When I read the initial news story about this tactic, I thought how low-class

it is for the supporters of the front-runner and likely winner to act like this — where were their flip-flops?

Kudos to the

Journal for blaming Chávez himself for this. Too bad they continue to endorse the boor. mjh

ABQjournal: Mayor Needs to Rein In His

Troops

City campaign politics hit a low point Thursday.

Notified that rivals Eric Griego and Brad

Winter were going to hold a press conference, Mayor Martin Chávez’s campaign dispatched a crowd of supporters and campaign pooch Dukes

to Civic Plaza.

Dukes, the mayor’s dog whose picture and paw-print were featured on a mailer addressed to dogs in voting

households, may have been the best behaved of the mayor’s backers.

Campaign spokeswoman Joan Griffin said the mayor’s

supporters “wanted to encourage a positive campaign and quit this kind of negative campaigning that’s going on.”

The Chávez

camp’s alternative to negative campaigning apparently is to shout down, intimidate or otherwise disrupt legitimate opposition campaign

events.

Chanting, “Marty, Marty, Marty,” Chávez supporters closed in on Griego and Winter as the two councilors running for

mayor raised questions about a Chávez fundraiser. …

[R]aising questions about the fundraiser and the campaign’s varying reports

on the amounts contributed is fair game.

Chávez supporters’ obnoxious tactics on Thursday are not, and the buck for their

behavior stops on the incumbent mayor’s desk.

Unless he condones this kind of campaigning, Chávez should apologize to Griego

and Winter for those who disrupted their press conference in his name. While he’s at it, he should apologize to the voters for

this boorish behavior.