{"id":749,"date":"2006-10-20T10:15:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-20T16:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/were-it-possible-for-richardson-to-have-a-bad-week-this-would-be-it\/"},"modified":"2006-10-20T10:15:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-20T16:15:00","slug":"were-it-possible-for-richardson-to-have-a-bad-week-this-would-be-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/were-it-possible-for-richardson-to-have-a-bad-week-this-would-be-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Were it possible for Richardson to have a bad week, this would be it"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Were it possible for a man likely to get close to 60 percent of the vote in November to have a bad week, this would be it. <\/p>\n

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

First Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s opponent, John Dendahl, was given free airtime on an Albuquerque<\/st1:city> television station because Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> refused to debate.<\/p>\n

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

Then, the national Republican Governors\u2019 Association announced it will run ads in New Mexico<\/st1:state> in the next couple of weeks calling on voters to ask Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> to \u201ctell us the truth\u2026 The White House, or us?\u201d That\u2019s according to the Albuquerque Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

And last, this from the Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a>: Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> has lost his much touted grade of a \u201cB\u201d from the conservative Cato Institute. It appears the group finally figured out Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> isn\u2019t quite the tax-cutting governor he claims to be.<\/p>\n

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

As for the television ads, they\u2019ll begin airing in the Albuquerque<\/st1:city> market (but not in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, apparently) today. The ad, according to the Journal, takes a humorous approach to Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s travels to other states.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cHaven\u2019t seen much of him in New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>,\u201d the ad states.<\/p>\n

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

Though the ad doesn\u2019t name Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s opponent, John Dendahl, Dendahl said he welcomed the ads. Why wouldn\u2019t he? He hasn\u2019t had the money to put his own on television, though he says one is coming.<\/p>\n

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

On to taxes: Richardson was rated in 2004 by the libertarian Cato group as the nation\u2019s most fiscally responsible Democratic governor and given a grade of \u201cB\u201d for that year. Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> used that ranking to convince media outlets and others across the nation that he had actually cut taxes.<\/p>\n

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

He wasn\u2019t lying. During his tenure, the state cut the income tax and a few others. But he also raised many other taxes and fees. In giving Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> an overall grade of a \u201cC\u201d for his first term in office, the group cited other tax hikes and an increase in the size of state government.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIf he wants to be thought of as a \u2018new Democrat,\u2019 then he needs to actually control the size of government in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>,\u201d the New Mexican quoted the group as saying.<\/p>\n

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

The group again praised Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> for the 2003 income tax cuts, which it said \u201cstill stands as the largest income tax rate cut in the nation over the past few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cBut the more complete picture that has emerged since 2004 is of a governor who is eager to raise other taxes \u2013 such as the cigarette tax and the gross receipt tax \u2013 and various fees, thereby weakening his record on taxes overall,\u201d Cato\u2019s report states. \u201cIt has also become obvious that Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is happy to increase government spending. All of this has led to an overall first-term grade of \u2018C.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s office said he deserves an \u201cA\u201d from Cato, according to the New Mexican, and pointed out that he has vetoed some proposed government spending, which is true. But the reality is that Cato is finally right in its analysis of Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s government spending and tax record.<\/p>\n

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

It\u2019s the grade Cato assigned Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> that is subjective. The question is whether it\u2019s good that Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> has increased some spending and raised some taxes and fees. Many think it is; however, calling him a tax-cutting governor has been technically accurate, but disingenuous.<\/p>\n

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

And Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> has done plenty of calling himself a tax-cutting governor.<\/p>\n

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

The Cato rating he cited as proof is gone. Dendahl got to share his views with anyone interested in watching. Republican ads attacking Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> are on television.<\/p>\n

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

Will any of this make a difference on Nov. 7?<\/p>\n

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

Should it? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Were it possible for a man likely to get close to 60 percent of the vote in November to have a bad week, this would be it. First Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s opponent, John Dendahl, was given free airtime on an Albuquerque television station because Richardson refused to debate. Then, the national Republican Governors\u2019 Association announced […]<\/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-749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749","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=749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}