<$BlogRSDUrl$>

Monday, May 30, 2011

Memorial Day Update: Sanchez And Wilson Both Running Scared On Ryan Medicare Plan, And: Our Efforts To Create New Political Word Are Thwarted 

GOP US Senate candidates Heather Wilson and John Sanchez are both running scared. Not necessarily from on another, but from the Ryan Medicare plan, an existential threat that could prevent either from succeeding Democrat Jeff Bingaman.

For a second time, Wilson has refused to comment on the controversial proposal to privatize Medicare offered up by GOP House Budget committee chairman Paul Ryan and which is getting credit for the Dems winning heavy GOP district in a special New York House election. Now Lt. Governor John Sanchez is also seeking shelter, mimicking Heather and refusing to comment on the plan which is increasingly being labeled a Republican "death wish:"

The campaign of former Rep. Heather Wilson did not comment when asked by Hotline On Call where she stood. Wilson's main GOP opponent, Lt. Gov. John Sanchez, when pressed in an interview over whether he would vote for the measure, declined to commit to a yes or no vote...

How long can two major Republican candidates for the US Senate avoid taking a position on what could very well be the #1 issue of Senate campaign 2012?

Wilson and Sanchez face a potential death trap. Tea party types and other conservatives that have out sized influence in the NM GOP will embrace the Ryan plan, but in next year's campaign the Dem US Senate nominee will hang either Wilson or Sanchez if they go along with the privatizing scheme.

The refusal of Sanchez and Wilson to take a position on a key issue reveals why the 2012 New Mexico US Senate seat deserves to be ranked as "lean Democrat." And until John and Heather find a way out of their party's Medicare mess, it's going to stay that way.

THE GADFLY

Let's catch up with another GOP Senate candidate who is not yet in the top tier, but lurks in the background. Greg Sowards of Las Cruces, who has made two previous runs for Congress, says both Wilson and Sanchez are bluffing--that both of them are moderates and that he is the true conservative. The owner of a chain of child day care centers in Cruces, said this past week:

I've been accused of being the original tea partier. I was in the Tea Party before there was a Tea Party....


Reminds us of that old song, "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool."

LANDSLIDED?

We knew we should have hit "delete" when we wrote it, but we went ahead anyway and in recent blog invented the new word of "landslided." Former longtime newspaper columnist Jim Belshaw doesn't think that will make it into the dictionary:

"Landslided?"

landslide, v., to cover in soil from a great height; to blog with impunity; to give heartburn to copy editors everywhere.

I looked it up, Joe. Googled it even.

We apologize for the heartburn cases.

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

E-mail your news and comments. Interested in advertising here? Drop us a line.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2011
Not for reproduction without permission of the author

Labels: ,

 
website design by limwebdesign