One of the easiest ways to scare one group is to identify an opposing candidate with another group. It's part of defining your opponent. This one's a conservative, a Republican, a developer. That one's a liberal, a Democrat, an environmentalist. The idea is to scare people into voting against someone simply because they're not like the group they identify with. One of the easiest ways to create these divides is to interject race into the discussion.
Of course, no one will admit to using race in a campaign - that would be repugnant, reprehensible, and something only the other campaign would do. But if you can get a surrogate to make race a topic of discussion...
Developer Rob Dickson could be the long-shot to watch.. Although liberal-leaning, as an Anglo candidate Dickson could help Chavez by peeling some NE Heights votes away from Berry.Don't believe for a moment that Monahan's racial mentions are an accident. The Democrat blogger could have easily identified the Northeast Heights as conservative or leaning Republican - which would be more accurate - rather than making his description based on race. Further, the implication is the R's injected race into the discussion.
City Hall watchers are now framing the race this way: Chavez is positioned to get 40% of the vote and avoid a run-off election. However, they see the fly in the ointment as Rep. Berry, but do not see him as the strongest Chavez challenger. They see Berry in the role of spoiler, peeling conservative and Republican votes away from Chavez and boosting Romero, giving him a chance to hold Marty below the magic 40% and forcing a run-off election.
Naturally, the Berry camp and the R's disagree with that analysis saying Berry can consolidate conservative and Anglo votes and force the run-off between him and Chavez, leaving Romero in the dust.
We're not saying that Monahan is being racist. That accusation is being thrown around far too frequently and in our experience it's generally thrown around most often by those who harbor racist views themselves. What we're asserting is that Monahan is using race to support an analysis that is fundamentally flawed and perhaps wishful thinking.
What terrifies Democrats like Monahan is that two strong Democrats facing a single strong Republican will deny the mayor access to the very voters who are responsible for his past victories. If you'll remember, Marty ran his previous campaigns as a business oriented Democrat - a moniker that he has since tried to lose by courting the far left through his "green" initiatives.
Do the math. Even if Democrats manage to garner 60% of the overall vote the odds are pretty good that neither one of the two will reach the magic 40%. Unless of course there's some kind of wild card introduced into the campaign - something to polarize voters and set one group against another.
The Chavez administration has become increasingly overbearing and vindictive. Romero has aligned himself with one of the most liberal activists in the state, Eli Lee. With the growing crime rates, budget deficits, and out of control spending that both candidates are associated with, Berry should easily be able to make a convincing case to conservatives and Blue Dog Democrats that he is the man for the big chair on the 11th floor.
In the meantime look for the two "major" Democrats to attempt to create divisive wildcards that have nothing to do with major issues like red light scam-eras, term limits, crime, and out of control spending. Wildcards that are designed for one purpose and one purpose only... fear.
12 comments:
This is going to be a scary primary in June which is just two months away! Marty has consistently set a tone that prohibits private business from working in Albuquerque. He blew the deal of the battery operated car by going to the press prematurely because he is more interested in getting in his daily
press sound bite which spoiled the talks with the car manufacturer! That was a loss of jobs for the Albuquerque unemployed. The problem with Marty is that because he has held power for so long there really is no accountability.
In 1992, I walked around Marty's State Legislature district when I worked at NMPIRG explaining what term limits are for politicians. Marty agreed to go on campus for a debate sponsored by NMPIRG and said he was for term limits. Marty broke a huge promise in going to court in 2008 asking the Court to get rid of term limits and breaking that promise he made in 1991 at a NMPIRG debate on campus. He told students, faculty and staff at UNM he was for term limits because he saw the potential for corruption when a political person doesn't realize that he/she accumulated too much power which acts as a detriment to the whole. I wonder if I were to walk around Chavez's district reminding voters of that promise he made in 1991 (over 18 years ago) that he agreed to term limits what those voters would say?
In Political Science class at UNM,
I remember a Professor commenting on Manny Aragon's reign of power back in 1991. Years and years later, the result of such unchecked power resulted in bribes, public corruption etc...
It's not always that which gets reported in the media that the public needs to worry about, it's also that which politicians who remain in power for that long do that doesn't get media attention that is to worry about. There are numerous complaints about Marty from 2005 to present that have not received media coverage. It is the deplorable acts taken in court by Marty which should send red flags out to the community! If voters don't vote for Romero in the June primary against his Democratic opposition, Chavez, then the ticket will read, "Chavez vs. Berry." I would rather see the November ballot read, "Romero vs. Berry."
I thought Berry was Hispanic.
Isn't his successful small business one of the largest "Hispanic-owned" receipients of federal construction contracts?
Berry's company received preferential, affirmative action treatment because he told the feds it was minority-owned.
Which is it? Is Berry Hispanic or did he engage in a multi-million dollar lie in order to get his hands on our tax dollars?
You can cry racism as much as you want but NM in general and Albuquerque in particular have a strong history of not only GOP/Dem divides but hispanic/caucasian divides. The mayoral race is in theory non-partisan in any case.
Marty's green initiatives are a total joke and don't fool progressives. Marty self-identifies as a democrat but he's more conservative that most of the republicans he's run against, including but not limited to Brad Winter, Gary Johnson, and Bob Schwartz.
The simple fact of the matter is there are many, many voters in Albuquerque who have no idea about any of the candidates policies and will tend to vote for the person whose last name appears to put them in the same ethnic category as themselves. If there's two names that fall in that category they'll tend to choose the one the recognize better, which is why Marty gets himself on TV and in the newspaper as much as possible.
Republicans in this state seem to think that there's only two political parties but there's actually three: The GOP, the conservative Dems, and the progressive Dems. The NM GOP is so incompetently lead that they even managed to lose the southern congressional district last year. The conservative Dems still control the state legislature and the governorship, but the progressive Dems are now making major inroads.
The red-light cameras are stupid but they're not a major issue, I don't see how anyone could consider them one. Is it really that hard to memorize the few intersections in town that have them and not speed through them?
Term limits were ruled unconstitutional by the New Mexico Supreme Court, so the only way to put them in place would be an amendment to the state Constitution, which the Albuquerque Mayor has no say over.
Basically, two of the four issues you claim are "major" are actually just distractions, or to use your terminology, "wildcards".
Crime is never going to decrease as long as APD's main priority is making sure teenagers/college students don't have a good time instead of actually patrolling for property crime. Of course, if they did that, all those folks up in the Northeast Heights would get pissed that APD is focusing on the parts of town that need their attention instead of making them feel safe in their little gated communities.
I also find it odd that you think Berry can easily convince republicans and conservative democrats to support him without mentioning a single policy position he takes that should make him supportable. If relatively well-known Republicans like Brad Winter and Bob Scwhartz failed to beat Marty what makes you think some complete unknown is going to manage it?
Um, there's no Primary in June. This is a municipal election. There is only one election - and it's non-partisan - in October. Perhaps a runoff if no one gets 40% of the vote. Just FYI
Oh~! Great!!!! That means Marty might be out of there! Yeah! Let's hope!
If you can't get a job in the private sector then get into politics!!!!!
Martin Chavez, Richard Romero and Richard Berry.
So it's the Mayor vs. two Dicks?
Marty Chavez a piece of work. He defies the will of the people that allowed only two terms and goes to court so that he may be crowned king. Have we not learned that executives that have been too long in office become corrupt. This is the same man who had problems at the airport, marital issues!, brought you the red light cameras and puts fear into the leaders of city unions. He is also the same mayor who is forever taking time to get onto TV and in the papers. Interesting how he had very little to say regarding the horrible finding on the west mesa. Time for the mayor to get a real job and off the public coffers.
As city employees we need to give Marty the boot!! We owe it each other--he has done nothing for us, never will.
Let's vote him out!!!! He need to go.
His business is in his wife's name dumbass. She's Hispanic.
You would do the same if you had a brain.
Many businesses take advantage of this benefit. Women owned, hispanic owned, or both.
Then Berry is a liar. He's not a "successful businessman". He's a "successful employee" who just happens to be sleeping with the boss.
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