Eye Poll: Udall

Last week's unscientific Eye Poll saw Tom Udall take the honors by a solid 14 point margin (read it here). The results are a bit surprising considering what is going on with energy and the lack thereof - a lack that can be directly tied to Tom Udall's votes in congress. Candidate Udall is busy telling the voters that he's for more oil production, but Congressman Udall has a long history of voting to block domestic oil production.

If oil becomes the deciding factor in this race and if Congressman Pearce is able to claim it as his own, Udall will have a hard time selling his new found attitude about drilling.

Over the long holiday weekend, just about everywhere we went the conversation centered on Sarah Palin. It seems that the McCain Campaign caught everyone by surprise with the Alaska Governor's selection for Vice President. So far, we like the choice and respect Governor Palin's fire and tenacity but in our conversations Obama supporters seemed to be absolutely incensed.

By contrast, Joe Biden's selection brought a collective yawn from most people we talked to no matter who they were supporting in the election. We don't really believe that a Vice Presidential Candidate can win an election but they can lose one. Tell us who you think was the better choice in this week's Eye Poll!

Eye Poll - Leaning White

Last week's Eye Poll took up the race for Heather Wilson's vacated seat in the 1st Congressional District between Sheriff Darren White and former City Councilor Martin Heinrich. Sheriff White carried our unscientific Eye Poll by a solid double digit margin of 14 points (57% to 43% read it here).

When considering the 1st CD most people tend to focus on the 2006 election where Heather Wilson held on to beat Pausing Patsy Madrid by some 700 votes. People tend to forget that Congresswoman Wilson traditionally won the 1st CD by a margin of around 10 points. It will be interesting to see whether or not the "Democratic Wave" has started to recede even with the Obama World Tour rolling through the 2008 election.

(Sidebar)
The Anointed One's announcement of Joe Biden as his High Priest leads us to believe that Obama is reluctant to share the spotlight with anyone. Biden may bring foreign policy experience to the ticket but we're not convinced that his conclusions have been accurate. When you consider Biden's penchant for shooting his mouth off - he brings almost no upside and the potential to create scandal and distraction.
(End Sidebar)

With redistricting looming and a Democratically held New Mexico Legislature, you can bet that the 1st CD will be redrawn to lean further to the left. Sheriff White may be the only hope for Republicans to hold the district through redistricting.

This week we'll move on to that other open seat. You know the one where Tom Udall is trying to convince voters that he's really for drilling despite his record of voting to restrict oil exploration at every turn. If Udall wants anyone to believe that he's for drilling as part of a comprehensive energy plan he ought to announce that his past support of radical environmentalists and their belief that any drilling harms the environment was a mistake. (Don't hold your breath on that one.)

It's the New Mexico U.S. Senate race - underdog Steve Pearce vs. Tom Udall. Let's get ready to ruuuuuumble! Don't forget to vote.

It's Udall... For Now

We've always believed that Heather Wilson was better positioned to beat Tom Udall in the general election and that Steve Pearce was more likely to beat Congresswoman Wilson in the primary. That's exactly the position that we find ourselves in today. It's north vs. south in the New Mexico's version of the Civil War.

Actually, civil pretty well describes most of Congressman Udall's races as he's been the ten ton hard to beat gorilla in just about every race. From last week's Eye Poll things don't look too different this time around as he beat out Congressman Pearce by a 25 point margin (read the Eye Poll results here).

The question is can Congressman Pearce introduce us to the far left ideologist that Tom Udall really is or will Udall skate by with yet another cake walk campaign born of name ID and a large war chest. Make no mistake, Mr. Udall believes that government is the rightful arbiter of our freedom - an attitude that will ultimately lead to the absence of our liberty. Ironically, in our version of north vs. south, it's the south fighting for freedom and the north advocating bondage.

Eye Poll: Heinrich

Last week's Eye Poll took a look a the 1st Congressional District. The race is now between Democrat Martin Heinrich and Republican Darren White. In our first unscientific poll 57% preferred Heinrich and 43% preferred White.

In our introduction to this particular Eye Poll, we were criticized for characterizing former City Councilor Heinrich as "far left." We'll stand by that characterization and any objective review of the former councilor's record will support our argument. Mr. Heinrich's record bears out a belief of increased government interference, redistribution of wealth, and government control. The obvious result of his demonstrated philosophy is a transfer of freedom from the people to the government.

This week we'll take a look at the New Mexico U.S. Senate race. Most polls put Democrat Udall far ahead of Republican Pearce. Of course, Pearce just emerged from a hotly contested primary and Udall got a free ride after the Almighty Alcalde withdrew from his second race in almost as many months. In fact, Congressman Udall has pretty much gotten a free ride his entire political career. We'll see what happens to him when he faces a determined opponent for the first time. Don't forget to vote!

Eye Poll: Neck and Neck

After an extended Eye Poll Eye readers are almost evenly split between Heather Wilson -53% and Steve Pearce - 47% in our unscientific poll (See the results here). Our gut feeling tells us that this is a pretty accurate picture of the Republican primary with both candidates running neck and neck.

This week we focus on how you feel about your safety in Albuquerque. APD's manpower levels have and continue to be an issue, but the real problem is our high crime rates. In addition, it's also important to determine public perception because perception often mirrors reality. Don't forget to vote!

Eye Poll: Not that it Matters

Last week's Eye Poll looked at the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate between Tom Udall and Marty (I'm still looking for my next job) Chavez. As everyone knows by now Tom Udall vanquished the Almighty Alcalde faster than the U.S. military deposed Saddam Hussein and with nary a shot fired, but in this week's Eye Poll Marty pulled it out by a single vote - not that it matters.

Of course the now ex-candidate sent out a get out the vote email to his supporters urging them to vote in our little unscientific poll, a fact that we had planned to reveal in this posting but Marty went and dropped out of the race before we could expose his shenanigans.

We're starting to wonder if we're starting to develop an Eye Poll curse similar to the Madden curse or the Chunky soup curse in football. Only time will tell as we take a look at the Republican side of the senate equation this week. Don't forget to vote!

Anybody but Marty

We've been watching with some amusement as the liberal side of the blogosphere has been working itself into a lather over the Almighty Mayor's senatorial campaign. Of course their dreeeam candidate is busy trying to become Hillary's Veeep as he sees his presidential aspirations slipping away (Heath Haussamen).

His Largeness in Santa Fe (or Iowa, or New Hampshire, or Nevada) is seen as a sure thing if he were to jump into the senate race and the SurveyUSA poll conducted for KOB-TV earlier in the month seems to support that idea. However, "progressives" and the blog left aren't taking any chances and have started a Draft Udall campaign that is complete with a Draft Udall website.

Meanwhile Marty and company are busy trying to tout a poll that was supposedly conducted for former CD1 candidate Patricia Madrid by Lake Research. Chavez's people claim that the poll shows Chavez edging out Heather Wilson by 1 point (Democracy for New Mexico).

"Celinda Lake of Lake Research is the Chavez campaign's polling consultant (see our previous post), so even these selective data should be taken with a grain of salt. But the real question is why the complete polling results haven't been released."

- Democracy for New Mexico

For those of you who don't already know Democracy for New Mexico would be considered a little left of Mao and a bastion of "progressive" thought (or lack thereof). More importantly they embrace Democrat candidates as a matter of course.

(Sidebar)
In our opinion the website would be more appropriately named New Mexico for Democrats because democracy and freedom have nothing to do with their positions or the candidates they endorse... but we digress.
(End Sidebar)

The point is this "progressive" website is shall we say, less than enthused about the chief Martycrat running for U.S. Senate, despite (or perhaps because of) his official registration as a Democrat. This is precisely the group that the Almighty Mayor has been wooing with his green city initiatives and his indoctrination... uh, "training" flick "An Inconvenience to Albuquerque (city employees)."

"Unfortunately for Chavez, in recent SurveyUSA polling, Chavez has far less support than either Wilson or Pearce. Largely due to the fact that many progressive Democrats just don't trust the Mayor."

-NMFBIHOP.com

Despite sounding like a cross between federal law enforcement and a breakfast restaurant, NMFBIHOP is another way left of center blog. They too seem to have big problems with Marty and are actively advocating a Udall candidacy.

From what we've read, the issue comes down to trust. Progressive Democrats don't trust that Marty is really one of them and they're afraid (with good reason) that if the mayor of Albuquerque were to prevail in the Democrat primary, he'd turn around and lose to either of the major Republican candidates. Even more troubling for the "progressives" is their suspicion that if Chavez were to somehow win the Senate race, that he'd turn around and ignore them the way he has for most of his time as Mayor of Albuquerque.

Eye Poll: Blowout Heather

In what turned into a blowout, Congresswoman Heather Wilson blew out her competition in this past week's Eye Poll. In our unscientific poll Wilson received 51%, Martin Chavez 29%, and rounding out the poll with 20% is Congressman Steve Pearce (See the results here).

Granted Congressman Pearce has not officially announced and we didn't include the lower tier Democrat candidates, but we were surprised by the 22 point margin tilting Heather's way. It will be interesting to see how events unfold as the Republican candidates head into a primary for Pete's seat.

On the D side, our Eyes tell us that Democrats are putting tremendous pressure on Congressman Tom Udall to take on Marty in their primary. We're also told that His Largeness courteously introduced Mayor Chavez at his first New Mexico presidential rally as the Mayor of Albuquerque; notably omitting Chavez's senate bid even though he's the only major candidate to have announced for the Democrats.

This week we'll take an early look at the 1st Congressional District race. We've included all of the candidates that have committed to the race thus far. Don't forget to vote!