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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

N.M. Delegation Under Pressure To Make Sure State Goes Blue

By Jeff Jones
Journal Politics Writer
          DENVER — New Mexico Democrats: The heat is on.
        On Day One of the Democratic National Convention, the message to New Mexico's 38 delegates was as clear as the blue sky over the Front Range: Do something you couldn't get done in 2004 — and win battleground New Mexico for Barack Obama.
        "We are counting on you, New Mexico. ... We need you, New Mexico," Donna Brazile, a national Democratic heavy hitter who managed Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, exhorted the New Mexicans at their breakfast meeting Monday.
        "Your state — New Mexico — is absolutely key," Federico Peña, a former Denver mayor, energy and transportation secretary and a co-chairman of Obama's presidential campaign, said during his own speech to the group. "I pray those of you in New Mexico do everything you can to deliver the state of New Mexico — and we'll take care of Colorado."
        Top state politicos, including Gov. Bill Richardson and state party Chairman Brian Colón, acknowledged the palpable political pressure. But several of them insisted they're better positioned and better prepared than they were in 2004, when George Bush beat John Kerry by about 6,000 votes in New Mexico on his way to winning a second term.
        "If we don't deliver, everyone's going to know it. ... Barack Obama sees the crossroads right in New Mexico," Colón said, adding that hundreds of his party's faithful have reminded him of that since he arrived in Denver late last week.
        "John Kerry several times let me know that he was unhappy that we didn't win New Mexico," Richardson said of the 2004 presidential battle during an interview with the Journal after arriving here Monday afternoon.
        "We tried everything," he said, but the Republicans "snuck by us."
        Richardson said that this time around, he expects to focus more of his campaigning time for Obama out West.
        "I was everywhere for Kerry. But I will spend more of my time in New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada," Richardson said. "The Obama campaign has pushed me very hard very recently to concentrate on those three states."
        Richardson added, "We are going to spend a lot of time on the Navajo reservation. Even in moderate areas: We're going to contest Otero County and Curry County. We won't win there — but we will try to be competitive."
        And with just over two months to go until Election Day on Nov. 4, "We have never had the kind of investment the Barack Obama campaign has had in New Mexico," Colón said.
        Republicans, meanwhile, also are tooling up in hopes of keeping New Mexico in the red-state column come November.
        During a Journal telephone interview Monday, state GOP Chairman Allen Weh flat-out predicted another Republican presidential victory in New Mexico this fall and said he expects Republican John McCain to win by a larger margin that Bush did in 2004.
        "New Mexicans are going to peel back the candidates on where they stand and what they've done," Weh said.
        "There's no question they're putting a lot of folks on the ground," Weh said of the Democratic Party's efforts in New Mexico. "We will have a ground game to compete."
        It would be tough to overestimate the importance the Obama campaign is placing on New Mexico this time around. Although the state has just five electoral votes, campaign manager David Plouffe, during a Monday briefing with media members from battleground states, mentioned New Mexico frequently in the campaign's political mathematics to rack up the necessary 270 electoral votes needed for victory.
        "Here's our battleground," Plouffe said, flashing up a giant picture of the United States on a large screen inside a conference room in the Colorado Convention Center. Sitting near the middle, shaded in purple, was New Mexico.
        Plouffe maintained that internal campaign polling shows Obama with a lead in New Mexico, both in overall support and support among pivotal Hispanic voters.
        "We're doing very well in New Mexico right now — we have a big lead," Plouffe said.