As Campaign Hits Final Stretch, Candidates Take Aim at Different Targets

2nd District Campaign Hits the Final Stretch

It has truly been a tale of differing approaches in the hotly-contested race for the Democratic nomination in New Mexico's Second Congressional District.

While Dona Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley came out as a young, impassioned voice of progressive change for Southern New Mexico, his campaign has since become an all-out battering ram of his opponent, businessman and former Lea County Commissioner Harry Teague.

McCamley got into the race to bring change to Washington and inspire 2nd District voters that they could and should expect more of an empowered stance in terms of relations with their elected officials. He gave voice to the powerful idea of constituent buy-in, which, after six years of current Representative Steve Pearce's unyielding support for the quagmire in Iraq and tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, of whom Southern New Mexicans represent less than a sliver, came as a welcome notion.

However, as the race has progressed, and Teague, despite suffering a 12-point setback to McCamley at the Democratic Party pre-primary convention in March, has shifted his focus from the real issues effecting voters and turned his sights on making Teague out to be an out-of-touch elitist bearing strong resemblance to President Bush, a suggestion whose invalidity is only outdone by its desperation.

Where, indeed, has the lively, positive air of candidate McCamley gone? We've lost the progressive warrior who dedicated himself to the rules that say young candidates don't win. As a young political activist myself, I found McCamley's audacity in running for such a significant position inspiring. However, I've become less inspired in recent weeks, as he's taken aim at Teague, betraying his initial loyalty to positivism and the progressive ideal.

Good candidates win on their own merits, not lacking merits of their opponents. Harry Teague understands this, and his campaign reflects it. Note, for examples, all of Teague's T.V. spots. Open his website, and you're taken to spots on things like education, leadership, change, and results: in other words, all the things voters care about most in this election.

Visiting McCamley's homepage, yields a different result, however, as browsers see a barrage of assaults against Teague's well-financed campaign and ties to the oil and gas industry. More recently, the McCamley campaign released a mailer connecting Teague to President Bush and being in cahoots with oil executive in an effort to sap every last dime out of the pockets of hard-working Americans. Moreover, so outlandish were his claims, that they suggested Teague actually put New Mexicans' drinking water at risk by siding with 'big oil'.

These are the type of regressive, slanderous attacks to which progressive Democrats have become accustomed in watching unscrupulous Republican after unscrupulous Republican lay in to more noble-minded opponents from the left. They are not, however, the message we expect to be levied by a candidate purportedly waging a progressive campaign to take the 2nd district in an opposite direction. I'd like to see McCamley pay much more attention to the bread and butter issues from and am decidedly disappointed that I've not.

Sure, it's not exactly settling for me, as a progressive Democrat, that Teague made a fortune by working in an industry that continues to feed the very gas-guzzling that is a drain on middle-class budgets, not to mention the well-being of our environment. However, Harry Teague has been equally as vociferious in stating his support for government and private investment in alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar, and has pledged that in Congress he'd fight tooth-and-nail to make New Mexico the leader on both fronts. That's the kind of straight, results-oriented talk voters are interested in.

Harry Teague is a wealthy, an oil man, and has, in the past, contributed to Republican candidates. However, he also dropped out of high school to work in the oil fields of Eastern New Mexico to make less than $2 per hour and provide his father with the health care on which his life depended. He's a person whose personally fitted the bill for college tuition bills of the scores of New Mexicans with whom he's provided meaningful, well-paying, and secure employment. He's a guy who will reach out to Democrats and Republicans alike on the Hill to provide Southern New Mexicans with the type of real results they so pressingly need and deserve.

While McCamley continues to harp on all that is wrong in our country, and, I agree, there's plenty to talk about, Teague has targeted his efforts on talking about how we can fix it. As a progressive, that's the horse I'd back on Election Day.