{"id":1960,"date":"2007-07-11T08:11:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-11T14:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/07\/the-heat-is-on\/"},"modified":"2007-07-11T08:11:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-11T14:11:00","slug":"the-heat-is-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/07\/the-heat-is-on\/","title":{"rendered":"The heat is on"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"\"<\/a>By Whitney Cheshire<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ouch.<\/p>\n

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Bill Richardson\u2019s<\/a> team may be at that point: That time in a campaign when strategists and consultants – those hired public-relations guns – clench their teeth, breathe in and beg for a little rain to come in and cool off what turned out to be a triple-digit scorcher of political screw-ups. It\u2019s the kind of heat that can envelope a candidate and threaten to cook him alive.<\/p>\n

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A little too melodramatic?<\/p>\n

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Perhaps. But I spent last weekend camping in Yosemite<\/st1:placename> National Park<\/st1:placetype>, where 100-plus temperatures drove me and my fellow mountain-lovers to the still-cold Merced River<\/st1:place> every afternoon, on a trip where the car thermometer registered a whopping 115 degrees for the return drive across the desert.<\/p>\n

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I thought, at the time, that it just couldn\u2019t get any hotter.<\/p>\n

I was wrong. Things can always be worse.<\/p>\n

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After coming home and digging through hundreds of stacked-up e-mails, Google alerts, and blog entries about Richardson (which I thankfully missed over the weekend), I realized that I would prefer Death Valley heat to that teeth-clenching problem that has to be going on right now inside Camp Richardson.<\/p>\n

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Without a doubt, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> had a lot of PR making up to do after his flubbery on Meet the Press a few weeks ago. And even though his post-Russert debate performance on PBS showed some improvement, Richardson\u2019s comment about fighting AIDS with \u201cmore needles\u201d gave the pro-Obama and pro-Clinton blogs more ammo to hit him with on the ever-fickle and increasingly powerful blogosphere.<\/p>\n

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Not exactly the recovery he needed.<\/p>\n

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But prior to the debate, Richardson and his campaign tried to turn the tide of bad news in advance of the inevitable post-debate spin by letting go of a rumor that Richardson would, could or should out-fundraise fellow Democrat John Edwards<\/a> for this quarter. <\/p>\n

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The Washington Post<\/a> reported that \u201c\u2026New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is barely registering in most polls, has told other Democrats that he expects to raise more money than Edwards this quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This was an odd move to make because if he erred, it would set the scene for another public relations failure.<\/p>\n

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So when it turned out that Edwards (whoopsy) beat Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> by $2 million, the spin-intended rumor hit the ground with a thud.<\/p>\n

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That \u201cwe-failed-to-meet-expectations\u201d thud.<\/p>\n

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Campaign 101 \u2013 Make sure your candidate exceeds expectations. This is normally an easy thing to do since the candidate is the one who gets to set those expectations.<\/p>\n

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

But how about this one?<\/p>\n

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In a last-minute attempt to boost fundraising before the end of the second quarter, Camp<\/st1:placetype> Richardson<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> sent out an e-mail<\/a> saying, \u201cGovernor Richardson\u2019s poll numbers are skyrocketing. Now is the time to capitalize on this momentum with a fundraising haul that will really make the media sit up and pay attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The e-mail was sent on June 29, three days before American Research Group<\/a> released survey results showing Richardson<\/st1:city> losing ground in both New Hampshire<\/st1:state> and Iowa<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. \u201cSkyrocketing?\u201d Are you kidding us?<\/p>\n

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

Barely double-digits, even if they had been maintained, could hardly be considered impressive, much less out of this world.<\/p>\n

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Double thud.<\/p>\n

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Campaigns and Elections<\/a> had a decent explanation for the back-to-Earth drop this week, reporting that \u201cRichardson<\/st1:city> has also seen a bump in the polls since he began advertising in New Hampshire<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. His offbeat \u2018Job Interview\u2019 ads got people talking and raised voter awareness of Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s extensive political experience\u2026 Bennett said the Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> ads were effective because they were unusual and created a bit of a buzz, but \u2018when they stopped, their impact dropped off.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Couple all of this with recent national coverage<\/a> about Richardson\u2019s tenure on the board of directors of Peregrine and a now-relentless New Mexico GOP communications shop<\/a> that won\u2019t let anything go by without pointedly pointing out Richardson\u2019s discrepancies, flip-flops and hypocrisies, and you have the makings of one hot summer.<\/p>\n

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

It can always be worse<\/span><\/p>\n

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

But again, it can always be worse. Take Albuquerque Public Schools<\/a> Superintendent Beth Everitt, for example. She announced this week that she would be retiring in mid-2008, at the end of her current contract. If anyone could be the poster child for screwed up public relations disasters, it would, unfortunately, be her.<\/p>\n

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I won\u2019t recount them all, but the Albuquerque Journal\u2019s John Trevor<\/a> had the best take in Tuesday\u2019s political cartoon. In classic blunderish style, Everitt headed out the door with a memorable statement, telling the Journal<\/a> that, \u201cMy husband wants to move to where there\u2019s good golf courses, and I\u2019d like to see some water.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Oh boy. What does that mean, exactly? I thought there were some pretty good golf courses here in New Mexico<\/st1:state>, and the last time I looked, I saw water in the Rio Grande<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. Now, surely Everitt didn\u2019t intend to insult the city on her way out of the door. She has a lot on her mind. But look \u2013 it\u2019s these kind of ill-thought-out statements that get people laughing in their flip-flops, and, likely, her on-the-hot-seat public relations folks sucking in air through their teeth while praying for rain.<\/p>\n

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

So \u2013 what would you rather be doing on this balmy summer day? Untangling Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s PR mess, explaining Everitt\u2019s comments and decision to stick around for another year, or pulling weeds in your sweatpants while drinking a refreshing cup of coffee?<\/p>\n

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

I\u2019m thinking Starbucks sounds good.<\/p>\n

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

Cheshire<\/st1:city>, AKA the Wednesday Morning Quarterback, is a media relations and campaign consultant in Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. Her column runs every Wednesday. You can learn more about her by clicking here<\/a>. Contact her at wednesdaymorningqb@comcast.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Whitney Cheshire Ouch. Bill Richardson\u2019s team may be at that point: That time in a campaign when strategists and consultants – those hired public-relations guns – clench their teeth, breathe in and beg for a little rain to come in and cool off what turned out to be a triple-digit scorcher of political screw-ups. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cheshire-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960","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=1960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}