After taking Diane Denish for an ad slamming Susana Martinez's record on crime, Factcheck.org is taking on both candidates over their "child molester ads."And they even quote last week's Roundhouse Roundup column by yours truly.
The early, ugly nature of the campaign led a reporter with the Santa Fe New Mexican to quip that Willie Horton would be brought in to referee the ad war. Horton, convicted as an accomplice to murder, was the subject of an infamous 1988 ad by an independent group, attacking Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, a Democrat. There are several similarities with this case; the Horton ad said that Dukakis "opposes the death penalty," and with racial overtones implied his policies had led to recidivism of violent crime.
Basically Factcheck concludes that both candidates are stretching the facts in these ads.
On a lighter note, I also was quoted earlier this week in The Thicket, a blog of the National Council of State Legislatures. The article, by Karl Kurtz is about political malapropisms, and it quotes something I wrote last year about one of New Mexico's political giants.
Former New Mexico Gov. Bruce King, whom "New Mexican" reporter Steve Terrell calls the "Yogi Berra of New Mexico politics," once said of a legislative proposal, "That will open a whole box of pandoras." Once this image gets in your head, you'll never think of Pandora's box in the same way (or a box of cigars, for that matter).
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