But, the Other Guy is Worse!!!

Listening to campaign ads for democrats Diane Denish and Martin Heinrich the casual listener visiting Albuquerque might think that both are political neophytes that are simply caring individuals wishing to protect the citizenry from the purely political cartoon style villains Susana Martinez and Jon Barela. Is it any wonder why it is that most people are severely turned off by political campaigns?

Little more than a month to go and I am left wondering if these politicians will actually campaign on their accomplishments and what they actually want to do in office instead of attempting to scare voters too busy to pay attention with exorbitant charges against their opponents? Most galling is the fact that both democrats running for the highest profile offices in this election cycle have either been in or nearly were in the offices that they are running for and listening to their ads, you would never know.

Earlier in the election cycle, Gubernatorial candidate Denish had touted successes as a fighter of corruption as the Lt Governor over the last eight years that apparently were not believable or ineffective and have been replaced with ads touting Denish as a southern New Mexican small business owner and (for a period of time) single mother who is tired of the corruption in Santa Fe. The candidate simply disregards the fact that they have been Lt Governor for eight years, first ran for the post twelve years ago and was one contractor contributions to presidential campaign almost Commerce secretary scandal away from being Governor since early last year.

Worse, the Lt Governor paints her opponent, Martinez, as someone who misused public funds for cronies, using as an example salaries and bonuses for the DA office in Dona Ana County. To most voters I think it can be assumed that they understand that the District Attorney’s office is paid for with taxes, public funding. On the second accusation, misusing funds, it is unbelievable that Martinez could have been elected from the primary and not prosecuted by democrat political hack Gary King, New Mexico Attorney General or the hacks at the Obama Justice Department. If these accusations are true, we should be more worried that the corrupt official portrayed in the Denish ads is not behind bars. And, that’s if the viewer/listener drinks the Kool-Aid transporting them to some laughable fantasy land where innocent Diane Denish was never around and did not participate in the Richardson administration, a disgrace to New Mexico as Governor due to cronyism and worse. If that’s the case, then Denish should be disqualified for incompetence.

Like his party compatriot, Heinrich has abandoned running on his record. Earlier there were ads portraying Heinrich as working to help and protect New Mexicans and gathering specific constituencies and hyper specific benefits secured for them without any mention of the actual bill. Again, it seems likely that these ads did not go over well and that viewers were smart enough to understand that Heinrich is nothing if not a rubber stamp for the national democrat agenda and has voted as such and the only group to benefit is government, at our expense. Heinrich’s latest ad imagines the policies of his opponent, Barela and lectures the viewer on these dangerous policies, and of course bringing up a caricature of President Bush, with whom Barela is in lock step.

Jon Barela has never served in elected office. He is a lawyer who worked for Republican congressman Joe Skeen many years ago. Heinrich uses the issues plank on Barela’s website that portrays simple values with nary a desire to hurt people and twists these bland statements into a cudgel claiming that Barela’s goal is to take away the livelihoods of New Mexicans. A pathetic caricature.

So, this is what we have from democrat incumbents, Republican criminal boogey men and purported loss of precious government “benefits” without any mention of their own qualifications. It’s perplexing to discern how either Denish or Heinrich have ever been elected to anything. New Mexico will be better served to return both to private life this November.