{"id":17411,"date":"2010-05-18T07:57:23","date_gmt":"2010-05-18T13:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=17411"},"modified":"2010-05-18T21:31:12","modified_gmt":"2010-05-19T03:31:12","slug":"it%e2%80%99s-war-martinez-strikes-weh-promises-to-hit-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/05\/it%e2%80%99s-war-martinez-strikes-weh-promises-to-hit-back\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s war: Martinez strikes, Weh promises to hit back"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Republican gubernatorial candidates Allen Weh, left, and Susana Martinez.<\/p><\/div>\n

With the surge of Sarah Palin\u2019s endorsement and a new poll propelling her, Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez<\/a> went for the kill Monday by unveiling the first negative TV ad of the primary race.<\/p>\n

The 30-second ad accuses opponent Allen Weh<\/a> of supporting amnesty \u2013 a hot-button issue for many GOP base voters that comes as the immigration debate has been reignited by the murder of an Arizona rancher and that state\u2019s controversial new law.<\/p>\n

\u201cAllen Weh, divisive party chairman, pushed amnesty for illegal immigrants,\u201d the ad states. \u201cWeh wrote that he supported the amnesty plan for 13 million illegal immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitician Allen Weh. Wrong on amnesty,\u201d the ad states.<\/p>\n

The ad is referring to Weh\u2019s support for the 2007 effort by then-President Bush and others to reform the immigration system. It depends in part on a column Weh wrote for the Albuquerque Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs (Bush) does, I also favor a controlled guest worker program, and further favor finding a compassionate and equitable solution for the approximately 13 million illegal immigrants who have been working in this country for more than two years without committing any criminal acts,\u201d Weh wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all should recognize that a lot of hard jobs in construction, agriculture and the oil industry are being done by many of these people that are crucial to our economy,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThus any knee-jerk reaction to resolve this issue without taking this into consideration is simply not in our collective best interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch the ad here:<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

In a news release responding to the ad, Weh Campaign Manager Whitney Cheshire complained about the negative assault but said nothing about the claim that Weh supported amnesty.<\/p>\n

A fight that\u2019s been brewing<\/h3>\n

A negative battle between Weh and Martinez has been brewing for some time. A few analysts I spoke with after Martinez\u2019s ad aired Monday afternoon said they were surprised that it took this long for the race to go negative. Others expressed worry about the effect a negative primary could have in general election, citing the divisive 2008 U.S. Senate primary race between Steve Pearce and Heather Wilson.<\/p>\n

Martinez\u2019s weekend surge is what prompted the war between Martinez and Weh. Many analysts expected Weh to have a slight advantage in the race, but a weekend Albuquerque Journal poll<\/a> showed the two in a statistical tie \u2013 Weh with 31 percent to Martinez\u2019s 30 percent.<\/p>\n

That, coupled with Palin\u2019s endorsement<\/a>, caused Martinez\u2019s candidacy to peak at the right time \u2013 two weeks before Election Day \u2013 and led Weh to up the rhetoric and hint that he might also be ready to go negative. In a Sunday news release about the poll, Weh called Martinez a \u201cgovernment lawyer\u201d and \u201ccareer politician.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In a fundraising e-mail sent out Monday, Martinez accused Weh of taking the first shot with that news release.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is unfortunate, but not at all surprising. Weh\u2019s negative campaign has been in the works for quite some time,\u201d Martinez wrote. The TV ad followed hours later.<\/p>\n

Weh\u2019s campaign had been preparing for the possibility of going negative. Weeks ago it filed a records request with Martinez\u2019s district attorney office similar to one filed in January<\/a> by the state Democratic Party. And the campaign recently tested negative messages against Martinez in phone calls with potential voters.<\/p>\n

But to say Weh went negative first because he called Martinez a \u201cgovernment lawyer\u201d is a stretch.<\/p>\n

Martinez isn\u2019t the only one exaggerating the facts. Weh responded to the Journal poll by claiming in a news release that he \u201cis in the lead and positioned to win the GOP nomination\u201d because of his one-point lead that was well within the poll\u2019s margin of error.<\/p>\n

Cheshire (a former columnist for NMPolitics.net) claimed in the same news release that \u201cinternal polling shows Weh has a much larger lead than was published in the Albuquerque Journal.\u201d But Cheshire and Communications Director Christopher Sanchez ignored an e-mail from me requesting that internal polling data.<\/p>\n

\u2018We will defend ourselves\u2019<\/h3>\n

After Martinez\u2019s ad started airing on Monday, Weh accused her of breaking a promise to run a clean campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cBreaking Ronald Reagan\u2019s so-called 11th Commandment not to attack a fellow Republican, Susana Martinez \u2013 true to form as a career politician\u00a0\u2013\u00a0broke her word today when she initiated the first false, negative and desperate attack ad against a fellow Republican in the New Mexico GOP primary election for governor,\u201d a Weh news release stated.<\/p>\n

The news release was referring to Martinez saying on KKOB\u2019s Jim Villanucci show in April that she would \u201cdefinitely not be getting into that negativity in the primary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTrue to form as a career politician, Susana Martinez thinks she can say one thing and do another \u2013 just like they do in Santa Fe,\u201d Cheshire said in the release.<\/p>\n

The response from some analysts? Right, as if Weh wasn\u2019t also planning his own negative assault.<\/p>\n

Now Weh is going to hit back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are disappointed Susana Martinez has decided to tear down a fellow Republican and take this campaign down the tired, old road of political deception,\u201d Cheshire said. \u201cLet the record now clearly show that Susana Martinez has decided to take a negative turn in this race, and we will defend ourselves in an appropriate fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bottom line<\/h3>\n

Here\u2019s the bottom line: Both campaigns have been planning negative assaults. Convinced Weh was about to attack first, Martinez decided on a pre-emptive strike. Both are spinning the facts, and just like that the race has degraded into the sort of nasty, tiring mess that turns off many voters.<\/p>\n

As it stands today, Martinez has a slight lead in the race thanks to her weekend boost, but she and Weh will spend the next two weeks trying to tear each other down. What will Weh hit her on? The fact that she used to be a Democrat? It will be interesting to see.<\/p>\n

Weh has the ability to pump more of his own money into the campaign \u2013 he\u2019s already given $1 million \u2013 and he can probably neutralize Martinez\u2019s advantage with another sizable contribution. We\u2019ll know on May 27, when the final finance reports before the June 1 primary are filed.<\/p>\n

Martinez has been taking a tough stance on immigration, and her new ad will help instill in many Republican primary voters a negative opinion of Weh and a positive opinion of her on that topic. But Weh\u2019s ads to date have been impressive too, so his coming attack on Martinez will probably be equally effective.<\/p>\n

This race is going down to the wire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the surge of Sarah Palin\u2019s endorsement and a new poll propelling her, Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez went for the kill Monday by unveiling the first negative TV ad of the primary race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,140,107],"class_list":["post-17411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}