The Piercing Truth

This is right from the dictionary and seems to describe Albuquerque, Berry and Schultz. Fascism (f ash ,izem) noun An authoritarian right wing system of government and/or social organization. (in general use) extreme right wing, authoritarian, chauvinistic and/or intolerant views or practices. Fascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one group over another, national, ethnic, especially social strata or monetarily; a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach. Compliments of one of our Eyes

Nov 7, 2007

Eye on the Grapevine: Marty for Congress?

We all know how the grapevine works - put something in one end and something totally different comes out the other. With that little acknowledgement out of the way here it is... the grapevine is abuzz with a rumor that the Almighty One of the 11th floor after announcing he's going to run for U.S. Senate, which was after "exploring" the idea of running for Governor, has decided instead to run for Congress.

Yeah, that was our reaction too. We couldn't believe that anyone would try to run for more than two different offices before either election and before his current term was over. Seems crazy no? This has got to be another goofy rumor cooked up by some crackpot prankster.

Then we started to think about it... Marty's Senate bid thus far can only be characterized as a disaster.
  • His announcement at Eclipse Aviation is followed almost immediately by Eclipse's own announcement of layoffs (ABQ Journal - Subscription).
  • Marty announces his finance committee members only to have two of them deny all or part of his the announcement (read it here).
  • Marty attends Big Bill's presidential rally to collect signatures and hang out with progressive Ds, only to be dissed by His Largeness who introduces the first top tier Democrat candidate for U.S. Senate as the MAYOR of Albuquerque.
  • Marty's attempt to woo progressive bloggers over the phone falls decidedly flat (read it here and here).
  • Tom Udall starts teasing Democrats with a Senate run (ABQ Journal - Subscription).
  • Big Bill tells donors to "keep their powder dry" (read it here).
  • Progressives start a draft Udall campaign complete with a website.
The only good news was that a new SurveyUSA poll had Marty beating both Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce. The problem... the same company had Marty trailing both Wilson and Pearce just two weeks earlier. The wild swing in numbers had most observers discounting its accuracy before they even announced the results (read it here).

Needless to say the Marty for Senate folks already have a HUGE problem on their hands; the most obvious being Marty seems to be the candidate that even his own party doesn't want (read our take here). In our opinion, if any other well known Democrat decided to take on the Almighty Mayor the Ds would embrace them with something akin to a religious fervor.

So... What's an ambitious mayor to do? The answer and the thing that makes this rumor seem at least somewhat plausible, is to run for the House of Representatives. Right now, there are no top tier Ds running; the closest is City Councilor Martin Heinrich. The 1st Congressional District is dominated by Albuquerque; a city that has elected His Honor not once, not twice, but three times. And like the Senate, the House seat is being vacated and is therefore an "open seat" with only a Republican to beat (at least for now - Marty does seem to draw a crowd of Democratic opponents).

If the Almighty One does decide to jump ship again we see nothing but troubled waters ahead. Even though the prospect of facing only second tier Democrats may make the waters seem inviting, the very fact that his Senate bid has run into nothing but trouble with Ds coupled with the jump to yet a third prospective office won't do anything to help Marty's credibility (or fundraising efforts). He might even end up being considered a second or third tier candidate by the time the whole affair's over - especially if he loses in the primary to a single-term City Councilor.

Our advice to the Napoleon of the 11th floor (not that he'd listen to us) is to keep this rumor a rumor and if it's a trial balloon... pop it. For good or ill, the race for Senate is your last stop on this political merry-go-round and would certainly spell the end of your political future if you try to make the jump to the House race and fail.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

If so.. my vote is for Heinrich!

Anonymous said...

Marty will kick Darren's a$%^. But I will also vote for Heinrich.

Anonymous said...

Well put 'EYE'. As a Democrat who once supported this mayor,the gig is up. He has more enemies in his own party than he does in the State House of Representatives.
Given a choice, the Dems will surely choose Lucifer, as long as he has a 'D' behind his name. So with Tom Udall in, Marty's done, through, Finito.
And with that, "The best has yet to come"
The end of this Marty & Company dynasty will be a breathe of fresh air to Albuquerque, and the State of New Mexico.

Anonymous said...

Marty won't run against Darren.
They have an agreement.

Anonymous said...

YES!!!!
Two up. We've had enough of the State of Mexico. Lets get back to
the State of NEW Mexico. Marty needs to vacate and take GP, RS, BB & BP with him.

Anonymous said...

Bravo.
Preferrably on a fast sled to hell.

Anonymous said...

I'll vote for Darren and his side kick Ray. YEA right..LOL.

Anonymous said...

Governor, Congress, Senate. Like musical chairs. Sit down before all he chairs are taken. Udall's seat is open.

Anonymous said...

I realize that this is merely speculation on an unsubstanciated rumor, but.....

Marty had better not take too much solice in the thought that he's won the office of Mayor 3 times. At least one of those wins was a bare plurality (31%) in a multi-candidate race where the next closest candidate had around 29%. It still meant that 2/3rds of the voters, voted for someone other than he.

Furthermore, I'm fairly certain that his "scam-eras", water-use fines, turing ABQ into a defacto "sanctuary city", smoking-in-public ordinances, and other little nicks to the liberties (and wallets) of the citizenry will engender some back-lash against the Almighty Alcalde of Albuquerque, particularly in light of the rise in REAL crime during his watch.

Surely any Republican candidate (or his campaign manager) with an IQ over room temperature could make some political hay with that kind of baggage. So here is one person who hopes that the rumor is true, cuz unlike the previous posters, I think Marty would get his head handed to him....and it couldn't happen to a more deserving fellow!!

Anonymous said...

Should Marty ever gain higher office I submit that we will all wake up the next morning like that scene in "planet of the apes" where Charlton Heston wakes up on the beach and realizes that the apes are riding the horse.

Anonymous said...

Marty Chavez has my vote, my full support, my shoe leather and my cash contributions! I think he is an excellent Mayor & will be an even better Senator for NM.

Anonymous said...

Previous post:

You keep saying that.

So far, that makes one.

Hope you've got that saved in a notepad file so you can just paste it over and over.

I don't know the Mayor and he may just be the best guy in the world, I used to like him. But now I get the impression (fair or not) that he's not genuine. I catch far too many whiffs of the stench of impropriety emanating from his eminence.

I'm tired of his name on freakin' everything in town. I'm tired of the city's TV commercial spots turned into mini-PR ops.
I'm tired of his staged sound bites on the news.
I'm tired of his golly-gosh-darn big-toe-in-the-sand routine.

Jeez, it's ugly when I imagine the guy as a US Senator. Take a sec to imagine it and just listen to the sound of his pockets being lined.

Wow, Marty's PR flacks, are you reading this? As I try to put my impressions into words, it's even worse than I thought.

Thank goodness that Udall and Wilson are running.

Oh, BTW, here's how things will play out: Udall in Senate.

Marty vs. Heather for guv.

Our next guv: Heather

As for me, it's as simple as ABC-
Anybody But Chavez (except Pearce, of course).

Anonymous said...

I hate Mayor Chavez putting the letter Q on everything! That really bugs me! We're supposed to be the Duke city. Let's keep it that way.

Anonymous said...

Marty Chavez has my vote, my full support, my shoe leather and my cash contributions! I think he is an excellent Mayor & will be an even better Senator for NM.

P.S. I love the Q