BREAKING NEWS: Dendahl spokeswoman attacked, in critical condition

Paige McKenzie, the spokeswoman for Republican gubernatorial candidate John Dendahl, is in critical condition at UNM Hospital after being beaten in a bank parking lot Wednesday evening.

Dendahl told KOB-TV this morning that McKenzie was attacked around 6:30 p.m. in the parking lot of First Commercial Bank in Bernalillo, where she stopped because she had at least one flat tire, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

McKenzie is on a respirator to help her breathing, has a broken jaw and shattered teeth, Dendahl told KOAT-TV in Albuquerque. Dendahl told KKOB Radio that she was hit across the face with a tire iron, and that her attacker may have slashed her tires to get her to pull over, according to the Journal.

Dendahl told me the injuries are life threatening. The swelling is so bad that doctors are concerned McKenzie can’t breathe on her own. Doctors are afraid that if they take the tube out of her throat, swelling will close her breathing passage and they won’t be able to reinsert the tube.

McKenzie, who is in her 30s, was on her way home at the time at the attack.

Dendahl told the Associated Press that McKenzie recognized her attacker, but a name has not been released, and there have been no arrests.