Hand of Heinrich

The plot thickens in the battle for future control of the state's majority party, a battle being played out in proxy form in the race for the Democratic nomination for attorney general featuring BernCo District Attorney Raul Torrez and State Auditor Brian Colón. 

Here in the late innings leading up to next Tuesday's primary a PAC has surfaced to blast away at Colón and the PAC, according to reliable sources, could have ties to Dem US Sen. Martin Heinrich.

Heinrich's Colón obsession is rooted in his own ambitions to take control of the party and launch what would be an unusual bid for Governor following MLG's reign.

Colón, already a leader in the party's conservative/moderate faction, would rise to a whole new level if he defeats Torrez, posing a threat to the more liberal Heinrich by positioning himself for his own Guv run or being a kingmaker in the race. 

This late PAC ad, coming from a group calling itself "RNML," is titled "politician" and disparages Colón this way:

Brian Colón--another politician looking to get ahead. He's run for lieutenant governor, mayor and state auditor. Now he wants to be our AG, even those he's never prosecuted a case. He's taken hundreds of thousands from out of state law firms who are lining up for lucrative contracts. He's even used murder victims for his own political gain. Pay to play, exploiting victims. We don't need another politician as attorney general. 

That last line about "another politician" could be read as a veiled hit on current Dem AG Hector Balderas who is a BFF of Colón and who ran for the US Senate nomination against Heinrich in 2012.

Torrez has clutched tightly to Heinrich throughout the race, hoping the senator's popularity with progressives would help put him over the top.

But Torrez's campaign was never able to convince the public of his efficacy as district attorney in crime-ridden Albuquerque and he mostly gave up on trying to do so. Instead, he has concentrated on the  negative to overtake Colón who has the edge in the race because of his statewide name ID. But if the PAC TV buy comes through there is time for Torrez to stop Colón and end his dream of climbing even higher up the ladder of La Politica. 

The AG battle is about the here and now and a possible battle to come over the future direction of New Mexican politics and we'll cover it like white on rice next Tuesday as we bring you the latest election results on KANW 89.1 FM and kanw.com. 

RONCHETTI/DOW SCUFFLING

In the GOP race for Governor, the exchanges between the two top contenders--Mark Ronchetti and State Rep. Rebecca Dow--remain nasty, with Ronchetti calling Dow's latest attacks "brazen lies" and Dow accusing Ronchetti of "making a child relive one of the worst moments of their lives."

The statements are over the hopefuls dueling ads. Ronchetti fires back at Dow's TV spot that continues her theme that he is an anti-Trumper and that tweets she uncovered from long ago confirm her contention. 

First Dow who rips into a negative ad from Ronchetti over a lawsuit she was named in by parents of a sexually abused boy:

Shame on Mark Ronchetti for re-victimizing a child by using a recycled ProgressNow attack against me for political gain. Mark only cares about power and he's willing to make a child relive one of the worst moments of their life to score political points. I sat on the board of the Club. Program administrative staff oversaw the day-to-day operations of the Boys and Girls Club of Sierra County. After learning of an assault in July 2015, the employee was arrested. We partnered with the New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs, called every family at the Club, and printed an ad in the newspaper encouraging more victims to come forward. That’s how the incident from December 2014 was uncovered. My involvement with the victim was informing the family that the incident occurred and that counseling services would be provided to him. The Boys and Girls Club of Sierra County paid the settlement and my name was removed from the lawsuit with prejudice. I'm sure a judge will agree that Mark's lies are dishonest and slanderous. I assure you that his timeline and incidents described are factually inaccurate.

And the Ronchetti rebuttal to Dow's final days attacks:

(Her) latest attacks against Republican Mark Ronchetti includes a deceitful television ad and an embarrassingly false political mailing. The brazen lie from Dow is so over the top that it recently caught the attention of media outlets. . .According to a mailer, Dow claims “Mark Ronchetti called for President Trump’s impeachment and falsely claimed President Trump had committed a felony.” Not only is this a flagrant lie. . .but Dow intentionally failed to cite the source of this assertion. After being pressed Dow responded that the quote was pulled from a twitter account. . . The attributed twitter account clearly does not belong to Mark Ronchetti and appears to be operated by a dentist from Maryland, or a twitter bot with 14 followers. Regardless, no one - including Rebecca Dow- can honestly believe that these tweets came from Mark Ronchetti. . .Rebecca shamelessly used the account to justify her clearly false attack. In addition to the mailer, Dow also took to the airwaves with a new television attack ad accusing Ronchetti of “striking a deal on amnesty” and “not taking a stance on overturning Roe V. Wade.” This too is false. In fact, Mark Ronchetti has been strong on his plans for border security and is on record as being strongly pro-life. 

DRIP, DRIP DRIP

Meantime, the incumbent governor, running unopposed for the Dem nomination next Tuesday, continues her drip, drip, drip of positivity, unveiling two new 15 second ads, part of a series that has been airing much of the month. The aim being to have voters who formed a negative image of her during Covid to forget it.

This one is on free childcare which MLG says "most New Mexicans" now qualify for. In this ad she says her administration is making universal pre-school a "reality for every family."

The ads come as the GOP posse prepares to come for her June 8 when the fall election begins in earnest.

This is the home of New Mexico politics.