U.S. Attorney Hubbub May Have '08 Implications

The story of the fired U.S. attorneys zeroed in this week on David Iglesias, the former chief federal prosecutor for New Mexico, after Republican Sen. Pete Domenici admitted to having called Iglesias about the corruption probe of a local Democrat.

The political ground in New Mexico is still scorched by bruising fights in the past two elections. In 2006, Rep. Heather Wilson, the other Republican lawmaker implicated in the Iglesias affair, won re-election in her district by fewer than 2,000 votes in a race that wasn't called for several days. In 2004, George W. Bush won New Mexico's five electoral votes by just over 6,000 ballots.

So strategists are already starting to wonder how the controversy will play out in November 2008. (And who can blame them? The election is a mere 21 months away.)

As political science Prof. Lonna Atkeson of the University of New Mexico says, conventional wisdom in the state hold that presidential candidates are unusually beholden to the popularity of state lawmakers.

"Both Wilson and Domenici have always said that the coattails work in reverse," Atkenson tells News Desk. "It is true that both Wilson and Domenici poll more voters than the president." (In 1996, the last time Domenici ran during a presidential election, 493,984 people voted in the presidential election while 521,527 voted in the Senate race, according to Congressional Quarterly.)

"I still think the coattails could go the other way," Atkenson says. The 74-year-old Domenici, known in New Mexico as "St. Pete," may choose not to run again, but in any event Atkenson predicts a tougher battle for Wilson, who has more at stake in the attorneys story.

"Wilson is a direct beneficiary of the outcome. She has real political incentive to have done this," Atkenson says.

For New Mexico, at least there's a silver lining: They may be seeing a bit more of the candidates for president this time around.

Etc.: U.S. Attorney Dismissals: How the Numbers Stack Up, on USNews.com