Chase, Herrell & Mathys

Chaos has engulfed the brutal battle for the Republican nomination for the southern congressional race, with the three way contest turning into a near circular firing squad as the campaign hurtles toward the June 2 finish line now one week away.

The guns are ablaze in the largely conservative district. Claire Chase is relentlessly hammering Yvette Herrell; Yvette is firing back with her own volleys; a Dem super PAC is now pushing TV ads out for Yvette and another PAC is blasting Chris Mathys who is running the only positive campaign.

The thrust of this chaos is that Chase appears to have closed much of the gap with Herrell. Dems are alarmed. They believe Chase would be a tougher candidate for Dem Rep. Xochitl Torres Small.

Mathys is getting blasted by a pro-Claire PAC apparently because he is splitting the anti-Herrell vote with Claire, vote she badly needs.

The liberal Patriot Majority dark money super PAC has joined the festivities with a $200,000 TV buy and a boost for Yvette over Claire:

There’s Santa Fe lobbyist Claire Chase who opposed President Trump, calling him an assh . . . unworthy of the office. Or there’s Yvette Herrell. She’s 100% loyal to Trump, backed by 11 pro-gun sheriffs and Cowboys for Trump.”

The Claire camp immediately charged that Yvette is now supported by liberal House Speaker Pelosi even as Herrell called for the ads to be pulled, saying:

These liberal super PACs attacking me and my opponent have no business getting involved in this primary. They should stop airing these ads immediately!

But the Dems are out of the closet--they want Herrell--not Chase--to take on Torres Small who won a tight race against Herrell in the swing district in '18. They fear both Chase's oil money and her positioning as a young, fresh face. They figure they have beat Herrell once and can do it again.

As for Mathys, a businessman who came to NM from Fresno, California, the pro-Claire PAC Citizens for a United NM came with a $35,000 buy for a 15 second ad saying this:

Fresno, California, a sanctuary city where City Councilman Chris Mathys voted to cut gang prevention funding. California Chris Mathys. Too liberal and too dangerous.

And guess who is a $2500 contributor to that pro-Claire PAC? It's none other than former Hobbs Mayor Monty Newman who engaged in a bitter race with Herrell for the '18 GOP nod and lost. He never got over it.

The trio of contestants appeared on a KRWG-TV forum in mid-May but judging by their demeanor you would never know that just below the surface was a bubbling cauldron of emotion.

Chaos, Machivellian maneuvering, settling old scores and PAC money darker than a black hole. That's the southern congressional race. Don't run out of popcorn. We have a week to go.

SENATE SCAMBLE

Gavin Clarkson is in search of an upset over front-runner Mark Ronchetti in the race for the GOP nomination for the open US Senate seat. And he tells us that while we might not have been able to find his anti-Ronchetti TV ad on the web, it is there. And here it is. The ad starts with a now well-known anti-Trump video of Ronchetti:

Ronchetti says "I am a  conservative who used to be a Republican until the orange one. . .I'm afraid that has taken a part of my soul and that's not coming back."

Enter Clarkson:

I'm Dr. Gavin Clarkson, an enrolled tribal member who proudly served in the Trump administration. Join me. . . to put a battle-tested swamp warrior in the Senate.

Not a bad ad because it speaks for itself and to a GOP obsessed with Trump loyalty. It might go somewhere, if only the under-financed Clarkson could get on the air in a way similar to the blanket buy that Ronchetti has going.

THE DARK STUFF

On the subject of dark money, Dem northern congressional candidate John Blair makes that his target in a new TV ad as he chases front-runner Teresa Leger Fernandez.

THE BOTTOM LINES 

Speaking of Dems running for Congress, one of their old warriors is back in action but not as a candidate. Attorney John Wertheim, former chairman of the NM Dem Party who twice ran for the ABQ Dem US House seat, is back in the state and serving as campaign treasurer for MLG. His wife, Bianca Ortiz Wertheim, recently left the position of Chief of Staff to Senator Tom Udall who is retiring. She has been named by MLG to head up the state Homeland Security Department. The Gators are already snapping that she lacks a law enforcement background. Backers point to her administrative abilities. Uh, welcome back, Bianca. . . or something.

So Dem BernCo Commissioner Michael Quezada was snubbed by MLG who endorsed Frank Baca, his primary opponent for the ABQ South Valley commission seat. But Quezada supporters point out that ABQ Mayor Tim Keller, ABQ Rep. Deb Haaland and ABQ City Councilor Klarissa Pena have all endorsed Quezada. That's a good break for the Breaking Bad actor. . . Marcos Gonzales is another BernCo commission candidate this year. We called him "Marco" Monday. Well, there is a Marco Gonzales in La Politica and. . . oh, never mind.