Teague Campaign encouraged by new poll numbers, and Haussamen misses a beat

Harry Teague's campaign for the Democratic nomination in CD-2 glowed today as it reported recent polling numbers, which had it beating rival Bill McCamley by a margin of 36-14%, with 50% of voters undecided. Teague, a former Lea County Commissioner, has enacted a grassroots campaign committed to connecting with voters on an extremely personal level. In fact, the Teague campaign reports that the candidate himself has chalked up nearly as many miles traveling the district to talk to voters over the past month as McCamley has during the entire year of 2008. This blog anxiously awaits a rebuttal by McCamley backers.

Also, as he was hammering GOP CD-2 candidate and restauranteur Ed Tinsley for going negative in campaign mailers referring to well-funded primary opponents Monty Newman and Aubrey Dunn, Jr., New Mexico political blogger Heath Haussamen, perhaps unknowingly, offered steep criticism of his friend Bill McCamley, who as previously mentioned is also running for the seat in CD-2 on the Democratic side. On a Friday post, Haussamen states:

"There's a fine line between disagreeing on issues and negative attacking. Though the news release about Newman might not have crossed the threshold, the mailer about Dunn certainly did. With all due respect, campaign contributions and party affiliation aren't policy issues. Neither is whether someone sided with liberal Democrats. Talking about why Dunn's stance on the Patriot Act is wrong would be an issue-based discussion."

Interestingly, Haussamen failed to mention the recent smattering of personal, non-issue-based attacks recently leveled by McCamley against Teague, in which he's accused his opponent of being an elitist, out-of-touch oil executive. Nevermind the fact that even a cursory examination of Teague's policy stances reveal that his positions are as, if not more, progressive than those of McCamley- Haussamen's ripping comments about Tinsley's negative tactics also ignore the fact they could just as accurately been made toward his friend and candidate of choice in the CD-2 Democratic race.

It is true that Harry Teague made a great deal of money in the oil industry and has used a significant portion of that money to finance his own campaign. However, this reality has little to do with the issues and stance Harry Teague has chosen to promote in his campaign for Congress. Indeed, when Haussamen talks about the need for candidates to stick to the issues in their back-and-forth, his commentary is spot-on. However, he can't have it both ways, at once insisting that candidates keep it clean and remain silent on the barrage of body blows his friend Bill McCamley has levied toward Harry Teague.

Heath, you're a talented, well-intentioned progressive. But let's keep our commentary on CD-2 balanced and honest.