Tuesday, August 02, 2022Vasquez Camp Pushes Back Against Negative Narrative; New Polling And Grassroots Action Cited, Plus: Readers Talk Pump Prices
In our July 27 blog political pros anonymously questioned the viability of Vasquez who has not yet received the national support they expected to be see by now. His campaign comes with a poll that shows the race is still in play and a grassroots group is holding the Vasquez banner high as it works to reach voters in the district--that is mainly in the south but includes parts of westside and downtown ABQ. The poll was conducted July 19-25 among 500 likely voters (MOE +/-4.9%) by the Democratic Global Strategy Group and shows Vasquez leading Herrell 45% to 44% in the new district which has moved from Trump +12 to Biden +6. Herrell has a commanding lead in name ID, according to the survey, with Vasquez at 31% while Herrell’s name ID is at 71%. The polling methodology and questions asked were not released. Vasquez is amping up his attacks on the first term lawmaker and now calling her out for her anti-abortion stance that national Dems believe could play a vital role in key races: I will always put working New Mexico families first, while Yvette Herrell's priorities are pushing a national abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest and palling around with January 6th insurrectionists. Herrell's vote refusing to certify the 2020 presidential election result will also be an important line of attack for Vasquez, a former Las Cruces city councilor and aide to Sen. Martin Heinrich. The problem? The campaign remains quiet as we enter August with no softening of Herrell on the airwaves by the DCCC. ON THE GROUND A grassroots group, BlueCD2NM, who calls Vasquez "a young, energetic and passionate conservationist, public servant and entrepreneur" is reaching voters via mail. They've raised $85,000 for the cause, explains the group's Rochelle Williams from Otero County: In addition to the redistricting boost, we have a plan to turn out 20,000 low-frequency registered Democratic women in CD2 for Gabe, following the successful model of Sisters United Alliance in Texas. We have raised more than $85,000, about half of that for postage for 90,000 postcards to register new voters in the district. We are now doing postcards to the registered voters we plan to turn out. Postcards have been proven to increase voter participation by 2.5 to 4%--a small but very significant number in a tight race. The Herrell camp is counting on a mild turnout, nothing like the historic one the district had in 2018 when she was trounced by Dem Xochitl Torres Small. While some insiders are starting to describe this battle as Lean R the Vasquez camp is saying hold your horses when assessing this horse race. They argue there is still enough time and plenty of action to come before the contest--ranked a toss-up by the national pundits--is put out to pasture. WINDFALL BLOWBACK  Joe!
If you're going to windfall tax profits, it would only be fair to do the opposite for losses! Chevron made $11.6 billion this quarter, but from Q2 2020 - Q1 2021 they lost $33.496 billion! Let 'em make some money back. The oil industry gave $5.3 billion to NM in 2021. So, everyone in NM should have high speed internet, education programs should be skyrocketing, the homeless should have shelters under construction, and water pipelines should be almost finished running over to Las Vegas, NM. Instead, the state still hasdial up Internet accounts, ranks last in the nation for education and moves homeless people from park to park and have cities running out of water. Reader Derrik Garcia comments on our observation that gas prices have been coming down across the state: Joe, I was in Farmington this weekend and was shocked at how expensive prices still were. I gassed up for $3.54 a gallon in Albuquerque and the lowest price I could find in Farmington was $4.54. Mayor Duckett of Farmington has reached out to the Attorney General to investigate the high prices and makes price gouging claims. In a heavily conservative area, these high prices are angering people when major news outlets report lower prices from gas stations in ABQ and make the claim that the pain at the pump is over. This is the home of New Mexico Politics. E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.   (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2022 |
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