Thursday, June 02, 2022Dem Proxy War Heats Up Again In AG Contest: Balderas Comes with Colon Endorsement After Heinrich Doubles Down On Torrez, Plus: GOP Rancor; Source Says Dow Will Not Endorse Ronchetti If He Takes Tuesday Primary, Also: Late State House Action
The race has been so divisive and so personal that the contestants did not even shake hands at the end of their last TV debate. Now emotions are getting more worked up as the critical hour of decision nears not only for the candidates but for the proxy warriors behind them who now realize their unspoken ambitions to take future power have been fully revealed and are on the line. Balderas, a Dem polling favorite, has long nursed gubernatorial hopes of his own but had to put them on ice. Now he sees Heinrich, who he challenged for the US Senate nomination in 2012, come to the fore of Primary '22 with down the line support of Torrez to cement his position as undisputed leader of the party and as the frontrunner to replace MLG, assuming she is re-elected. Balderas, a longtime BFF of Auditor Colón, had to relish the opportunity to take to the state's political stage with Heinrich and lock horns with him over their favored candidates--even if not directly. He narrates this spot: New Mexicans need an atorney general they can trust. . . I trust Brian Colón. As our next attorney general Brian will fight for our most vulnerable, protect working families, women's reproductive rights, consumers, and our democracy, all while cracking down on crime to keep us safe. Planned Parenthood, classroom educators, working families and Democrats like me agree--Brian Colón for attorney general. Traditional political analysis says the candidate attacking most late in the game is often the one behind. In this case it is Torrez who is using more of the hammer while Colón comes with softer stuff to close the deal. But turnout in a primary is often unpredictable. We'll bring home the winner for you Tuesday on KANW 89.1 FM and kanw.com starting at 6:30 p.m. Dem State Rep. Moe Maestas and former GOP Rep. Alonzo Baldonado will have their torches brightly lit as they help guide us through the intricate web of La Politica on Primary Election Night. NO DOW ENDORSEMENT
Even with that enormous lead, he blasts away at opponent Rebecca Dow with a vengeance. The negative ads are nonstop against her as if it were a cliff-hanger. Accused of overkill and and unnecessarily further dividing the state GOP, Ronchetti will get some payback from Dow. According to a source in the Dow inner circle, she will not be endorsing Ronchetti, if he wins June 7. We're told: Joe, she could have endorsed him but he insisted on that TV ad on child sex abuse that she finds extremely offensive. She talked with Ronchetti about it but he rejected her request that the ad be discontinued, saying it was tested by his campaign's lawyers and it was staying up. She said she would expect such a tactic from Ronchetti consultant Jay McCleskey who is known for his attacks, but Ronchetti surprised her in that she saw a similar personality in him and now sees Ronchetti as just another McCleskey puppet. There will be no endorsement. That can't surprise the Ronchetti camp who will shake it off by saying that it is inevitable that just about all Republicans will come home in the fight against MLG. But there is so much divisiveness in the two factions of the GOP that nothing is a given. Republicans have another choice. Some could skip voting in the Guv race and if it turned into a razor thin battle that could make the difference. Remember, in 2010 when Susana Martinez became a Republican Governor, today's party factions were just arising and had not been cemented as they are today. We asked attorney, former state legislator and veteran campaign consultant Greg Payne (a onetime Republican) for his take: The late Dow hit was obviously unnecessary. There was no need for it other than to hit her for challenging him. Ronchetti is poised for victory and this ad was a tactical mistake. It could hurt him with Republican women. This is not about the merits of the ad. You use it if you need to. But when you don't you demonstrate a leadership temperament that looks beyond the moment and hold your fire. This is a race among two candidates of the same party. It’s supposed to be family in the end. If I were in MLG's shoes, I would soon be reaching out to Dow--not for an endorsement but for an appearance together that would send a message. What the GOP needs is a quick end to this primary and a peacemaker. They will get the former but the latter seems as elusive as ever. RONCHETTI AND ABORTION On the Wednesday blog we said that we had not seen any specific statement from Ronchetti about the possibility of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe V. Wade. However, he did make this statement on the matter on Facebook:
If the leaked opinion is accurate, then states will rightly make decisions regarding abortion that is consistent with the values of their citizens. I am strongly pro-life and pro-mother and do not believe that New Mexico’s standing as the late-term abortion capital of America is consistent with our values. I will fight to protect the unborn while supporting efforts to promote adoption. WHAT THEY'RE PAYING  We took a glance at some of the TV ad rates being charged to statewide primary candidates and found that as audiences continue to drift to other media, prices remain low.For example, a 30 second spot on KOAT-TV's 10 p.m news is being sold for $450; the late night Jimmy Kimmel show goes for $150; The View, the daytime program popular with women, sells for $200 and Good Morning America commands $325. One of the higher priced ads for the candidates is the $500 being charged for a 30 second spot on This Week, the Sunday morning ABC News public affairs program. Not many TV sets are tuned in at that hour but just about all of them belong to highly informed voters that the candidates want to reach. Rates are expected to go up with the heavier demand for political advertising for the November election, but the glory days are long gone. STATE HOUSE ACTION On the state House campaign trail, in what is one of the most watched Dem primaries state Rep. Roger Montoya, who is openly gay, is being snubbed by the gay rights group Equality New Mexico: . . .Montoya was recently denied endorsement from Planned Parenthood because he now supports forced parental notification of abortion. In the year that the Supreme Court is planning to overturn Roe v. Wade, attacking Planned Parenthood—an organization that has been dedicated to providing safe, accessible, life-saving abortion care to our state—undermines the values that we, as New Mexicans, hold true. When Rep. Montoya refused to even apply for an endorsement from Equality New Mexico, he made clear that this is also an attack on organizations like ours, which work to uplift and fight for these truly New Mexican values. There's really no home for pro-choice voters in that primary. Former state Rep. Joseph Sanchez is a conservative Democrat challenging Montoya, and is also an abortion opponent. Another factor in the race in District 40 is the state's largest fire in history. The blaze is centered in the district and getting voter participation is a challenge amid the chaos that many residents must deal with in their personal lives. Mail delivery is also said to have been erratic. The district includes portions of Colfax, Mora, Rio Arriba and San Miguel counties. This one is all D all the time. No R's need apply. The winner of the primary will get a two year lease on a Roundhouse office. CELEBRITY ENDORSIMENTS
Fewer Latinos are voting in communities like yours and what's important is your voice needs to be heard. . . Cherise has been a tireless advocate for families in ABQ. Quezada has also been endorsed by actor Bob Odenkirk of TV's Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. How did she pull off the big name backing? Well, having a husband as a well known actor who appeared in Breaking Bad doesn't hurt. That husband would be BernCo Commissioner Michael Quezada. As for Chavez she's no slouch in the endorsement department, either. First Endorser Martin Heinrich has given her his blessing as has the local Sierra Club chapter, Teamsters Local 492 and Planned Parenthood, among others. The district is Dem territory so the primary winner should take the prize but Republican Patrick. B Sais will be the GOP nominee who tries to resist the tide. The seat is being vacated by Dem state Rep. Georgene Louis. This is the home of New Mexico politics. E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.   (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2022 Wednesday, June 01, 2022Plot Thickens In Dem AG Race; Hand Of Heinrich Seen In Latest Hit On Colón As Dem Party Factions Look To Future Control, Plus: Dow And Ronchetti Continue Their Scrapping As MLG Says Nice And Easy Does it
Here in the late innings leading up to next Tuesday's primary a PAC has surfaced to blast away at Colón and the PAC, according to reliable sources, could have ties to Dem US Sen. Martin Heinrich. Heinrich's Colón obsession is rooted in his own ambitions to take control of the party and launch what would be an unusual bid for Governor following MLG's reign. Colón, already a leader in the party's conservative/moderate faction, would rise to a whole new level if he defeats Torrez, posing a threat to the more liberal Heinrich by positioning himself for his own Guv run or being a kingmaker in the race. This late PAC ad, coming from a group calling itself "RNML," is titled "politician" and disparages Colón this way: Brian Colón--another politician looking to get ahead. He's run for lieutenant governor, mayor and state auditor. Now he wants to be our AG, even those he's never prosecuted a case. He's taken hundreds of thousands from out of state law firms who are lining up for lucrative contracts. He's even used murder victims for his own political gain. Pay to play, exploiting victims. We don't need another politician as attorney general. That last line about "another politician" could be read as a veiled hit on current Dem AG Hector Balderas who is a BFF of Colón and who ran for the US Senate nomination against Heinrich in 2012. Torrez has clutched tightly to Heinrich throughout the race, hoping the senator's popularity with progressives would help put him over the top. But Torrez's campaign was never able to convince the public of his efficacy as district attorney in crime-ridden Albuquerque and he mostly gave up on trying to do so. Instead, he has concentrated on the negative to overtake Colón who has the edge in the race because of his statewide name ID. But if the PAC TV buy comes through there is time for Torrez to stop Colón and end his dream of climbing even higher up the ladder of La Politica. The AG battle is about the here and now and a possible battle to come over the future direction of New Mexican politics and we'll cover it like white on rice next Tuesday as we bring you the latest election results on KANW 89.1 FM and kanw.com. RONCHETTI/DOW SCUFFLING In the GOP race for Governor, the exchanges between the two top contenders--Mark Ronchetti and State Rep. Rebecca Dow--remain nasty, with Ronchetti calling Dow's latest attacks "brazen lies" and Dow accusing Ronchetti of "making a child relive one of the worst moments of their lives." The statements are over the hopefuls dueling ads. Ronchetti fires back at Dow's TV spot that continues her theme that he is an anti-Trumper and that tweets she uncovered from long ago confirm her contention. First Dow who rips into a negative ad from Ronchetti over a lawsuit she was named in by parents of a sexually abused boy: Shame on Mark Ronchetti for re-victimizing a child by using a recycled ProgressNow attack against me for political gain. Mark only cares about power and he's willing to make a child relive one of the worst moments of their life to score political points. I sat on the board of the Club. Program administrative staff oversaw the day-to-day operations of the Boys and Girls Club of Sierra County. After learning of an assault in July 2015, the employee was arrested. We partnered with the New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs, called every family at the Club, and printed an ad in the newspaper encouraging more victims to come forward. That’s how the incident from December 2014 was uncovered. My involvement with the victim was informing the family that the incident occurred and that counseling services would be provided to him. The Boys and Girls Club of Sierra County paid the settlement and my name was removed from the lawsuit with prejudice. I'm sure a judge will agree that Mark's lies are dishonest and slanderous. I assure you that his timeline and incidents described are factually inaccurate. And the Ronchetti rebuttal to Dow's final days attacks: (Her) latest attacks against Republican Mark Ronchetti includes a deceitful television ad and an embarrassingly false political mailing. The brazen lie from Dow is so over the top that it recently caught the attention of media outlets. . .According to a mailer, Dow claims “Mark Ronchetti called for President Trump’s impeachment and falsely claimed President Trump had committed a felony.” Not only is this a flagrant lie. . .but Dow intentionally failed to cite the source of this assertion. After being pressed Dow responded that the quote was pulled from a twitter account. . . The attributed twitter account clearly does not belong to Mark Ronchetti and appears to be operated by a dentist from Maryland, or a twitter bot with 14 followers. Regardless, no one - including Rebecca Dow- can honestly believe that these tweets came from Mark Ronchetti. . .Rebecca shamelessly used the account to justify her clearly false attack. In addition to the mailer, Dow also took to the airwaves with a new television attack ad accusing Ronchetti of “striking a deal on amnesty” and “not taking a stance on overturning Roe V. Wade.” This too is false. In fact, Mark Ronchetti has been strong on his plans for border security and is on record as being strongly pro-life. DRIP, DRIP DRIP Meantime, the incumbent governor, running unopposed for the Dem nomination next Tuesday, continues her drip, drip, drip of positivity, unveiling two new 15 second ads, part of a series that has been airing much of the month. The aim being to have voters who formed a negative image of her during Covid to forget it. This one is on free childcare which MLG says "most New Mexicans" now qualify for. In this ad she says her administration is making universal pre-school a "reality for every family." The ads come as the GOP posse prepares to come for her June 8 when the fall election begins in earnest. This is the home of New Mexico politics.E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here. (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2022 Tuesday, May 31, 2022All Things GOP With Primary A Week Out: Republicans Rue Bitter Dow-Ronchetti Rift As Dems Exhibit Glee; MLG Poised To Benefit; Leading Lt. Gov. Nominee Ant Thornton Attacked Over Obama Connection And More On Christian Nationalism In NMGOP
By the reckoning of every professional observer Ronchetti has had the race in the bag for weeks. The Journal poll this month had him 27 percent ahead of Dow) but he has not pivoted to a more positive close and begun healing the ranks of the GOP to start the general election in a stronger position against Michelle Lujan Grisham who remains favored for re-election. The Dow supporters blame Ronchetti for overkill by "going there" with a lawsuit which involved one of Dow's daycare center employees in a child sex abuse case. The alleged incident did not happen at the daycare center. Ronchetti supporters blame Dow for refusing to stop waging a fruitless negative battle against him in the final hours. Dems are gleeful over the bitterness and rancor between the two contenders while MLG continues to peddle her new, soft-spoken image in a series of short TV spots that tout state services available to New Mexicans. They look like public service ads, not campaign messages, which is exactly point. MLG has been polling just below the key 50 percent approval rating but with the contrast between her and the overheated Republicans now playing out on statewide television, that barrier could fall and make it exceedingly difficult for the GOP nominee to catch up.
The GOP division has, of course, been chronicled here for years and is a result of the infamous split in the party featuring ex-Gov. Martinez and McCleskey and company against. . . well. . .all the other Republicans. The onus for bringing the party together is is not on Dow who is embittered and could withhold an endorsement and work against Ronchetti in the fall. It is Ronchetti who must bring to bear a set of skills to rein in the tempers and heal the divisions that so far have been beyond his reach and that always have been for the take-no-prisoners McCleskey. CRUSHING THE ANT  Thornton, a retired Sandia Labs aerospace engineer who would be the first African-American to win a spot on a state gubernatorial ticket, is being scored for donations he made to former President Obama in 2008. That action earned him the mailer monikers of "Obama-Biden supporting liberal" and a "RINO"--Republican In Name Only. The piece also accuses Thornton of being pro-abortion and favoring higher taxes but offers no proof. The mailer lists a number of Obama donations Thornton made, most of them for $25 and totaling $700. Thornton crushed it at the GOP preprimary convention in March, getting 59 percent support. Muller- Aragon finished last in a field of five and garnered only 7 percent delegate support, failing to get the required 20 percent for an official spot on the primary ballot. She had to gather additional signatures to qualify.
Like many Black Americans, “Ant” Thornton was raised a Democrat. During the first Obama administration, he became disillusioned with the Democrat Party so he became a “Walk-Away Democrat” and changed his party affiliation to Republican in 2011. In 2021 he was elected as the 1st Vice Chair of the Republican Party of Bernalillo County. . . where he is a strong advocate for individual liberty and freedom. The anti-Thornton mailer comes from a post office box in Louisville Kentucky, keeping a distance from the Ronchetti campaign. But you can't fool the Alligators. Kentucky is where Adam Feldman, former longtime NM mail consultant for McCleskey, now conducts his trade. The mailer is paid for by a PAC calling itself Americans for Strong Leadership.
If he were somehow to become lieutenant governor Thornton might have to call John Sanchez for advice. John suffered the sorry fate of being the number two under Susana Martinez who quickly shunted him aside as he was seen as a threat. It seems Ronchetti may have the same attitude toward this year's likely Light Guv nominee. While Thornton seems to have a laid back style, one doesn't get the impression that he would hesitate being the Ant at any future Ronchetti picnics. AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN (CONT.)  Elsewhere in the Second Treatise on Government that you quoted from (or really the anti-abortion candidate quoted from), John Locke (1632-1704) says:
"...Don’t think that this lays a perpetual foundation for disorder; for the appeal to heaven comes into play only when the trouble is so great that the majority feel it, are weary of it, and see that it must be amended." This means Ms. Mahrag is completely wrong to use Locke's "appeal to heaven" for her main issue, which is prohibiting abortion, because the vast majority support maintaining Roe v. Wade and basic abortion rights. Further, it is very clear right now the vast majority of Americans want common sense gun control laws, yet pro-gun extremists have continued to thwart that vast majority. The irony then is, per Locke, the vast majority have a right to band together and even use the US military to do an "appeal to heaven" over the gun extremists undermining our society. Let's make clear that relying on John Locke is no longer appropriate for a nation with mature constitutional jurisprudence. THE BOTTOM LINES From the state: If the recent wildfires impacted you, please call your insurance agent to file a claim. The Office of Superintendent of Insurance is here to help if you have any trouble reaching your company or have any questions about your insurance coverage. For assistance, please call 833-485-1336. Or visit our website. E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here. (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2022 |
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