{"id":1857,"date":"2007-06-14T11:49:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-14T17:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/06\/national-democratic-group-thinks-pearce-is-beatable\/"},"modified":"2007-06-14T11:49:00","modified_gmt":"2007-06-14T17:49:00","slug":"national-democratic-group-thinks-pearce-is-beatable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/06\/national-democratic-group-thinks-pearce-is-beatable\/","title":{"rendered":"National Democratic group thinks Pearce is beatable"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee<\/a>, the fundraising arm of the party in the U.S. House of Representatives, thinks Southern New Mexico<\/st1:place>\u2019s GOP Rep. Steve Pearce<\/a> is vulnerable and is keeping an eye on the Democrats vying for the right to take him on next year. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

A key marker will be the July 15 deadline for candidates to submit finance reports for the second quarter of 2007. Those reports will reveal the health and activity of the campaigns of the two Democrats who have entered the race.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Pearce knows it, and is trying to raise enough money this quarter to discourage DCCC involvement. He sent out a fundraising letter in May asking for help to keep the DCCC out of his race, saying the group has \u201cthe funds and the power to make a real impact.\u201d He also went negative in the letter, attacking the two Democrats as liberals who will \u201cbe a voice for\u201d House Speaker Nancy Pelosi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was said in the letter certainly was flattering and I think it does make him look weak,\u201d said Fernando Cuevas, spokesman for the DCCC. \u201cWe do think it\u2019s one (GOP seat) that we can actually win, and I do think the incumbent is vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/a> has listed the 10 incumbents it believes are most vulnerable in 2008, and Pearce isn\u2019t one of them. As usual, U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson<\/a>, R-N.M., is on the list.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

There\u2019s good reason that Pearce isn\u2019t currently on the list. He has been elected three times, the last two by about 20 points each. In 2006, the Democrats couldn\u2019t find a well-known challenger to face Pearce.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But there\u2019s also reason for the Democrats to be optimistic. Al Kissling<\/a>, Pearce\u2019s little-known challenger in 2006, spent less than $200,000 on the race and did better than Pearce\u2019s 2004 opponent, Gary King<\/a>, who outspent him and had name recognition.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The DCCC\u2019s involvement in a race means lots of money and other benefits, including visits by high-profile Democrats. The group generally doesn\u2019t get involved in races until after primaries and doesn\u2019t pick sides in primary contests. It looks to back candidates who have local support, have proven they can raise a lot of money on their own and have put together professional campaigns.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The current fundraising quarter is more important than it has been in past election cycles because elections are becoming active earlier.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cRaising a large sum of money in the quarter is just an easy way to show you\u2019re in it to win,\u201d Cuevas said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2018Two competent candidates\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There are two Democrats in the race \u2013 Kissling and Do\u00f1a Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley<\/a>. Though Kissling did meet with DCCC officials several weeks ago, Cuevas said the DCCC doesn\u2019t know how active Kissling\u2019s campaign has been because he hasn\u2019t been in as close communication with the group as McCamley.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

McCamley, he said, is doing what a candidate should be doing at this point \u2013 traveling the district and meeting with people, working hard to raise money and generally running a \u201cprofessional campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cBill McCamley is off to a strong start in his campaign. He is doing everything a candidate should be doing right now,\u201d Cuevas said. \u201cWe\u2019re very happy where Bill is right now and we think he is a strong contender against Pearce.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Cuevas said the DCCC believes McCamley and Kissling are \u201ctwo competent candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He said that, besides Kissling and McCamley, only state Rep. Joseph Cervantes<\/a> of Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> has met with the group to talk about the race. Cervantes has said he\u2019s considering the race but hasn\u2019t yet decided whether he\u2019ll run.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Kissling could not be reached for comment, but he has been more actively campaigning in the last couple of weeks after spending about a month traveling out of state. He appeared recently at Democratic events in Tularosa and Deming.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

McCamley refused to comment on how much money he\u2019s raised thus far, saying that will become public when he files his finance report next month. He said he has been \u201cactively fundraising\u201d and traveling around the district, and he still has four counties to visit.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very happy that the DCCC feels this is a winnable district. We obviously do as well,\u201d McCamley said, adding that Pearce\u2019s fundraising letter \u201cshows that he thinks he\u2019s vulnerable. That\u2019s why he went negative so early in the campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the fundraising arm of the party in the U.S. House of Representatives, thinks Southern New Mexico\u2019s GOP Rep. Steve Pearce is vulnerable and is keeping an eye on the Democrats vying for the right to take him on next year. A key marker will be the July 15 deadline for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1857","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=1857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}