{"id":2318,"date":"2007-10-03T21:57:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-04T03:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/abq-voters-reject-mayoral-takeover\/"},"modified":"2007-10-03T21:57:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-04T03:57:00","slug":"abq-voters-reject-mayoral-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/abq-voters-reject-mayoral-takeover\/","title":{"rendered":"ABQ voters reject mayoral takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

ABQ voters just said \u201cno\u201d to a mayoral takeover. Now, can we get some of these anti-Winter<\/a>, cranky pundits a cup of coffee, please?<\/p>\n

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

I had to laugh today when my traditional post-election Wednesday morning sleep-in was irritatingly interrupted by my pest-control guy\u2026 at dawn. After years of working campaigns, I expect the world to stop for \u201cThe Morning After,\u201d and I get a little cranky when somebody reminds me that it hasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

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

Anyway, when the doorbell rang this morning I threw my hair in a ponytail and let in my long-time critter-killer while reminding myself to be pleasant. Which wasn\u2019t hard to do since he came through the door with a smile and said (entirely unsolicited), \u201cWhat do you think about the election last night? I am sooooo glad that all of Marty\u2019s<\/a> candidates got beat.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

He was of course talking about yesterday\u2019s Albuquerque City Council elections. Despite Mayor Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s best efforts, the exceptionally low-turnout election saw council incumbents Debbie O\u2019Malley<\/a> and Brad Winter re-elected by astounding margins, Councilor Don Harris<\/a> survive a bitter recall campaign and former Ch\u00e1vez spokeswoman Joan Griffin finishing third in a four-way contest for District 6.<\/p>\n

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

My pest-control man went on to mumble something about red light cameras and a \u201ccouncil takeover,\u201d and then went to work. So I stood there in the hallway, coffee in hand, and thought about that for a minute.<\/p>\n

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

Mostly, I was amazed that someone not involved in the insider goings-on \u2013the blogging, e-mailing and Starbucks-drinking underbelly of these little local races \u2013 could come to the same conclusion about the results as someone who was involved. <\/p>\n

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

Because I was glad that all of Marty\u2019s candidates got beat, too.<\/p>\n

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

Voters saw through the smoke<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Like others, I saw and heard a lot of things that the general public never knew about. <\/p>\n

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

How many people saw the infamous \u201choney bee\u201d e-mail where Albuquerque Transit Director Greg Payne was said (repeatedly) to be calling the shots in de Pascal\u2019s campaign against Winter? How many people knew the quickly formed Committee for Responsible Budgets that attacked Councilors Winter, Harris and O\u2019Malley was funded by a couple of key Ch\u00e1vez people? Did the voters know that Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s chief of staff probably wrote the radio advertisements himself? Or that the same \u201cvolunteers\u201d were collecting petition signatures for all of Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s candidates? That the printing and design vendors on most of those races were the same?<\/p>\n

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

The voters were exposed to some of the information through the mainstream media, but, always, the coverage was coupled with \u201creasonable\u201d explanations from Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s political operatives.<\/p>\n

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

But my pest control man, along with an unexpected and exceptionally large number of voters across the city, figured out that this year\u2019s council elections were not normal. This year, it was all about Marty.<\/p>\n

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

Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s candidates had the full weight of his political operation behind them, but they lost anyway. Period. Zero out of four. That\u2019s a heck of a failure.<\/p>\n

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

Why would Ch\u00e1vez waste his time and our tax dollars trying to defeat Winter, a popular incumbent?<\/p>\n

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

Yes, most of you know that I helped out with Winter\u2019s election this year and that I worked with him during the mayoral race of 2005. That\u2019s why I might actually vomit if I hear one more uneducated pundit criticize Winter\u2019s political strengths, strategies or tactics in terms of his attractiveness to Republican voters. To say the least, the Ch\u00e1vez-Payne-Bitzer driven banter is more irritating than a door bell ringing at dawn.<\/p>\n

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

Rewind to 2005\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

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

During the 2005 mayoral race, polling showed that the political environment in Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> wasn\u2019t amenable for beating an incumbent. In other words, the voters were fine with their mayor and saw no good reason to make a change. Winter had good reason but failed to defeat Ch\u00e1vez. Some pundits blamed the loss on Winter\u2019s \u201cconsultants.\u201d One blogger said Winter went \u201ctoo negative\u201d and, as a result, weakened his position among Republicans.<\/p>\n

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

Wrong. <\/p>\n

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

Between May and September, Winter\u2019s name identification among Albuquerque Republicans went from 60 percent up to a whopping 93 percent. His \u201cfavorables\u201d among Republicans, right before the election, had gone from 24 percent to an excellent 69 percent. And the number of Republicans who had an unfavorable opinion of Winter had dropped to a minimal 5 percent.<\/p>\n

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

Winter\u2019s favorable-to-unfavorable ratio was about 2-to-1. By contrast, Congresswoman Heather Wilson<\/a> is normally 1-to-1, or even upside down, depending.<\/p>\n

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

Even though Winter lost the race for mayor, he strengthened his position among Albuquerque Republicans, incredibly. Winter entered this year\u2019s re-election campaign from a position of strength, not weakness as some have inaccurately opined.<\/p>\n

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

Winter and council are stronger than ever<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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

This year, Winter survived some of the nastiest attacks he\u2019s faced. His opponent falsely claimed he had voted for council pay raises (which he never did) and that he voted against a tax cut (which he also didn\u2019t do). Like on the Monta\u00f1o<\/st1:placename> Bridge<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> and photo voter identification issues during the mayor\u2019s race, the Ch\u00e1vez-Payne-Bitzer camp lied about Winter\u2019s record to try to hurt him among Republicans, but failed to actually do so.<\/p>\n

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

Yesterday, Winter won re-election to the Albuquerque City Council by the largest margin anyone can remember. The voters saw through the mayor\u2019s attempt to restructure the council and they chose, overwhelmingly, to stay with the representative who has served them well.<\/p>\n

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

In my humble opinion, anybody who second-guesses the strategy behind the largest victory on record is in more dire need of a cup of coffee than me. Or maybe a little more sleep and a fresh perspective. <\/p>\n

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

But whatever the remedy for post-election crankiness, one point cannot be argued today. Councilors Winter, O\u2019Malley and Harris have seen their stock go through the roof. The council is strong. And we\u2019ll all be watching for the fast sell-off from the 11th floor.<\/p>\n

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

Cheshire<\/st1:city>, AKA the Wednesday Morning Quarterback, is a media relations and campaign consultant in Albuquerque<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>. 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 ABQ voters just said \u201cno\u201d to a mayoral takeover. Now, can we get some of these anti-Winter, cranky pundits a cup of coffee, please? I had to laugh today when my traditional post-election Wednesday morning sleep-in was irritatingly interrupted by my pest-control guy\u2026 at dawn. After years of working campaigns, I expect […]<\/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-2318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cheshire-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318","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=2318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}