NMPolitics.net (https://nmpolitics.net/index/page/465/)
Here’s a lesson in civility for the rest of us. Ben Glickler and Amy Weathers are married. They’re both Democrats. They live under the same roof. While one supports Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential race, the other supports Republican John McCain. Continue Reading
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened a preliminary probe into 1,400 “potentially fraudulent” voter registration forms in Bernalillo County, the Wall Street Journal is reporting. Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver told the newspaper she had turned over the suspicious forms to law enforcement, and said that’s proof that her office’s review of forms that are submitted to her office works. “That’s 1,400 cards here sitting in a file; they’re not entered into the system,” she said. The revelation about the probe was part of a larger article about Republicans “reviving alarms” about voter fraud in New Mexico and other states. The article quoted state Rep. Justine Fox-Young, R-Albuquerque, as expressing concern. Continue Reading
By Bill McCamley Stephen: If I risk my neck for you, will I get a chance to kill Englishmen?Hamish: Is your father a ghost, or do you converse with the Almighty?Stephen: In order to find his equal, an Irishman is forced to talk to God. [Heavenward] Yes, Father. [To William Wallace and the others] The Almighty says don’t change the subject; just answer the f****** question.”- “Braveheart” OK, I admit it. I am sick and tired of the debates. I want answers to the questions the moderators are asking. Continue Reading
U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Calif., will tour southern New Mexico on Thursday to talk with seniors about health care and promote the candidacy of Democrat Barack Obama. Solis and former U.S. First Secretary of Aging Fernando Torres-Gil will visit centers in San Miguel, Las Cruces, Deming, Truth or Consequences and Socorro today, according to a news release from the Obama campaign. They’ll be at the San Miguel Youth Center in San Miguel at 8 a.m., the Munson Senior Center in Las Cruces at 9:30 a.m., the Deming Senior Citizens Center in Deming at 11:30 a.m., the Senior Citizens Program in Truth or Consequences at 2:45 p.m. and the Socorro City-County Senior Center in Socorro at 5:30 p.m. Meanwhile, the Obama campaign announced today that it surpassed its goal of registering 30,000 new voters in New Mexico in the last 30 days people could register and vote in the upcoming election. That period ended on Tuesday. The Obama campaign said today that it registered nearly 35,500 new voters throughout the state from Sept. Continue Reading
When Sen. Pete Domenici announced his retirement a year ago and triggered a domino effect that has made New Mexico one of the most hotly contested states in the 2008 election, who would have thought that Democrats might win the state’s five electoral votes in the presidential race, Domenici’s Senate seat and all three open seats in the U.S. House? Not me. I said as much on my blog and during radio and newspaper interviews. Republicans appeared poised to compete vigorously in all federal races in New Mexico, and I and many others assumed they’d be able to win at least some of the races. After all, New Mexico’s congressional delegation currently has a 3-2 Republican majority. Continue Reading
Welcome to the big time, Harry Teague and Ed Tinsley. Seizing on the fact that New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District race is hot, C-SPAN plans to televise Thursday’s forum between the candidates nationwide and live. The announcement, made today by forum host New Mexico First, comes several days after national pundits began realizing that the 2nd District race is a close one. The hour-long forum begins at 7 p.m. and will be held in the KRWG-TV studio on the New Mexico State University campus in Las Cruces. In addition to being aired on C-SPAN, the forum will be broadcast by KRWG and public television stations in Albuquerque and Roswell. Continue Reading
YouTube’s version of a candidate forum between U.S. Senate hopefuls Steve Pearce and Tom Udall is online and ready for you to watch. YouTube has been highlighting some of the hottest Senate races in the nation with online candidate forums. Each candidate was asked to submit video responses to five questions that were submitted from YouTube users. You can watch the Udall/Pearce forum by clicking here. It was posted by YouTube this morning. The most interesting tidbits I found came in listening to each candidate answer a question about his opponent’s best traits. Continue Reading
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Pearce is out with a new television ad touting his vote last week against the financial bailout bill. Here’s the 30-second spot: “Big banks gave out bad loans and made millions. Wall Street billionaires played fast and loose with your money, took huge salaries and even bigger bonuses. Giant corporations sold mortgages to unsuspecting people who could not afford them and did not need them,” Pearce says in the ad. “Like you, I believe in free markets and free enterprise. Continue Reading
After a couple of weeks of back-and-forth about who’s better on the issue of guns, the 2nd Congressional District candidates have both been given “A” ratings from the National Rifle Association and are both touting gun-related endorsements. The Second Amendment recently became a focus of the race when Republican candidate Ed Tinsley began airing a television ad attacking Democratic opponent Harry Teague for controversial remarks a newspaper quoted him as making eight years ago. Teague was quoted by the Albuquerque Journal in 2000 as saying he is “not a gun fan” though he owns seven or eight and it would be “fine with me to turn my guns in and don’t have them.” Teague now says the remarks were facetious — which was not indicated in the article — and that portions of the quotes were left out, including the portion of the statement about it being fine with him to give up his guns as long as “they give me a key to the armory.” Since Tinsley’s ad began airing, the candidates have been sparring about who is better on the Second Amendment. This week, the NRA weighed in on that question when it gave both candidates its highest ranking, then endorsed Tinsley. In a news release announcing the NRA endorsement, the Tinsley campaign provided no statement from the candidate about the group’s backing, but the release did state that Tinsley “has been a consistent supporter of the Second Amendment since before seeking public office, hunting on his Capitan ranch which has been in his family for 50 years.” The release states that Tinsley is one of two federal candidates in New Mexico the NRA endorsed. Continue Reading
In case you missed it, here’s the entire presidential debate: Continue Reading
This article has been updated. Democrat Martin Heinrich leads Republican Darren White by 2 percentage points in a new poll of the 1st Congressional District race, while another new poll adds to the evidence of a potential blowout in the U.S. Senate race. The Albuquerque Journal poll released today has Heinrich leading 43 percent to 41 percent with 16 percent undecided. The poll, conducted by Research and Polling, Inc. for the Journal, was conducted Sept. 29 to Oct. Continue Reading
By Dan Foley You may be missing one of the most important races in New Mexico this year just because of the simple fact that it takes so much money to get noticed over the noise of the presidential and congressional campaigns. The race I’m talking about is the one for Bernalillo County district attorney. In the last few days, a lot of important news has come to light that bears directly on this race. The current district attorney, Kari Brandenburg, has taken the unusual step of successfully fighting to have sealed a lawsuit that has been filed against her. If that isn’t enough to raise serious doubts, we’ve also seen articles in the local press about an alarmingly low conviction rate. Continue Reading
I can’t imagine there are many people who read this site who aren’t already registered to vote, but I felt that I would be remiss to let pass the deadline to register without mentioning it. So: Today is the last day to register to vote in the Nov. 4 general election. If you haven’t already registered, please do so today. Registration applications must be submitted in person before the Doña Ana County Clerk’s Office closes today at 5 p.m. or postmarked by today and received in the office by Friday. Continue Reading
Democratic 2nd Congressional District candidate Harry Teague loaned his campaign $500,000 during the third quarter of 2008. Teague’s total self-financing during the quarter matches that of Republican opponent Ed Tinsley, who announced last week that he also contributed $500,000 to his own campaign during the quarter, which was the first of the general-election season. Teague’s announcement came in a news release that included some other details about his third-quarter fundraising. He raised just under $1.1 million from July to September. That included contributions from more than 1,000 new, individual donors who contributed to the $600,000 Teague raised from outside sources. Continue Reading
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Pearce is out with a new radio ad promoting his vote against the financial bailout bill as a stand against forcing “American families to pay for the mistake of greedy bankers on Wall Street.” The Pearce campaign did not release audio of the ad but did provide the transcript in a news release. The ad begins with Pearce saying, “The Washington politicians have done it again.” “They failed to responsibly regulate Wall Street and encouraged irresponsible borrowing. When Wall Street billionaires made bad investments, they came crawling to these same politicians asking for a taxpayer bailout, and that’s wrong,” Pearce says in the ad. “Some of these people made hundreds of millions of dollars a year, yet they are asking hard-working Americans to pay for their mistakes.” “That’s why I said ‘no’ and voted against the bailout. I will not put your money at risk to pay for their mistakes,” Pearce says. Continue Reading