Moe Lane

Five terms is apparently enough*.  Frankly, it’s more than enough for a lot of Senators out there, but that’s just my opinion.

Contra Chris Cizzilla, though, Obama’s 15 point victory in 2008 is not the only thing to consider about New Mexico: it’s that in 2010 the GOP took the governorship and lieutenant governorship, flipped a House seat, and came pretty close to getting another one (the state legislature was a wash).  New Mexico is a swing state, and if recent history is any predictor it’s busy swinging back the other way right now.

Mind you, this is good news for Tom Udall, who won’t be up for re-election until 2014; and by then the pendulum may have swung back yet again.  In the meantime, we’ll have to see who gets bitten by the Senatorial bug…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

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The very short version: the NEA put up an attack ad for Denish and against frontrunner Susana Martinez that featured a teacher who proceeded to badmouth Martinez’s education strategy. The only problem? Martinez happens to have been the prosecutor who put said teacher’s husband away for 23 years for kidnapping – something that was not exactly brought up in the first campaign ad, and which certainly calls into question the true source of the teacher’s ire. Naturally, the Martinez campaign is taking advantage of this mistake:

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I had the opportunity to meet with New Mexico candidate (and NRCC Young Gun) Jon Barela yesterday for a quick interview and discussion:

The district (currently listed as Likely Democratic by Cook) itself is interesting; it’s a traditionally Republican district and the last poll for it was prior to passage of the health care debacle. Rep. Heinrich not only supported the bill; he supported a public option, and is also on the wrong side of pretty much every conservative issue of the 111th Congress, from the ‘stimulus’ on. Heinrich even managed to co-sponsor card check legislation, which is particularly unfortunate for him right now. The basic theme to this campaign, in other words, is that the incumbent is not only too liberal for the district; he’s too liberal for his own local party, to the point where some Democratic delegates were voting for Barela in their pre-primary election.  This is not a sign of a secure incumbent.

Jon’s site is here.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Some points of interest, for various campaigns:

• AR-01: Rick Crawford – who is running against Marion Berry, AKA The Guy Who Can’t Remember That He’s Not Supposed to Be Taken Farm Subsidies – has a revamped website. It’s a definite improvement over the old version, and should allow for more and better networking. AR-01 is a R+8 district, and long overdue for a Congressman not as ready to ‘forget’ about his income (both agricultural and residential) as Berry is. Check Rick out.

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Via Dan Riehl, it certainly looks like Bill Richardson (and cronies) will no longer have to worry about any pesky questions about his political contributions.

The decision not to pursue indictments was made by top Justice Department officials, according to a person familiar with the investigation, who asked not to be identified because federal officials had not disclosed results of the probe.

“It’s over. There’s nothing. It was killed in Washington,” the person told The Associated Press.

[monotone voice]
Completely unexpected.
Inconceivable.
Utterly shocking.
[/monotone voice]

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

It’s very odd: the farther he is from the Capitol, the less he believes in the concept. Via Glenn Thrush, an eyewitness to the current representative from New Mexico’s Second District’s discussion of the issues:

Only after the assembled citizens in the meeting room moved into the restaurant area and insisted that he answer public questions in a public forum did the congressman reluctantly stand and address the crowd. (I might add that the crowd consisted of people I recognized as both Republicans and Democrats.)

[snip]

One question that did get an answer was, since he had voted for legislation that would provide tax dollars to fight global warming, did he believe in global warming? His answer was, “I don’t know if I believe in it or not. I am not a scientist.”

Congressman Teague was also asked, if the cap-and-trade bill were put to a public vote in his district, did he believe the majority of the citizens would vote for it? He answered, “I believe they would.” This answer brought a resounding “NOOOO!” from the crowd.

I’d like to note also that the man’s been in the House of Representatives for barely half a year, and yet he’s already acquired the distressing Democratic habit of voting in favor of bills that he hasn’t bothered to read first. A sad condition, to be sure; and not one that’s apparently amenable to treatment, based on the way that it keeps breaking out among Pelosi’s and Reid’s caucuses. Fortunately, in this particular case there’s a ready enough alternative in Steve Pearce.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.