Obama will be the first on TV in New Mexico

Barack Obama will become the first presidential candidate on Saturday to air television ads in New Mexico, and his campaign appears to be the most active on the ground with 18 days until the state’s Democrats caucus on Feb. 5.

Obama’s 30-second ad focuses on health-care reform at a time that the state’s Legislature is also debating the issue, and provides a Web address – barackobama.com/healthcare – where people can learn about his plan.

“My mother died of cancer at 53. In those last, painful months, she was more worried about paying her medical bills than getting well,” Obama says in the ad. “I hear stories like hers every day.”

“For 20 years, Washington has talked about health-care reform and reformed nothing,” he says. “I’ve got a plan to cut costs and cover everyone, but unless we stop the bickering and the lobbyists, we’ll be in the same place 20 years from now.”

Obama National Campaign Manager David Plouffe, speaking today in a conference call with New Mexico reporters, wouldn’t say how long the ad will run or reveal the size of the media buy, but he said it will run in the Albuquerque media market and on cable television statewide, including in Doña Ana County, the only corner of the state not included in the Albuquerque market.

The ad buy may also be expanded to include the El Paso market, which reaches Doña Ana County, and the Amarillo market, which reaches Curry County, he said.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign has not responded to an inquiry about whether it plans to run television ads in New Mexico.

‘A deep presence’

The Obama campaign opened its first office in New Mexico on Jan. 9 – the day before Gov. Bill Richardson dropped out of the presidential race – and has since opened a second office in Las Cruces and sent a number of staffers to New Mexico. Plouffe said a third office will open in Santa Fe next week, and he said the campaign has already recruited several hundred volunteers in New Mexico.

One of them, a University of New Mexico student who campaigned for Obama in Iowa, showed up at a Democratic Party meeting in Roswell on Thursday to give a speech about Obama’s candidacy.

“The example you cited from last night is something that’s happening across the state,” Plouffe said when I told him about the UNM student. “…“When Gov. Richardson withdrew from the race, we really that day began organizing and we opened up offices. We’re fortunate to have a lot of intense support. … So we are really able to have a deep presence in a state like New Mexico.”

The Clinton campaign has, to this point, taken a different approach in New Mexico. She doesn’t have as strong a ground organization in the state, though her campaign says it will open an office in Albuquerque in the coming days. Clinton has, however, secured some big-name New Mexico endorsements.

And the Clinton campaign has promised that the senator will visit New Mexico before Feb. 5. Plouffe did not make the same promise about Obama, saying the schedule hasn’t been set beyond the South Carolina primary on Jan. 26. More than 20 states will vote in presidential primaries and caucuses on Feb. 5, and he said Obama will visit as many as possible before that date.

Plouffe said the Obama campaign has slowly been building strong organizations in Feb. 5 states, and promised a “heavy presence” on New Mexico television through that date.

“We are going to compete vigorously in New Mexico on Feb. 5,” he said.

The candidates are currently focused on Nevada’s Saturday caucus and will turn to South Carolina next week before shifting to the Feb. 5 states.

Here’s the Obama ad: