hug me and say thank you, they print off old black and white photos they have with my father with their children or my father with their mother and they show me these photos and they almost cry. . . So his legacy I think is stronger than I ever imagined and actually growing as we talk about how I want to be a moderate, bipartisan senator. . . There is just a huge overlap.

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