Rep. Martin Heinrich, New Mexico Democrat, announced this weekend he’s running for that state’s open Senate seat.

I checked in with Washington Republicans who follow the House races closely, and they noted that New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District won’t be the easiest open seat race on the map in 2012, but there are some promising signs for the GOP. The party already has two potential candidates who have won races at the local level already: Albuquerque City Councilor Dan Lewis announced he is running Sunday, and former state Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones formed an exploratory committee. The Albuquerque-based district scores a D+5 in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, under its current district lines.

Republican Heather Wilson represented this district for five terms until 2008, so if she wins the Senate primary, she’s likely to have some coattails in this district.