Female Democrat candidates respond to Reform NM allegations
Posted at: 10/08/2012 7:09 PM
| Updated at: 10/08/2012 7:45 PM
By: Stuart Dyson, KOB Eyewitness News 4
On the campaign trail in New Mexico, Democratic women are lashing back at a political action committee aligned with Republican Gov. Susana Martinez.
It's about political hardball - the kind played by the governor's top political advisor Jay McCleskey and his PAC, Reform NM Now.
Seven Democratic women running for legislative positions gathered in front of Albuquerque's old City Hall building to complain that Reform NM Now has targeted them with negative mailings that are "unfair" and "inaccurate" - a charge Reform NM Now denies.
The PAC accuses them of favoring higher taxes and driver's licenses for illegal immigrants - some of the Governor's top hot-button issues.
"If Jay McCleskey and his PAC, Reform New Mexico, think picking on women is easier, they've got another think coming," said state Sen. Lisa Curtis, running for election after being appointed to a vacant seat after the 2010 election."We will not stand for lying or cheating. Voters deserve issue-oriented discussion."
Republican female candidates, like Monica Youngblood of Albuquerque, say that's exactly what the Reform PAC is delivering.
"It's a distraction that they're trying to pull this other issue up with war on women," said Youngblood, who is running for a newly created state house seat on Albuquerque's Westside. "It really has nothing to do with that. As a female candidate who supports the governor's reforms, that's where the question needs to lie."
The Democratic women complain that Reform NM Now is linking many of them to former Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson, when none of them worked in his administration or served in the legislature during his two terms in office.
So - who's right and who's wrong?
Depends on your point of view, like so many things in this election.
For example, candidate "X" is accused of favoring a tax increase because she favors ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
Democrats say that's not a tax hike - it's ending a tax break. Republicans say no - that's raising taxes.
You be the judge!
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