Chair Wertheim
NM Dem Party Chair John Wertheim is under the gun to pull it out for Kerry here, and he's also under fire from his own party for the recent fury over voter ID. "The Republicans won this one hands down, even though they lost in court. They shifted the debate to the fraud issue, always a touchy subject here, and John never came back convincingly with how many people would be disenfranchised," offered up a Wertheim sympathizer.

Republicans have been hammering he Dems on this one, losing the court case over voter ID for newly registered voters but scoring a KO in the PR war. Bush NM GOP consultant Jay McCleskey has resurfaced for this battle.

Meantime, Wertheim has moved on to a new front: keeping Ralph Nader off the NM ballot, even though Nader turned in twice as many petition signatures as required. A Dem consultant told me the Nader factor was not relevant a month ago when Kerry was strong, but now that he has weakened, Nader is back on the radar and the Dems fear a repeat of his 4% NM performance in 2000. Of course, the Dems could always concentrate on getting a good, strong message out from their own campaign. Couldn't they?

#5 AND COUNTING

It's spot #5 for D Congressional hopeful Richard Romero and still no hits on Heather. Romero unveiled a spot on teacher pay which baffled some who said it did not appeal to the conservative Dems he needs. The Romero vs. Wilson refrain remains the same: When does the campaign begin? So far it's been a bunch of tepid TV ads. You might think each of them was running unopposed.

JOIN ME ON THE TUBE TODAY

VP Cheney and Kerry are both in ABQ today as NM remains a hotly contested battleground state. I will have analysis on the visits and the campaign at 4:20 p.m. today on KRQE-TV Channel 13 in ABQ so stop by and join me.

LINK AROUND

We have begun linking to the NM candidate web sites as they send them in. This one is from Dem
Congressman Tom Udall who is seeking re-election from the Northern Congressional seat. Check it out and send me your candidate's web site so we can all take a look. If you want a full-time ad presence contact me about advertising via e mail.

Make our site, WWW.JOEMONAHAN.COM one of your favorites and e-mail a link to interested friends. Interested in advertising to NM's large political community? E-mail me from the top right of this page, or call 505-243-4059 for details.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2004
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