Primary elections are underway in New Mexico and they are pretty ugly. Between the distortions and outright lies I'm inclined to vote "No" and hunker down until November. On the Dem side, the race for Attorney General is particularly ugly. One of the two will likely win the office given the State's Dem-leaning electorate, but whoever takes it will be damaged goods.
Luckily for the Dems, the Republican primary candidates are flailing away at each other with equal vigor. The leading R candidate for Governor, a former TV weather guy, has brought forth a story of serious moral and ethical lapses by his main rival, even though she has no chance of catching up to him in the primary race. She, in turn, is accusing him of being insufficiently Trumpy regarding crime, climate change, abortion restrictions and border blockades.
The weather guy has started shifting his sights to the current Dem Governor. He may get some traction with talk about crime, but the State's record level of oil production and an unprecedented budget surplus make charges of financial mismanagement look pretty anemic. Also, it is hard to avoid the thought that the R candidate for the governor's job is going to be saddled with policy positions about guns and abortion that most New Mexicans and most Americans do not support.
The current Governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, is making low-key appearances to brag about new legislation providing universal preschool, child care assistance to any parent in the State who needs it, and tuition-free post-secondary education opportunities for every resident kid in the State. She looks pretty calm and confident. Also interesting is Lujan Grisham's name appearing on lists of potential 2024 candidates should Joe decide against a second term. Looks like something he should definitely be thinking about according to this FiveThirtyEight article: Americans Are Unusually Lukewarm About A Second Biden Term.
4 comments:
Insufficiently Trumpy about climate change? You guys in New Mexico, of all places, should be feeling the results of warmer climate, especially more intense droughts, more intense forest fires, and less snowfall in the mountains. What are you going to drink? Duuh.
Maybe this candidate will tell her supporters that sea level rise (the rise that does not exist) will not affect New Mexico.
Focusing on facts and rational explanations is clearly too high a bar for most politicians. At this point I would settle for an adaptation of the physicians' creed - First, Do No Harm.
facts and rational explanations - that is clearly too high a bar for about a third of the American population, as well.
And yet, they are running the show.
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