Wednesday, May 24, 2006Bingaman Makes Tube Move; GOP Rivals Stay Dark, Plus: More Campaign Media Kicks In; First Newspaper Endorsements Too; A Bloggin' Wednesday Starts Now
Bingaman
The three way contest for the GOP nomination to take on Bingaman in November has been featureless and apparently will stay that way as none of the candidates indicate they will be on the tube. Farmington urologist Allen McCulloch was the only one of the three hopefuls who raised enough money to make a decent TV buy, but R's report he has opted to spend his cash on direct mail. ABQ State Senator Joe Carraro and ex-city councilor David Pfeffer did not raise enough funds to hit the tube. Pfeffer earned good free media with a highly publicized walk of the U.S.-Mexico border and Carraro is counting on high name ID in vote-heavy Bernalillo county to push him over the top. "It is a mistake for anyone who hopes to run a competitive race this year with a veteran U.S. Senator not to introduce himself now to the public. Television is the way you do that," offered one campaign vet. He may be right, but you need money for those ads and, as we said, it hasn't been raining green on the R senate wannabes. Bingaman's team decided on a relatively heavy TV buy even though he is unopposed for the Dem nomination because "the field is clear and Jeff's spots will stand out," as one of his aides put it. Bingaman's campaign consultant is The Campaign Group out of D.C. which did Big Bill's 02' Guv effort. ON A SCREEN NEAR YOU HOUSE BATTLE TO TV And how about this one. A state House candidate is up on TV. You don't see that very often. But Republican Mike Kakuska is throwing everything at his race with Nora Espinoza as they square off for their party's nomination for a Roswell area open House seat. Both candidates are tough. Lurking in the background is State Sen. "Lightning" Rod Adair who is vigorously supporting Espinoza. Oilman Mark Murphy, a possible future candidate for NM GOP party chairman, is helping the Kakuska cause. It will likely be the most expensive legislative primary this cycle. (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2006 Not for reproduction without permission of the author |
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