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The Martin Chavez vs. Tom Udall race for U.S. Senate would have been among the state's most interesting Democratic primaries.

But how about Marty vs. Margaret?

Yes, that Margaret.

The mayor's ex-wife on Tuesday said she's considering running for mayor in 2009 — something Chavez also said he's considering, now that he's not running for the Senate.

"I'm definitely considering it very strongly," Aragon de Chavez said. "I'm going to form an exploratory committee in the spring."

She said she doesn't think the mayor can run again because the City Charter has a two-term limit on mayors.

But the mayor said that because limits for city councilors have been struck down, the same would hold true for mayoral terms.

Aragon de Chavez, who in 2005 toyed with the idea of running for mayor, said she's thought about it since.

"I bowed out of the race because of our children, because I was going to raise them," she said. "But there comes a time when you have to follow your dreams."

The Chavezes, who have two teenage children, divorced in 2004.

Meanwhile, the mayor says he'll stick to his current office and not vie for the state's 1st Congressional District seat, a widely mentioned possibility after he withdrew from the Senate race Friday.

"My focus is on the mayor's job and nothing else," he said.

Chavez also said he's not running for governor, at least not right now, but hasn't ruled it out. He also hasn't ruled out trying to stay in the Mayor's Office.

"Certainly re-election is on the table," he said of a possible run in 2009.

Chavez, serving his third term, is the only Duke City mayor under the present form of government to serve back-to-back terms.

As for his Senate bid, he said Tuesday it became apparent to him from traveling around the state and talking with his political team that he'd have to wage a negative campaign, something he said he wasn't willing to do.

"My sense was that by the time it was done, the nominee would have been so beat up that the whole statewide race would have been in jeopardy," he said.

Democrats are buckling down to win the Senate seat Pete Domenici, an Albuquerque Republican, has held for more than 30 years. Now Udall is the only well-known Democratic candidate vying for the seat. U.S. Reps. Heather Wilson of Albuquerque and Steve Pearce of Hobbs face each other in the Republican primary.

If Chavez decides not to seek another stint on City Hall's 11th floor, he said he's considering doing some consulting.

For now, he says, he's glad that everything he does — including his work on the city's red-light camera program — isn't filtered through the political lens he felt like he was under when he was running for the Senate.

"I came to work yesterday at City Hall without thinking that everything I do is going to be questioned," he said.

In other 1st Congressional District news, author Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, who had said she was thinking about running for the seat, now says she'll support former Albuquerque City Councilor Martin Heinrich instead. She's going to focus on home-schooling her son, she said on her blog.