I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Club for Growth was a big factor in electing Steve Pearce and others around the nation in Republican primaries. In New Mexico, it endorsed Pearce in April. The group aired ads attacking Heather Wilson, Pearce’s opponent in the Republican primary, calling her a “liberal.”
The group’s involvement, Wilson said a month ago, may have cost the Republicans the Senate seat held for so long by Pete Domenici. Domenici, who is retiring due to health reasons, has been one of the most powerful U.S. senators for years.
According to recent polling, the seat looks likely to go to Democrat Tom Udall, Pearce’s opponent and current colleague in the U.S. House.
This is not unique to New Mexico. According to a Politico article on the Club for Growth, the group that touts anti-tax, free-market values (or conservatism in the the Barry Goldwater sense) may be be doing more harm than good for Republicans.
Of the U.S. Senate race, Politico says:
In addition to the three endangered Club for Growth-backed nominees, the group played a key role in funding conservative Rep. Steve Pearce in his New Mexico Senate primary victory against Rep. Heather Wilson. Wilson was viewed as the more electable Republican against Democrat Tom Udall; with Pearce as the nominee, the GOP has written off the seat.
And though an unnamed Republican operative is speaking about two other races, he could have just as easily been speaking about New Mexico’s Senate race.
“These were guys who were backed financially with significant resources, and the club came in and really messed with the dynamics of the district,” said the operative. “And the end result is you get a conservative for a little while, but not for long.”
Of course, in this case, the conservative that Club for Growth backed has not made it into office and looks increasingly unlikely to do so.
Conservative columnists and those at places like The Corner, the blog of the conservative National Review, have said that Republicans have been losing because of not going back to conservative values that brought them to power.
But with the Club for Growth-backed candidates defeating more moderate Republicans, like the type that Wilson portrayed herself to be, the more fiscally conservative members of the Republican Party are, for the most part, running a losing battle against the Democrats this cycle.
And the Club for Growth connection is actually serving as something which the Democrats have criticized and attacked.
Including here in New Mexico.
An Aug. 10 press release from the Udall campaign specifically went after the involvement of the Club for Growth’s efforts on behalf of Steve Pearce.
“The Club for Growth uses unethical campaign tactics to advance a radical, right-wing agenda,” Udall campaign spokeswoman Marissa Padilla said in the release. “They’re willing to do almost anything in order to distort the records and smear the characters of those they don’t agree with, or who don’t agree with George Bush.”
