updated 11/29/07

ABQjournal North_News: Chávez Talks Job Cuts at LANL By Dan Boyd, Journal Staff Writer

On Monday, Chávez acknowledged he probably won’t win over many of the “trust-fund elite” [mjh: Said with a sneer.] in Santa Fe, but played up his New Mexico heritage and said he thinks he can connect with working-class voters. [mjh: Yes, the impeccable Chávez radiates working class and a fake warmth.]

Although more than seven months remains until next year’s primaries, early surveys lend credence to that prediction. A recent SurveyUSA poll of 2,100 registered New Mexico voters said Udall holds a sizable lead over Chávez and would probably win the election if it were held today. [mjh: Thus the attacks: Cut your opponent down with the death of a thousand cowardly cuts.]

Mind you, I enjoy being an outsider, a white guy born into pacific and asian culture — I’m a native Hawaiian — growing up on the edge of black culture, living immersed in the unique diversity of multi-cultural New Mexico. Marty is entitled to play his “native son” card, but he should stop studying the Republican playbook. Everyone in New Mexico came from someplace else, some more recently than others. Still, as someone once asked in a movie, “what would life be like without an asshole?”

Marty said, “There’s some things where you fight to the end, you don’t cave like [Udall] did.” Tom Udall was the only Representative from NM and one of the few in the nation to vote against the deceptively named PATRIOT Act. He did not cave. That one act may be reason enough to support Udall. mjh

PS: In the paper, the headline reads “Chávez Criticizes Udall”; on the Web, the headline is “Chávez Talks Job Cuts at LANL.” Headline editors are gods.

Udall’s track record makes him fit to take Senate seat – Opinion

Editor,

I spent 1,200 hours working on Rep. Tom Udall’s 1998 campaign for Congress and, like many others, voted to elect Udall because of his integrity, his sense of justice and his outstanding work during his eight years as attorney general. I didn’t expect him to take orders from whatever inflamed portion of the public had something to say on any national scale, but, rather, to exercise his carefully considered judgment on issues and on specific votes. …

Fortunately, a vast majority of New Mexicans seem to agree. The only poll in this regard taken by Heath Haussamen gave [Udall] 69 percent, Mayor Martin Chavez 29 percent and Leland Lehrman 2 percent. …

Combating … corporate interests is precisely why I support Udall for the Senate. His advocacy and representation of New Mexico will be outstanding. He will win after clobbering the primary candidates and presumably Rep. Heather Wilson in the general election. New Mexicans should be really glad about this and not get sidetracked by nonsensical utterances that he is not fit to be in the Senate or not tough enough.

Stephen Fox
Daily Lobo reader

alibi . november 22 – 28, 2007 Democrats Against the War. Oh, yeah? Since when? By Jim Scarantino

In the Senate primary, only one credible candidate has opposed the war from the beginning. Tom Udall voted against war authorization. He also voted against the PATRIOT Act. His courageous stands can’t be discounted as “easy” for a congressman from a safe seat. Other Democrats with safe seats folded when their country needed them to be strong (examples: Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Diane Feinstein). And, if you study its demographics, Udall’s district is not all that “safe.” Udall’s immediate predecessor in the job was a right-wing Republican.

Martin Chavez never spoke against the war until recently. He has explained he was preoccupied with running the city. But other big-city mayors opposed the war before the first bombs fell. The thousands of anti-war New Mexicans who marched down Central, between rows of Chavez’ police officers, also had other things to do. Back in those days, let’s not forget, Chavez was courting Republicans for his upcoming re-election.

Most likely every Democratic candidate who says they now oppose the Iraq War is sincere. For many, we can only take them at their word. But a few others have proven their opposition to America’s most idiotic war goes deeper than expedient words offered at campaign time.