Update on NM-CD2: No Surprise! Backroom Maneuvering Cuts Out Kissling

Just got off the phone with a friend with contacts in women’s Democratic circles here who was Kissling’s representative at the party convention a couple of weeks ago…The local paper only reporting it yesterday!!

Rumor has it the deal was done on the primary months ago! The deal was to push Harry Teague as the eventual Democratic nominee for the House! Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, like Teague, is also from Hobbs and pushed him and Gov. Richardson ALSO had been supporting Teague for months! Teague is apparently very wealthy, which must be part of the equation. So, my thought that McCamley and Richardson were a team beyond the spaceport deal was off base…way off base!! Meanwhile, at the party convention, Kissling’s representative was given about 30 seconds to deliver a nominating speech; according to her account, it was clearly apparent that no one, except the favored candidates, was being a give a fair shake as the speaking time rules were being ignored.

Kissling did amazingly well last time without any money or help from the DCC and we were hopeful we could pull it off this time since Republican Pearce is running for the Senate. It’s too bad his voice will be absent.

Now, to be fair, I have checked out Teague’s website here. His positions seem to be standard Democratic positions. Noticeably absent are some of the social issues, like abortion, which my memory recalls from a long ago article, seemed to indicate a conservative stance there. But more news will come out, which should clear up that uncertainty.

McCamley got nearly 49% of the vote to Teague’s 36.5%. So, whether the “plan” for Teague’s being the ultimate nominee comes true or not remains to be seen! After all, the voters have to go out in June to vote! However, the party must be counting on the machine for Teague, since the turnout may be low if people stay home since the presidential vote has already taken place. (Pre-primary vote here.)

According to NM political blogger Joe Monohan, McCamley has been shopping a poll showing him as the favored candidate.

“The soon to be 30 year old McCamley was out shopping a poll he had conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a firm that has done a lot of surveys for politicos here, including Light Guv Diane Denish. But this poll done March 17-19 among 403 likely Dems and with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9% raised more questions than it answered. (Download here.)

First among them: How could 65% of the voters have a favorite candidate in the race when there has been no media advertising and none of the candidates is well-known throughout the district? McCamley insists there was no “pushing”–providing negative info about the race and then asking the voter who they favored. He says he is ahead of Teague 43% to 22% with the rest undecided. He does say there was some “messaging” about Teague on the back-end of the poll.

Teague’s own internal numbers show nearly 50% of Dem voters undecided. He is in the field this week and campaign insiders do not expect the undecided to go down much. McCamley says he has been traveling the district for a year and that explains his numbers.

Whatever the case, the numbers that really matter right now are the ones on the candidates’ bank accounts. In that regard, Teague is far ahead, having raised and loaned himself well over $500,000 to McCamley’s $200,000 plus. Teague is going to start spending that money within a week. Expect the southern airwaves to fill up with this TV spots and the polling numbers to follow to reflect the activity.”

(Link here .)

We’ll be keeping an eye on this race…