The immense fundraising reported by Dem gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland--over $11 million already raised for a campaign in a state of 2.1 million--comes with multiple descriptions: "Overwhelming, insane, a national phenomenon." (Full report here.)

Perhaps most alarming to Haaland's critics is the label assigned by longtime state political analyst, former legislator and attorney Greg Payne who opines:

Her candidacy is starting to look like a fait accompli.

In her finance report released this week Haaland reports total expenditures thus far of $6.713 million and cash on hand of $4.366 million. Her Dem primary foe Sam Bregman is not even in shouting distance with $853,000 in cash. 

Haaland's report of donations for the last six months runs nearly a stunning 13,000 pages, so large that the Secretary of State's office needed several days to get it downloaded. 

Overall, the report is so astonishing that it prompts the question of whether her progressive supporters --most of whom are ardent campaign reform advocates--won't ask her to voluntarily place a limit on her future fundraising. She won't, of course. Those grassroots supporters see her cash haul as a mandate. The manic fundraising goes on even if there is only a shred of hope that the eventual GOP nominee could compete against her national cash avalanche that is premised on Haaland becoming the state's first Native American governor and the nation's first female Native American governor.

BERNIE SANDERS AURA 

There are large donations on the report but it is the massive number of small donations from all 50 states that gives it a Bernie Sanders aura, recalling his presidential campaign that first harnessed millions of small-donors in the Democratic grassroots and made history. 

The national ownership of this candidacy also sparks debate over how Haaland would governor our small southwestern state. Would it become even more of a laboratory for California-style progressive politics? Would she pursue national ambitions upon taking office? Would she employ her fund-raising prowess for robust paid ad campaigns to push her agenda through the legislature? Could she get involved in Democratic primaries to take out what remains of the moderate wing of the Democratic party?

A PAPER TIGER? 

Here's a larger issue that has irritated Haaland and her campaign and that can't be hidden behind mountains of cash: Is she a paper tiger? Does she remain vulnerable to a case of the glass jaw where she breaks under the pressure? Is she "incompetent," a charge made publicly this week by GOP governor candidate Doug Turner? 

Bregman says yes to all of the above and has repeatedly challenged Haaland to TV debates which she continues to reject. (The one joint appearance scheduled in May does not qualify as a real debate.)

Haaland's wildly successful fund-raising also can't erase doubts that her candidacy could amount to an ultra-expensive vanity project, anointing her to a first in the nation status but then flailing when challenged by the prospect of truly governing. It is not an imagined worry. 

In 2010 Republican Susana Martinez was celebrated as the nation's first Hispanic woman governor only to falter badly and leave office unpopular and largely unaccomplished after eight years in office. Martinez's deficiencies were seen during her campaign but an enamored electorate looked the other way. 

Money can do wonders for a campaign as Haaland is showing, but it does not change the fundamental nature of a candidate's personality that campaigns are intended to test. The most pressing question on the table at this historic juncture is whether Haaland will be put to the test or is the "fait accompli" already inevitable? 

PAC ATTACKS 

That PAC needling Haaland over her link to Jeffrey Epstein is being financed by figures in the orbit of Sam Bregman although his campaign denies being behind the Accountable NM PAC which reports raising $87,000 for ads attacking Haaland's ride on a jet linked to accused pedophile Epstein. The news:

At least three of (the PAC's) four donors are linked to Bregman through New Mexico’s horse racing industry. . .all four contributed to Bregman in the last campaign reporting period, according to filings. Bregman served as chairman of the New Mexico Racing Commission before stepping in as Bernalillo County district attorney in early 2023. His campaign denied any involvement with the group.