{"id":2968,"date":"2008-03-12T15:42:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-12T21:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/03\/republican-cd2-race-gets-ugly\/"},"modified":"2008-03-12T15:42:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-12T21:42:00","slug":"republican-cd2-race-gets-ugly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/03\/republican-cd2-race-gets-ugly\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican CD2 race gets ugly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The interaction between the most well-funded GOP candidates in the race to replace Steve Pearce<\/a> in Congress \u2013 Aubrey Dunn<\/a> and Ed Tinsley<\/a> \u2013 has become increasingly contentious in recent weeks, and both men are blaming the other. <\/p>\n

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

\n

The harshest attacks have come from the Dunn campaign, which is accusing Tinsley of being a liberal who supports amnesty and spends much of his time living in Santa Fe<\/st1:City><\/st1:place>. The Tinsley campaign has been quick to point out Dunn\u2019s party registration changes and accused him of negative campaigning that is \u201cright out of the Democrat\u2019s campaign playbook.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

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

The hostilities come as candidates are battling for delegates in advance of Saturday\u2019s preprimary nominating convention. Tinsley is regarded by many as the frontrunner in the primary race, but strong organization has many expecting that Dunn will win the convention and get a momentum boost.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Dunn\u2019s campaign cites a Feb. 26 letter<\/a> from Tinsley supporter and former state GOP Party Chair John Lattauzio to all Second Congressional District delegates to the state convention as the first attack. In the letter, which does not state that it was paid for or authorized by the Tinsley campaign, Lattauzio points out that Tinsley \u201chas been a registered Republican since his twenties,\u201d while Dunn registered as a Democrat in 1983, switched to Republican in 1996, then to independent in February 2007 and back to Republican in October.<\/p>\n

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

Lattauzio urges delegates to \u201cthink seriously about who the best candidate is in terms of party loyalty, party leadership and the ability to carry the Republicans to victory in November.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Dunn\u2019s campaign has responded with at least two negative mailers and a letter from a supporter.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe were attacked first and have responded aggressively because the stakes are too high,\u201d a source close to the Dunn campaign said. \u201cAnyone who doesn\u2019t get 20 percent at the state convention can\u2019t be taken seriously as a viable contender in the primary.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Tinsley\u2019s campaign pointed out that it didn\u2019t pay for or authorize Lattauzio\u2019s letter and took issue with the strong attacks from Dunn.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cEd is running a positive, issue-based campaign,\u201d Tinsley spokeswoman Sarah Lenti said. \u201c\u2026 Dunn is attacking on the personal front. We\u2019re responding only by pointing out party affiliation, as Dunn has already done, and that\u2019s about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Dunn supporter attacks<\/span><\/p>\n

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

In a Feb. 27 letter<\/a> paid for and authorized by the Dunn campaign, former Lincoln County Commissioner Stirling T. Spencer accused Tinsley of supporting amnesty and attacked him for not living full-time in the district.<\/p>\n

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

Tinsley owns a second home in Santa Fe<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> and spends some of his time there. The Spencer letter attacks Tinsley because \u201cEd\u2019s kids didn\u2019t even go to public schools in our district. \u2026 Ed is simply out of touch with our district and the issues we face.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The letter also attacks Tinsley for giving campaign contributions to three Democrats in the 1990s, including Albuquerque Mayor Martin Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s<\/a> 1998 gubernatorial campaign.<\/p>\n

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

The letter discloses that Dunn gave money to Bill Richardson\u2019s<\/a> presidential campaign, but states he did that \u201choping that Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> could defeat Hillary Clinton<\/a> in the Democratic primary.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The letter also explains Dunn\u2019s brief stint as an independent as a \u201ctime out\u201d that was due to \u201chis frustration with some of our party\u2019s leaders in Washington<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> \u2013 especially on issues like amnesty for illegals and increased government spending.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Harsh criticism<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Perhaps the harshest criticism from Dunn came in a recent mailer<\/a> that accused \u201cSanta Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> liberal Ed Tinsley\u201d of wanting \u201cto hand over the keys to our country to illegal aliens and terrorists.\u201d The flier claims that Tinsley \u201clobbied for amnesty\u201d in his role with the National Restaurant Association<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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

The mailer refers to a comprehensive immigration-reform bill that failed in Congress last year that would have fined, but not jailed, illegal immigrants and required heads of household, but not other adult illegal immigrants, to return to their home countries to apply for legal status.<\/p>\n

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

The bill was supported by President Bush<\/a> and a bipartisan group of lawmakers but taken down by heavy pressure from the right. U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici<\/a>, one of the architects of the proposal, eventually dropped his support because of the amnesty question.<\/p>\n

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

Tinsley responded to the mailer and the Spencer letter with a postcard<\/a> in which he stated that he has never supported amnesty. He cited two news articles \u2013 one from 2002 and one from 2006 \u2013 that quote him as saying he opposes amnesty.<\/p>\n

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

Tinsley supporters respond<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Five delegates who support Tinsley wrote a March 4 letter<\/a> to the other delegates asking why Dunn \u201cis running what many Republicans say is the most negative campaign in the history of the Second Congressional District.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The letter states that Dunn \u201chas only been a registered Republican for 4 months.\u201d It points out that Dunn registered as a Republican in October, but fails to point out his first stint as a Republican from 1996 to February 2007. The letter also accuses Dunn of Democratic tactics by launching personal attacks against Republicans and dodging the issues.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cEd Tinsley is talking about securing our borders with no amnesty,\u201d the letter states. \u201cAubrey Dunn is talking about where Ed\u2019s two grown children went to high school.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cEd Tinsley is talking about making the Bush tax cuts permanent and repealing the \u2018death tax,\u2019\u201d it states. \u201cAubrey Dunn is talking about the fact that Ed owns a second home.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cEd Tinsley is talking about leading the charge in Congress for the small businesses that are the backbone of America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>,\u201d the letter states. \u201cAubrey Dunn is recycling discredited political charges against Ed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Dunn and Tinsley are generally considered the most likely GOP candidates to win the nomination because of their funding. As of Dec. 31, Tinsley had $283,890 on hand. Dunn had $275,416 on hand.<\/p>\n

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

Four other candidates are battling for the Republican nomination: C. Earl Greer<\/a>, Terry Marquardt<\/a>, Monty Newman<\/a> and Greg Sowards<\/a>. Greer won a straw poll<\/a> in Otero<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> last week, and said afterward that voters are \u201ctired of the secret polling and mudslinging going on in this race. I have pledged to remain above that fray and we appreciate this support in Otero<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> and across this diverse district.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The interaction between the most well-funded GOP candidates in the race to replace Steve Pearce in Congress \u2013 Aubrey Dunn and Ed Tinsley \u2013 has become increasingly contentious in recent weeks, and both men are blaming the other. The harshest attacks have come from the Dunn campaign, which is accusing Tinsley of being a liberal […]<\/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-2968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2968","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=2968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}