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Obama’s manager talks about the importance of NM

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Even after Thursday’s visit by Barack Obama to Española, expect the Democratic presidential nominee and his running mate, Joe Biden, to be in New Mexico again before the Nov. 4 election. But it’s personal contact by people who live in New Mexico and support Obama that is critical to his chances of winning the state and the presidential race, Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe said today. “We’re going to organize in every corner of New Mexico,” Plouffe said on a conference call with reporters. He added that the campaign has a strong staff in New Mexico but the focus is on volunteers — “people from communities in New Mexico representing our campaign and being the face of the campaign and doing a lot of the work.” “We’re big believers in that local-based organizing,” Plouffe said, adding that the campaign has 35 offices in New Mexico, which he said is a level of activity sometimes seen in gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races, but not historically seen in one state by a presidential campaign. Continue Reading

GOP hammers Heinrich on ‘lobbying,’ skipping debate

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Republicans are calling on Democratic 1st Congressional District candidate Martin Heinrich to release records related to his work toward the creation of the Ojito Wilderness and accusing him of ducking debate. The GOP contends that Heinrich “broke state and federal law by failing to register as a lobbyist” while he worked toward the creation of the Ojito Wilderness, according to a Monday news release from the state Republican Party. Heinrich was paid by several organizations to push for creation of the wilderness. His campaign calls it “advocacy,” while the GOP and the campaign of his Republican opponent, Darren White, call it “lobbying.” In the release, the GOP called on Heinrich to release records related to his work, including “all names of the clients he represented at Heinrich Consulting and the corresponding gross receipts tax records for all income Heinrich Consulting received from those clients.” A spokeswoman for Heinrich, Angela Barranco, wouldn’t respond directly to the allegation that Heinrich was required but failed to register as a lobbyist or to the request that Heinrich release his records. Instead, she made this statement: “Martin is proud of the work that he did to advocate on behalf of New Mexico priorities and help bring together grassroots work on behalf of Ojito Wilderness, which is one of New Mexico’s greatest challenges,” she said. Continue Reading

Obama to campaign in Española on Thursday

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Barack Obama will visit Española on Thursday as he attempts to reach Hispanics in Hillary Clinton-friendly northern New Mexico. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. for a rally at Plaza de Española, 706 Bond Street, according to Obama’s Web site. The rally will begin at 12:30 p.m. It’s open to the public, but a ticket is required and space is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Click here to get a ticket online or here to find the locations of offices where you can pick up a ticket. Parking on site is limited, and bags, signs and banners will not be allowed into the event. Continue Reading

New McCain ad focuses on economy

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John McCain is setting aside his hard-hitting and in some cases misleading attacks on Barack Obama in his new TV ad to focus instead on his own plan to deal with the nation’s economic woes. Here’s the 30-second spot, which is airing in New Mexico and other states: “Our economy in crisis. Only proven reformers John McCain and Sarah Palin can fix it,” the ad’s narrator states. “Tougher rules on Wall Street to protect your life savings. No special-interest giveaways. Continue Reading

527 group helped Herrera win in 2006

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The Center for Public Integrity is highlighting a group that helped Mary Herrera win New Mexico’s 2006 secretary of state race in a new posting on its Web site. The group, a “little-known 527” called The Secretary of State Project, “raised more than $500,000 in 2006 to ensure no right-leaning secretary of state will swing the 2008 presidential election to the GOP, as they did in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004,” the center’s blog posting states. That $500,000 helped Democrats win secretary of state races in key states in 2006 — Nevada, New Mexico, Minnesota, Iowa and Ohio. The group also supported losing candidates in Colorado and Michigan. In New Mexico, the group’s Web site states, it funded 10 percent of Herrera’s campaign. Continue Reading

Obama, union out with new TV ads in NM

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Barack Obama is out with a new TV ad today slamming John McCain for dishonest advertising. Here’s the 30-second spot, which is airing in New Mexico and other states: “The old John McCain,” the ad’s narrator states before the ad shows a clip of McCain saying, “I will not take the low road to the highest office in this land.” “What’s happened to John McCain?” the narrator asks before quoting several media outlets as commenting on McCain’s recent advertising as “one of the sleaziest ads ever seen,” “Truly vile,” “dishonest smears” and “exposed as a lie.” “After voting with Bush 90 percent of the time, proposing the same disastrous economic policies, it seems deception is all he has left,” the ad’s narrator states. Meanwhile, Service Employees International Union has begun airing a new ad in New Mexico and other states promoting Obama’s candidacy. The ad quotes McCain as saying he needs to be educated about economics and that America is better off than it was eight years ago, then promotes Obama as the candidate who will help the middle class. Here it is: Continue Reading

The media must put country and democracy first

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By Christopher M. Adams For the last week or so I’ve been watching the media grow more and more distracted by the Palin fever that has suddenly infected its 17-month and, at times, quite interesting campaign coverage. But in the past week I’ve seen the media, once again, fall “hook-line-and-sinker” to the Republican juggernaut of keeping the focus off the issues and on the “personality.” Just as I was beginning to think that the media was finally taking a turn for the better, to provide people with the knowledge and information as well as discussions necessary for us to be able to govern our own lives more effectively — swoosh! — All that was gone. Enter the distraction phase of political campaigning or, better yet, Karl Rove Part II. I know, I should have known it couldn’t last. Continue Reading

McCamley starts PAC to help young Dem candidates

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Doña Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley has started a political action committee to help Democrats who are under 35 get elected. New Mexico’s Future Leaders hopes to help five or six young, Democratic candidates this election, and will focus on recruitment and training after the election, according to a news release. “There is no better way to bring real change to this state and this country than electing young people to office,” McCamley, a former 2nd Congressional District candidate, said in the release. “The time has come for a new generation to help move our country in the right direction.” McCamley, 30, was first elected to the county commission when he was 26. “There are many challenges to overcome when running for office, but fundraising can be especially difficult for younger candidates who may not have the connections necessary to raise the unfortunately large amounts of money necessary to compete with opponents,” he said. Continue Reading

Electronic medical records: Why can’t NM get started?

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By Sen. Dede Feldman As anyone who has ever had a major illness knows, medical records can be a matter of life or death. An illegible prescription or a missing piece of paper about a previous illness can lead to the wrong treatment, a disastrous delay or unnecessary side effects. That’s why policymakers at both the feral and state levels are tuning their attention to health information technology as an important part of health care reform. Proponents of electronic medical records, like Newt Gingrich, see improved health information technology as a way to cut costs and improve the quality of medical care. In recent years, the Bush administration has been offering grants to organizations making the electronic transition, and has begun using the Medicare program to create an interoperable system. Continue Reading

Richardson to open Obama’s 35th NM office today

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Gov. Bill Richardson will open Barack Obama’s 35th office in New Mexico and launch the state’s Hispanics for Obama group today. Richardson will hold the ceremony at the new office in south Santa Fe on the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month. The ceremony will be held at 2:15 p.m., and the new office is located at 3494 Zafarano Drive, Suite B. The Obama campaign opened its 34th office on Saturday in the south valley of Albuquerque with U.S. Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif., in attendance. Obama has three offices in Doña Ana County, according to his Web site. They’re in Las Cruces, Anthony and Hatch. Continue Reading

Most voters in poll want drilling on Otero Mesa

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The majority of those who voted in last week’s non-scientific poll on this site said oil and gas drilling should be allowed on Otero Mesa. Of 222 voters, 123, or 55 percent, said drilling should be allowed, while 99, or 45 percent, said drilling should not be allowed. Don’t forget to vote in this week’s poll, located at the top of the right column on this page. Continue Reading

Kilmer has been registered in NM but hasn’t voted

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Actor Val Kilmer may be considering running for governor of New Mexico, but he hasn’t ever voted in the state and isn’t registered in the county in which he currently lives, The Associated Press is reporting. Kilmer registered to vote as an independent in Santa Fe County in 1992, the news service reported. He once owned property there, but he sold it in 2005. For years he has owned and lived on a ranch near Pecos in San Miguel County, but he has not switched his voter registration to that county. Kilmer has said he was thinking about running for governor, and a recent report from The Politico suggested he’s considering a 2010 run. Continue Reading

Herrera’s office sends erroneous info to thousands

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Secretary of State Mary Herrera’s office didn’t quite get it right in sending voters information on how to vote in the upcoming Nov. 4 election, the Albuquerque Journal is reporting. The Journal provided several examples of bad information included on the mailings sent out by Herrera’s office: • Doña Ana County voters were given an e-mail address to request an absentee ballot for an employee who hasn’t worked at the clerk’s office in two years. • Some 88 voters who usually vote in Radium Springs were erroneously told in the mailers that their polling site is now in Anthony. • Another 711 voters in La Mesa were given the wrong address for their polling place. Continue Reading

McCain campaign’s volley of untruths is disappointing

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I’ve been disappointed in recent days to see the degree of falsehood being put forth as fact by the campaign of John McCain. The media has done a good job of calling out the McCain campaign for what is understandably being called deception by many, but I felt I, as a journalist and an independent voter who’s fed up with dishonesty in politics, had to add my voice to the chorus of people calling the statements exactly what they are: flip-flops and untruths. A serious flop came in Sarah Palin’s interview with ABC News, which aired on Thursday. In it, she said she believes humans may play a role in climate change. That entirely contradicts previous statements, even though she said in the interview that it didn’t. Continue Reading

McCain, Obama get back to hitting each other

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A day after John McCain and Barack Obama paused to remember the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, they’re back to their fighting with hard-hitting new television ads. Here’s Obama’s new ad, which takes a not-so-subtle shot at McCain’s age by attacking him as someone who can’t use a computer or e-mail: For whatever it’s worth, when I interviewed McCain on his campaign bus in August, he was reading news headlines about the Georgia/Russia situation on his cell phone. Here’s Obama’s second ad out today. It’s a simple ad, without music, in which Obama makes his case that he’s the real agent of change in the race: Meanwhile, McCain is out with his own attack ad, which no-so-subtly hits Obama and his running mate for attacking Palin, playing off McCain’s assertion that the attacks on Palin have been sexist. Continue Reading