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.
A poll conducted Tuesday night for blogger and veteran political analyst Joe Monahan shows Democrat Martin Heinrich retaining his lead over Republican Darren White in the battle for New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District — and above the key 50 percent mark.
The automated phone poll of 772 likely voters in Bernalillo County — which constitutes most but not all of CD1 — gave Heinrich 52 percent to White’s 41 percent, with 7 percent undecided. The margin of error was 3.65 percent, according to the Albuquerque firm that did the polling, Positive Contacts Consulting.
The poll mirrors others that have shown Heinrich, a one-term Albuquerque city councilor, with a slim lead over the better-known and popular White, the state’s former secretary of public safety and now sheriff of Bernalillo County. One early poll had Heinrich over the 50 percent mark, but with White just outside the margin of error. More recently, The Albuquerque Journal had Heinrich leading White by 2 percentage points, 43 to 41, but with 16 percent still undecided.
White went into the race with expectations by many of an easy victory. He had won re-election as sheriff with more than 60 percent of the vote in 2006 and had the early blessing of GOP leaders, including Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson. So far, however, the Republican candidate has lagged in the polls, perhaps dragged down by his longstanding support of President Bush.
A key to Heinrich’s success to date, the Monahan poll suggests, is the popularity of Sen. Barack Obama in Bernalillo County. Tuesday’s poll shows Obama with 55 percent to Sen. John McCain’s 37 percent, with 7 percent still undecided.
The CD1 poll suggests that White’s TV advertising has not worked particularly well against Heinrich. The ads have painted Heinrich as a liberal who has misled Albuquerque voters in the past and who can’t be trusted now. Heinrich’s ads have centered largely on White’s associations with Bush — White was the Bernalillo County chairman of the Bush-Cheney re-election bid in 2004 — and for problems White had as the state’s top cop.
But the race is far from over. Between the margin of error, the number of undecided voters in Bernalillo County and the several thousand voters in rural Santa Fe, Torrance, Valencia and Sandoval counties that are part of CD1, White could pull off a victory much like Wilson did over Democrat Patricia Madrid in 2006. Wilson was behind in the polls but won with some 800 votes to spare.
The two candidates will have the opportunity to sway voters all this week as they finally appear together in live televised debates. The first is tonight at 7 p.m. on KOB-TV (Channel 4), followed at 7 p.m. Thursday with a live debate hosted by New Mexico First and broadcast by KNME-TV (Channel 5). The candidates meet again at 9:30 a.m. Sunday at Congregation Albert, 3800 Louisiana Blvd. N.E., in a non-televised event. That afternoon at 4 p.m., KOAT-TV (Channel 7) hosts the last of the televised debates.
