ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Former CIA operative, author and activist Valerie Plame said Friday she is considering a 2020 run for an open U.S. congressional seat in New Mexico.
Plame told The Associated Press she is spending time with residents and will make a decision soon. The seat is currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, who is stepping down to run for U.S. Senate.
“Right now, I am going around and meeting with people,” said Plame, a Democrat. “I have a lot to learn and I would like another opportunity to serve my country.”
Plame became a national figure after her identity as a CIA operative was leaked by an official in President George W. Bush’s administration in 2003 in an effort to discredit her then-husband Joe Wilson.
Wilson is a former diplomat who criticized Bush’s decision to invade Iraq. Plame left the agency in 2005.
Plame says she’d be honored to represent the sprawling district, which covers all of northern New Mexico, parts of the Navajo Nation and a large portion of state’s east side.
She would face several Democratic contenders if she decides to run. State Rep. Joseph Sanchez and businessman Mark McDonald have already announced they are candidates and Santa Fe District Attorney Marco Serna is considering a bid.
I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, however, was convicted of lying to investigators and obstruction of justice following the 2003 leak. President Donald Trump issued a full pardon to Libby last year.
In 2017, the Wilsons launched an unsuccessful crowdfunding effort to buy Twitter so Trump couldn’t use it. At the time, Plame said if she didn’t get enough to purchase a majority of shares, she would explore options to buy “a significant stake” and champion the proposal at Twitter’s annual shareholder meeting. Plame and Wilson divorced later that year.
Plame is the author of the memoir “Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House.”
The book was made into a 2010 movie starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts.
Does Plame have a constituency in New Mexico outside of the Santa Fe celebrity scene? She seems to have been completely aloof from public affair in this state. If she decides to run she will have start associating with the grubby locals and it will be interesting to see how that goes…
This is good news–for NM (especially those in that district), Plame, and the country. We need an active, aggressive House and Senate that can work together to repair the damage the *resident & his creepy crew have done. And it’s exciting to see that people who have done things other than run for office or sit on boards all their lives taking their expertise to congress.
I would like to see her grilling up some Pompeo hamburders.
Did Richard Armitage release this announcement?
Also, you can tell inside the Beltway city slicker perspective.
Wilson and Plame currently own a sprawling 2-acre estate in Santa Fe,
Sprawling? How about Piddling?
I had no idea she lived there.
I live in Taos part time. Never heard a word about Plame in New Mexico.