SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A Democratic district attorney in the eye of New Mexico’s tempest over crime and accountability launched his candidacy for governor Thursday as the National Guard prepares to deploy to the state’s largest city to shore up public safety.
Albuquerque-based District Attorney Sam Bregman — the father of Major League Baseball star Alex Bregman of the Boston Red Sox — is touting his crime-fighting credentials in a city plagued by gun violence as he vies for the party nomination against former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
No Republican has entered the race yet, with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham set to term out of office at the end of next year. Candidates for governor have a February 2026 registration deadline.
Persistently high rates of violent crime in Albuquerque and New Mexico far exceed the national average, and residents were left reeling most recently by a litany of fatal shootings involving youths.
But many voters are no longer shocked and see it more as a confluence of social challenges that will be unavoidable for the next governor, said political analyst Sisto Abeyta, president of Tri-Strategies New Mexico. He pointed to pressing concerns about low-wage jobs, an affordable housing shortage and scarce access to addiction and mental health services.
“The economy equates to crime, housing equates to crime,” he said. “Why are there drug addicts? There's not enough mental health" services.
Bregman asserts that law enforcement is starting to turn the tide against crime, and that voters want a governor who can effectively push back against Donald Trump, who lost the vote in New Mexico three times — but narrowed the margin in 2024.
“I think most voters are tired of the radical right, and they're not very receptive to the radical left either — and I'm not either,” Bregman told The Associated Press. “Most people want someone who is just going to focus on the same issues that they do when they’re at the breakfast table."
That includes wages, health care, education for their kids and whether their neighborhoods are safe, he said.
The centrist political pitch arrives days after the enactment of an election bill allowing independent voters to begin voting in major party primaries. About 23% of registered voters in New Mexico — roughly 310,000 residents — have no party affiliation.
“Many of these younger, unaffiliated voters are disenchanted with the major parties, which is why they’re declining to state a party affiliation," Albuquerque-based pollster Brian Sanderoff said. “Now, all of a sudden, the state’s taking away a barrier” to participation in primaries.
Law enforcement has been prolific “steppingstone to higher office in New Mexico,” Sanderoff noted, including the ascendance of former Republican district attorney Susana Martinez to two terms as governor, ending in 2018.
Albuquerque’s struggle with crime has made Bregman — a tall, goateed 61-year-old grandfather often seen in a cowboy hat — a fixture of local television news reports. Lujan Grisham has handed Bregman a megaphone on crime policy with his appointment to a task force on organized crime, after appointing him in 2023 as district attorney to succeed Raúl Torrez, now the state attorney general.
Republicans on Thursday took issue with Bregman's record on public safety, arguing that crime has continued to skyrocket under his leadership.
Lujan Grisham called up the National Guard this week in an emergency maneuver to help bolster public safety on Albuquerque's Route 66 corridor at the request of Albuquerque's police chief.
As district attorney, Bregman said he has hired more attorneys, launched a team dedicated to the intersection of guns and violent crime, pushed back against pretrial release of defendants that may pose a danger and secured murder convictions against at least 300 people.
“We have started to turn the tide when it comes to crime in general — still a long road to go,” said Bregman, a former private defense attorney.
Second Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman holds a rally on the Las Vegas Plaza to announce his plan to run for governor of New Mexico, Thursday, April 10, 2025. (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)
FILE - Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman joins efforts to confront organized crime as the newly appointed leader of a specialized commission of local prosecutors and leading law enforcement officials, on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, in Santa Fe, N.M. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee, File)
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Israel’s air force struck near Syria's presidential palace early Friday after warning Syrian authorities not to march toward villages inhabited by members of a minority sect in southern Syria.
The strike came after days of clashes between pro-Syrian government gunmen and fighters who belong to the Druze minority sect near the capital, Damascus. The clashes left dozens of people dead or wounded.
Friday's strike was Israel's second on Syria this week, and attacking an area close to the presidential palace appears to send a strong warning to Syria's new leadership that is mostly made up of Islamist groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
On Thursday, Syria's Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri harshly criticized Syria’s government for what he called an “unjustified genocidal attack” on the minority community.
Early Friday, the Druze religious leadership said the community is part of Syria and refuses to break away from the country, adding that the role of the state should be activated in the southern province of Sweida and authorities should be in control of the Sweida-Damascus highway.
“We confirm our commitment to a country that includes all Syrians, a nation that is free of strife,” the statement said.
In the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, where fighting occurred earlier this week, security forces deployed inside the area along with local Druze gunmen, and at a later stage heavy weapons will be handed over to authorities. As part of the deal, forces from the defense ministry will deploy around Jaramana without going inside.
The Israeli army said that fighter jets struck adjacent to the area of the Palace of President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus. Its statement gave no further details.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the strike was a message to Syrian leaders. “This is a clear message to the Syrian regime. We will not allow the deployment of forces south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community," said the joint statement.
Pro-government Syrian media outlets said the strike hit close to the People’s Palace on a hill overlooking the city.
Over the past two days the Israeli military said it had evacuated Syrian Druze who were wounded in the fighting.
The Israeli army said in a statement Friday that a soldier was killed and three were lightly injured in an accident in the Golan Heights. An army statement added that the soldiers were evacuated to receive medical treatment at the hospital and that the circumstances of the incident are being investigated.
The clashes broke out around midnight Monday after an audio clip circulated on social media of a man criticizing Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. The audio was attributed to a Druze cleric. But cleric Marwan Kiwan said in a video posted on social media that he was not responsible for the audio, which angered many Sunni Muslims.
Syria’s Information Ministry said 11 members of the country’s security forces were killed in two separate attacks, while Britain-based war monitor The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 56 people in Sahnaya and the Druze-majority Damascus suburb of Jaramana were killed in clashes, among them local gunmen and security forces.
The Druze religious sect is a minority group that began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria, largely in the southern Sweida province and some suburbs of Damascus.
Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.
This story has been corrected to fix the quotes from the Israeli prime minister and defense minister and the name of the Syrian president.
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Syrian boys take pictures with their mobile phones of the bodies of former Shanaya's town mayor Houssam Warawar and his son Haidar, who were killed in the town of Sahnaya, south of Damascus, Syria, Thursday, May 1, 2025, a day after clashes erupted between members of the minority Druze sect and pro-government fighters. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Syria's security forces gather, after reaching a deal with Druze gunmen to deploy around Jaramana, a Damascus suburb that saw fighting earlier this week, in Damascus, Syria, early Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
A Druze gunman, left, speaks with Syrian security forces who reached a deal with Druze gunmen to deploy around the southern Damascus suburb of Jaramana that has witnessed fighting earlier this week in Damascus, Syria, early Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
Syria's security forces stand on their vehicle, after reaching a deal with Druze gunmen to deploy around Jaramana, a Damascus suburb that saw fighting earlier this week, in Damascus, Syria, early Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
Syria's security forces are deployed at a highway where they found bodies of Syrian Druze fighters who were in a convoy heading from the southern Sweida province towards the capital, at al-Sor al-Kobra village near the Sweida town, southern Syria, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
