Tinsley helps with flood relief; Teague also chips in

When Ed Tinsley learned of the flooding that devastated Ruidoso last weekend, he cleared campaign activities from his schedule so he could help.

The Republican 2nd Congressional District candidate spent Sunday through Wednesday coordinating an effort among area restaurants to feed those stranded by the flooding and those who came to their aid. Tinsley and a campaign intern personally delivered 1,500 meals to about 400 victims stranded in the Upper Canyon area of Ruidoso, state and county road crews, Red Cross volunteers, emergency workers and area churches that were providing aid to victims, campaign spokesman Jim Pettit said.

Several restaurants, including some Tinsley owns, contributed food. The intern who helped Tinsley, Ben Sewell, said Tinsley lined up donations from restaurants, picked up the food himself and delivered it.

While other politicians traveled to Ruidoso to meet with officials at a fire station following the flood, Sewell said, “Ed put his boots on.” He said neither he nor Tinsley had ever encountered such a disaster until this flood.

“Ed’s mentality, and my mentality, was, ‘Let’s go out there and see what we can do,’ and that was really humbling for both of us,” Sewell said. “We took our trucks up into areas that you weren’t allowed to. We crossed puddles and got wet and dirty, but it was something he was going to do to help.”

“Ed put his campaign on hold to go do this. He put his personal life on hold to do this. That’s impressive,” Sewell said.

Tinsley is engaged in a hotly contested fight with Democrat Harry Teague for the House seat being vacated by Republican Steve Pearce. Teague’s main attack on Tinsley is to accuse him of living outside the district. Tinsley owns two homes — a ranch in Capitan near Ruidoso in the 2nd District and a home in Santa Fe, which is located in the 3rd District.

Regardless of his motive, Tinsley likely earned points in Ruidoso by helping out. Two people affected by the flooding expressed gratitude to him in conversations with me.

Teague, meanwhile, stopped by Ruidoso and the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation on Thursday to deliver a truckload of bottled water to the Red Cross, meet with officials and survey the damage caused by the flooding.

“In this time of need, I extend my thoughts and prayers to those families affected by the flood,” Teague, who lives in Hobbs, said in a statement released by his campaign.

Learn more about the flooding from the Ruidoso News.