Johnson Disappointed in Martinez Campaign -- But He Voted for Her

Former Gov. Gary Johnson dropped by the Roundhouse just now. When asked about the campaign, the first thing he said was how sick he was of all the negative ads from all sides.

"Didn't I see an ad about Martin Heinrich feeding sharks off the coast of California who might then want to eat children?" he asked. "It's pathetic."

"I just want to throw up," he said.

"It would have been good to be able to hear what Susana Martinez stands for instead of what Diane Denish doesn't stand for. And vica versa," he told reporters.

Asked about Martinez's stance against the medical marijuana, he said he was disappointed. "It's a no-brainer," he said."People in pain should be able to have marijuana. It's less dangerous than prescription painkillers."

But he added that he cast his absentee ballot for his fellow Republican Martinez, mainly because of what he said were the excesses of the Richardson administration. Denish, he said, would be a continuation of those policies.

Johnson, a Taos resident, also said he voted for Republican Tom  Mullins over incumbent Democrat Ben Ray Lujan -- though he had to be reminded of Mullins' name.

Catching Up

I had a couple of political stories published over the weekend.

I wrote about the race in CD3 between Ben Ray Lujan and Tom Mullins. It can be found HERE.

The sidebar on Lujan and Mullins' fundraising efforts are HERE 

My coverage of Sunday's gubernatorial debate is HERE  

Below is the video of the Mullins/Lujan debate Saturday on Channel 4.

Channel 7 has Sunday's gubernatorial debate, but it's spread over 13 separate videos (really, guys ...) You can find the whole baker's dozen HERE.

In Case You Missed the CD3 Debate Saturday ...

... you can watch it here.

NRA Loves Our Dems

So you thought gun rights was a Republican issue and that the National Rifle Association, the largest gun lobby group in the country, is naturally inclined to endorse Republicans?

Think again.

The NRA’s political action committee announced Monday that it has endorsed all three incumbent House Democrats in the state’s Congressional delegation, including U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan of Santa Fe.

A rival gun lobby group, Gun Owners of America, on the other hand, endorsed the three Republicans running for Congress in the state, including Lujan's opponent Tom Mullins -- a 12-year member of the NRA.

See my story in today's New Mexican.

See all the NRA's endorsements in the state HERE. See the GOA's grades of the New Mexico Congressional candidates HERE

Lujan Vs. Mullins

The two candidates for the 3rd Congressional district met yesterday to debate at St. Bede's Episcopal Church in Santa Fe.

About 100 people packed into a crowded room (or crowded into a packed room) for the two-hour event.

My story is HERE

The debate was sponsored by The League of Women Voters, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and The American Association of University Women. Those groups are sponsoring a similar event for local legislative candidates 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center, 3221 Rodeo Road.

Roundhouse Roundup: All Press Releases Look Alike

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 12, 2010

You read enough news releases from government offices and they all start to look alike.

In this case, literally.

I’m talking about the recent announcement by Attorney General Gary King’s office that a complaint by King and 33 other attorneys general against Topix.com had been brought to a happy conclusion.

Topix is an online news aggregator that handles reader comments for news sites nationwide. Because of pressure from the AGs, the company agreed to stop its policy of charging nearly $20 to expedite reviews of abusive or potentially libelous comments.

King’s office, in announcing the agreement, said, “On behalf of the numerous parents, public officials, and concerned citizens who have contacted me about Topix.com, I am pleased that we’ve been able to reach an agreement with the company to put a stop to the ‘pay-to-police’ policy to expedite removal of abusive posts. I appreciate the cooperation of Topix.com and look forward to continuing to work with the company to ensure that New Mexicans, particularly our kids, are not being harmed by harassing and abusive posts.”

But while Googling around to do some quick research on the issue, I came across a quote from Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway in PC World, an online publication.

Conway, one of the first AGs to complain against Topix, was quoted saying, “On behalf of the numerous parents, public officials and concerned citizens who have contacted me about Topix, I am pleased that we’ve been able to reach an agreement with the company to put a stop to the ‘pay-to-police’ policy on the message board to expedite removal of abusive posts. I appreciate the cooperation of Topix and look forward to continuing to work with the company to ensure that Kentuckians, particularly our kids, are not being harmed by harassing and abusive posts.”

Then I found a virtually identical statement online about the Topix deal from Kansas Attorney General Steve Six.

And something very similar from Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper. He too was speaking on “behalf of the concerned citizens and public officials who have contacted me about Topix.com.” However, Cooper is looking forward to working with Topix “to ensure that our citizens are treated seriously and respectfully in a timely manner.”

Doesn’t he care about ensuring our kids are not being harmed by harassing and abusive posts?

Burning issues: Tom Mullins a flag burner? No, nobody’s accusing the conservative Farmington Republican of burning Old Glory in protest.

A Farmington radio personality and gun-store owner who organizes an annual “U.N. flag burning” event said in a radio show, preserved online in a podcast last October, that Mullins, who is challenging incumbent Democrat Ben Ray Luján for his seat in Congress, was there.

“We had a great time at our U.N. flag-burning,” said Cope Reynolds. “... You know Oct. 24 is ‘Get the U.S. Out of the U.N. Day.’ A lot of people call it ‘U.N. Day.’ We just can’t bring ourselves to do that.”

Reynolds went on to name several people who attended the event outside of his store, including Mullins.

Asked about this, Mullins said Wednesday that he didn’t remember any U.N. flag burning. Instead, he said, the event he attended was a “flag retirement ceremony,” a respectful event in which American flags that are tattered are burned.

The U.S. Flag Code says, “The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.”

Contacted Wednesday, Reynolds said there indeed was a flag-retirement ceremony on the same day. Indeed, in a show prior to last year’s event, Reynolds said people with old flags should bring them to the event for a proper retirement after the U.N. flags were burned.

Mullins said he has some serious problems with the United Nations, which he says is too quick to beat up on the U.S. He said the U.N. needs to be reformed, but said he’s not ready for the U.S. to withdraw from the organization.

Lopsided Campaign Finance Reports in CD3

I did a story in today's New Mexican about the most recent campaign finance reports filed by the 3rd Congressional District candidates.

To nobody's surprise, incumbent Democrat Ben Ray Lujan is mopping up over Republican opponent Tom Mullins of Farmington. It's a nearly 2-1 Democratic district and incumbents everywhere tend to have the fund-raising advantage. (That being said, down in the 2nd District, Republican challenger Steve Pearce is beating incumbent Harry Teague in the money race. Pearce, of course, is a former incumbent.)

My story is HERE.

Lujan's latest report is HERE.

Mullins' latest report is HERE

Mullins Says Ben Ray Too Harsh on BP

Republican Congressional candidate Tom Mullins will not join the piling on on U.S. Rep. Joe Barton for saying President Obama had engaged in a "shake-down" of BP, by securing $20 billion to help pay for damages from the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In fact even before Barton's controversial apology to BP, Mullins was criticizing his Democratic opponent, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, for beating up the giant oil company. It's on Mullins' campaign blog.

Yesterday Mullins told me he thought Barton had some valid points and reiterated his belief that Lujan was "beating up" on BP, which is the third largest producer of natural gas in this state.

My story on this is in today's New Mexican.

Mullins "Worser Person in the World" Says Olbermann

CD3 Republican candidate Tom Mullins made Keith Olbermann's "Worst Persons in the World" countdown for -- you guessed it -- his discussion of putting land mines along the Mexican border (an idea he's already disavowed.)

Mullins, according to Olbermann, isn't the WORST person in the world today. That would be the force of nature (I chose to call him "Thor") that used lightning to destroy the statue of Jesus at that church in Ohio.

But, hey Mullins did beat frequent Olbermann whipping boy Glenn Beck.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

How About Putting Piranhas in the Rio Grande?

Republican Congressional candidate Tom Mullins apparently discussed in a recent radio interview the idea of securing the U.S. border with Mexico by placing line mines along the border. However, Mullins apparently is backing away from the concept.

According to a story today in the Associated Press, Mullins he Republican opponent of Rep. Ben Ray Lujan said in a May 18 interview with KNMX radio in Las Vegas, N.M., that "the U.S. could mine the border, install barbed wire and post signs directing would-be border jumpers to cross legally at designated checkpoints."

Mullins told the wire service that "it was a suggestion he'd heard while campaigning."

The link has been updated to a more complete Associated Press story

The Election

Here's how I earned my keep today:

Susana wins GOP governor's primary

Ben Lujan's nail-biter night

Mullins beats Kokesh

The GOP in CD3

My story in The New Mexican on the Republican primary race in the 3rd Congressional District -- Adam Kokesh vs. Tom Mullins -- can be found HERE.

Recently The Politico did a poll of Tea Party participants indicating that there two major factions -- a social-conservative contingent that identifies with Sarah Palin and a libertarian wing that identifies with Ron Paul.

That dynamic seems to be at play here with these candidates in CD3.

3rd CD Campaign Finance Update

Congressional candidate Tom Mullins says he's still having problems getting his report posted on the Federal Election Commission site. But on his Web site he reports raising $ 26,102 in the first quarter, spending $28,399 during that time and having $28,680 in the bank as of March 31.

Mullins' GOP opponent Adam Kokesh reported raising more than $57,000 and spending more than $50,000, which leaves just over $12,000 in the bank.

Democratic incumbent Ben Ray Lujan raised more than $150,000 in the first quarter. He spent more than $61,000 in the last quarter, leaving more than $375,035 cash on hand.

My story about the reports from this morning's paper is HERE

Tired of Polls Yet?

I know I've posted a lot this week, but here's the Public Policy Polling survey of the New Mexico Congressional races.

Her in District 3, incumbent Democrat Rep. Ben Lujan is leading both his GOP rivals, but he's got low approval numbers -- 31 percent positive and 40 percent negative.

According to the PPP blog:

Despite his negative approval numbers Lujan leads both of his Republican opponents by decent margins. It's 42-36 over Tom Mullins and 40-32 over Adam Kokesh. Lujan's approval is in negative territory because Republicans are much more united against him (71%) than Democrats are in their support for him (47%). Independents also disapprove of him by a 22/42 margin, similar to Obama's 35/54 disapproval in the district.

In the other races, Incumbent Martin Heinrich of Albuquerque has a decent lead over Republican newcomer Jon Barela. But down south former Rep. Steve Pearce, the Republican challenger has a two point lead over incumbent Harry Teague. That's pretty much on track with the internal poll the Pearce campaign released this week.

PPP surveyed 400 voters in each Congressional district from February 18th to 20th. The margin of error on each survey is 4.9 percent. PPP is a Democratic firm and uses an automated polling system.

I like this statement on their blog:

Between the Governor's race and the potential for some close House races, it looks to be another interesting year in New Mexico politics.

Here's the poll:

PPP NM Congressional Poll

UPDATE: Tom Jensen of PPP alerted me that there was a typo on the original version. I've deleted that and uploaded the corrected version here.

Kokesh Responds to Mullins

Republican Congressional candidate Adam Kokesh is returning fire over comments his primary rival Tom Mullins of Farmington made on his blog last week. See my original post HERE.)

Mullins, you might recall wrote, "My primary opponent is a war protester and proud of it. I have spoken with many veterans who believe that Adam’s actions dishonor the military and our nation’s military men and women. I agree with their opinion."

In the same post, Mullins described Kokesh as a "rousing orator whose resume reads with a single line item: `war protester' ...",

In a news release Monday, the Kokesh campaign responded:

We believe that Mr. Mullins' insinuation that Adam's service to our country as a Marine in Iraq isn't worth a line on his resume is a slap in the face to all military personnel and veterans. As is posted on our website, Adam enlisted at the age of 17 in the United States Marine Corps, and later volunteered to serve in Iraq with a civil affairs unit in Fallujah. When he returned, he established a group home for OIF/OEF (Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom) veterans, founded peer-to-peer counseling groups for veterans with PTSD, and continues to raise awareness about veterans' issues. He also worked as a graphic designer to pay his way through Grad School. Whatever perspective you may have on our foreign policy, there is no excuse for degrading the sacrifice a veteran has made for our country. It is possible that, because he has never served in the military, Mr. Mullins does not understand the type of commitment and dedication required to volunteer for our armed forces. Still, we believe Mr. Mullins owes an apology not just to Mr. Kokesh, but to all active duty military service members and veterans.

Mullins wrote his post in response to "an undated unsigned letter questioning my commitment to the Constitution of the United States. This letter was being handed out by my primary opponent’s supporters in Farmington."

Kokesh's news release says "Although the campaign does not endorse the letter, there was merit to some of the points raised therein."

Who knew a Republican primary in the heavily Democratic CD3 was going to raise this much heat?

First Shots Fired in CD3 GOP Primary

Republican candidate Tom Mullins of Farmington is taking offence at an unsigned, undated letter he says is being distributed by supporters of his opponent, Adam Kokesh of Santa Fe. The letter,, Mullins says, questions his commitment to the U.S. Constitution.

In a post on his campaign blog yesterday, Mullins fires back at Kokesh:

My primary opponent is a war protester and proud of it. I have spoken with many veterans who believe that Adam’s actions dishonor the military and our nation’s military men and women. I agree with their opinion.

This could get interesting.

Kokesh, a Marine veteran of the Iraq war, indeed has a record of protesting the war.

Whoever wins the GOP primary will face incumbent Democrat Ben Ray Lujan in the general election

Kokesh Has Competition

And I'm not just talking about Ben Ray Lujan.

Tom Mullins, a Farmington engineer and political newcomer just announced he'll be announcing for the 3rd Congressional District Republican Party primary race. Here's the announcement from the state Republican party:

Tom Mullins, will make a formal announcement on Saturday, October 17th, at 9:15 am in the Rotunda at the State Capitol, followed by a kickoff petition signing announcement event at the Farmington Civic Center at 3:30 pm, for U.S. House of Representatives District 3.

Mullins, a political newcomer, a professional engineer, small business owner, resident of Farmington for over 18 years, and father of two, has announced he will join the race as a Republican.

Mullins believes that we are all called to serve our country in different ways and at different times in our lives and is prepared to serve the citizens of New Mexico in the 3rd Congressional District. He looks forward to people sharing their ideas and concerns on how to improve our great nation, to find out more about Tom Mullins, you can visit his website, www.mullinsforcongress.com

It looks like Mullins, especially in foreign policy, may be a more traditional Republican than Kokesh, who is a longtime war protester. (However, Mullins also points out that he's a union member, which isn;t so typical GOP). But Kokesh, who is part of the Ron Paul "Liberty" movement, has already raised a ton of cash from all around the country. Unseating Lujan will be hard in an overwehlming Democratic district, but the Republican primary could turn out to be interesting.