Even as I was composing yesterday’s ambivalent defense of John Dimdahl, forces were moving to position him as the new and improved Republican candidate for governor, replacing that other guy whose name we needn’t remember. Keep reading because I’m not only going to defend Dimdahl again, I have a rebuke for “my” party.
Wow, Richardson, whom I don’t especially like, is going to have great fun kicking Dimdahl’s ass, especially after Dimdahl’s involvement in Sanchez’s previous romp in the mud. At the same time, Dimdahl, whom I like less than I like Richardson, will have great fun thumbing his nose at the Guv, playing the mouse to Richardson’s elephant. I do love an underdog and I have some sympathy for anyone brave enough to run for office. After an unqualified boob like Gary “Big Jerk” Johnson, the Republicans have actually picked someone who is not only qualified but represents them perfectly.
Sadly, I won’t be able to read any more of Dimdahl’s columns for a few months nor see him on The Line, but my blood pressure will probably benefit from it. In commercials, the focus will be on Richardson’s heavy-handed control of everything with an occasional shot of Dimdahl’s smiling face and skier’s tan. The only people who actually hear his venom will be like-minded folk. Oh, well, after the slaughter, he’ll return to his booth at the Frontier, our own Don Quixote. ¡Buena suerte, Juan!
As for the stern rebuke of the god-damn Democrats: one of the responses to Dimdahl’s candidacy chided him for supporting legalization of marijuana. There is the one thing that millions of Democrats and Republicans agree on: marijuana should be legalized, regulated just like alcohol and taxed at twice the rate. For Democrats to attack anyone on this issue is hypocrisy and mud-slinging worthy of right-wingers. mjh
ABQjournal: New Start in Race for Governor By Leslie Linthicum, Journal Staff Writer
Republicans dropped a bomb in the governor’s race Saturday, taking poor-performing Santa Fe doctor J.R. Damron off the ticket and replacing him with party pit bull John Dendahl, a conservative former party chairman.
Republicans hope sharp-tongued Dendahl will bring bigger guns to the November battle to unseat popular incumbent Bill Richardson. …
“I think that it’s an act of desperation for a party to reach back into the past to someone who represents the nasty politics of division and gridlock,” [Richardson’s campaign chairman Dave] Contarino said. “The contrast is incredible— a bi-partisan governor who crosses party lines to get things done versus a partisan, negative bomb-thrower.”
Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman quickly weighed in with praise for Dendahl’s nomination, saying, “Unlike his opponent, John Dendahl is committed to fighting corruption from the Governor’s office on down.” [mjh: you can judge Dimdahl by those who praise him, like the ruthless Mehlman] …
Dendahl, who said he will drop the drug issue in this campaign, has mixed it up with Richardson before. He was still the Republican Party chairman when Richardson first ran for governor in 2002 against Republican John Sanchez and Green Party candidate David Bacon.
The Sanchez-Richardson battle was expensive and ugly until, shortly before election day, Sanchez announced he was stopping his attack ads and telling Dendahl to cut the mudslinging as well.
After he won, Richardson said, “I think what this election shows is Dendahl’s politics of negativity is going to be repudiated and, hopefully, he’ll be gone from the political scene.”
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The Wednesday Morning Quarterback: RICHARDSON HAS A NEW OPPONENT