That catchy on line ad from northern Dem congressional candidate Valerie Plame is drawing national attention and not all of it's favorable. The WaPo fact checker sees a couple of problems:

The ad strongly suggests that Plame was an undercover operative in places such as Iran and North Korea, when that was not the case. (She was under diplomatic cover in Greece.) Plame, however, was operations chief at the Joint Task Force on Iraq of the Counterproliferation Division of the CIA’s clandestine operations directorate.

As to who leaked Plame's status as a CIA operative to the press, she says VP Cheney Chief of Staff Scooter Libby but the fact checker says:

But was Scooter Libby, Vice President Richard B. Cheney’s chief of staff, the source of the leak? Libby was convicted of perjury and lying to the FBI during its investigation, but he was not charged with leaking Plame’s name.

The ad earned Plame three "Pinocchio's" which for the WaPo means "it had significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions. This gets into the realm of "mostly false."

Perhaps, but the fact check that goes on and on (for 1,800 words) seems overwrought and the sins in the ad don't seem commensurate with the punishment. Plame did not serve in overseas hot spots like Iran which the ad implies and whether Scooter Libby was a leaker of her name or not (Richard Armitage admitted he did) Libby was caught lying about the Plame affair. For all that we'd give her five lashes with the wet noodle and drop the Pinocchio's.

THE SERNAS

Also in the northern race, a bit of an eyebrow raiser. MLG has appointed longtime politico Eric Serna, father of Santa Fe County District Attorney and congressional hopeful Marco Serna, to the state fair commission which he will now serve as chairman.

The senior Serna lost the northern congressional seat in 1996 to Republican Bill Redmond, the only Dem ever to lose the heavy D district. Two years later Tom Udall took it back for the D's. Redmond campaigned on Serna's ethics issues which are well-remembered by many northern voters. Whether that will impact his son's campaign remains to be seen.

For now the junior Serna is grappling with criticism of how he is handling his DA job. As for MLG appointing Eric Serna to the fair commission, who said women can't be part of the Old Boys Club?

POLLING REACT

MLG scored a 58 percent approval rating in a NEA-NM poll of 500 adults conducted in late August and that we covered Tuesday. State government retiree John Rey disagrees with the majority:

I bet my pension check that if you polled PERA members on MLG the results would be far less positive. I spoke to her at a rally before the election and she not only told me but the crowd that PERA cost of living raises would not be touched. New boss same as the old boss!

The Governor's task force on pension reform has proposed cutting back on the cost of living adjustment (COLA) for retirees in order to strengthen PERA's financial standing. The Governor has not publicly commented on that proposal which is being called "preliminary." The task force plans will be reviewed by the legislature.

Reader David Meurer writes of the polls:

Joe, Traditional landlines continue to be cancelled at a massive rate. I gave up my landline years ago, as have the majority of homeowners. And with my various cell phones, I never answer the call unless I  know the caller ID. Robocalls have created that reaction.

My point is (and the pollsters will hate this question), are polls irrelevant (or woefully skewed) due to these massive handicaps? I am a boomer, but the millennials and digital natives are even more inclined this same way. Maybe the usual methods have gone the way of old steam locomotives. Fun to ride for amusement, but not a serious way to get between two points.

Thanks, David. Even the new fangled on line polls have serious issues.

Finally, the tired cliche uttered endlessly by politicians for decades may finally ring true: "The only poll that matters is the one on Election Day."

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2019