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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

McCain Coming to N.M. Monday

By Jeff Jones
Journal Politics Writer
    Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain will make his first campaign stop in New Mexico next week as he gears up for the fall election, his campaign said Tuesday.
    The U.S. senator from Arizona— who served as a Navy pilot during the Vietnam War and spent 51/2 years as a prisoner of war there— plans to speak Monday morning at an open-to-the-public Memorial Day veterans' tribute in Albuquerque, said campaign spokesman Jeff Sadosky.
    McCain's stop will kick off the beginning of a busy week in New Mexico politics: President Bush is expected to be in the Albuquerque area Tuesday for a fundraiser for GOP 1st Congressional District candidate Darren White, and Republican U.S. Senate primary candidates Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce are to square off Tuesday evening in a KOAT-TV Channel 7 debate co-sponsored by the Journal.
    In addition, Michelle Obama— the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama— also will be in New Mexico on Tuesday for a pair of fundraisers in Albuquerque and Santa Fe to benefit her husband's front-running campaign, according to The Associated Press.
    "New Mexico is a state that is going to play a large role in this election," Sadosky said of the presidential race.
    He added that the state has a large number of veterans and said McCain's Memorial Day trip is "a great chance to say 'thank you'— and honor those who have served."
    The public veterans' tribute will take place from 10 a.m. to noon Monday at the New Mexico Veterans' Memorial, 1100 Louisiana SE.
    McCain also will take part in another Albuquerque-area event that day, Sadosky said, but details concerning it weren't released Tuesday.
    McCain clearly considers New Mexico a key part of his campaign strategy, and Monday's visit will likely be the first of many: The battleground state has a recent history of close presidential tallies, and McCain in late March chose New Mexico as the first state in which to air his initial raft of political TV ads.
    News of the upcoming McCain visit came as Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson and the McCain camp exchanged verbal shots over Cuba.
    While McCain has been critical of Barack Obama for his willingness to meet with Cuban President Raul Castro, Richardson— who has endorsed Obama— came to Obama's defense.
    "John McCain— like George Bush— is afraid to talk to bad guys," Richardson said in a Tuesday statement from the Obama campaign. "He feels safer pretending to talk tough by hiding from them. ... This is the Bush-McCain foreign policy that has failed all over the world, and it has failed to promote change in Cuba."
    McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds called Richardson's claim "preposterous."
    "Gov. Richardson has had tea with a few of (the) world's worst dictators," Bounds said in a written statement, referring to Richardson's experience as a diplomatic troubleshooter. "John McCain has not only talked tough but been tough in encounters with more bad guys than Bill Richardson will ever meet."