BUCKLE UP: IT’S GETTING NASTY
Republican Party tweet comparing Lujan Grisham to Nixon latest signal of contentious final stretch of campaign
New Mexico viewers struck by the combative tone of the televised gubernatorial debate Tuesday night likely can expect more of the same over the final three weeks as the race to succeed term-limited Gov. Susana Martinez has accelerated this week in intensity — and nastiness.
The state Republican Party posted a tweet mocking Michelle Lujan Grisham’s makeup during the Tuesday forum, likening her appearance to Richard Nixon’s infamously sweaty debate performance in 1960.
The party on Wednesday went further, accusing Democrats of faking outrage over the tweet.
The Lujan Grisham campaign angrily demanded an apology from the party — and from Republican candidate Steve Pearce by extension.
“Steve Pearce’s failure to condemn the New Mexico GOP’s pattern of sexist attacks against Michelle Lujan Grisham is incredibly disrespectful,” Kier StraderMonaghan, the campaign’s digital director, said in a statement.
The party deleted the tweet Wednesday morning, but state party Chairman Ryan Cangiolosi pointedly did not apologize.
Instead, he framed the deletion as an opportunity for Lujan Grisham to answer “the accusations of corruption against her.”
“Her campaign feigned outrage at a tweet about those accusations as a way to divert attention from her corrupt Delta Consulting government contracts,” Cangiolosi said in a statement. “Now that the tweet is down, they no longer have an excuse to avoid answering questions about her corruption.”
Delta, the firm Lujan Grisham co-founded that provides office and executive director services for the state’s high-risk insurance pool, has been a lodestar for Republican attacks on the Democratic congresswoman. Lujan Grisham, who divested from Delta last year, has consistently said there was nothing untoward about the company’s work with the high-risk pool. The state insurance superintendent has said the contracts were won by Delta through competitive bidding processes.
Victor Reyes, a deputy Lujan Grisham campaign manager, responded on Twitter: “We shouldn’t be surprised that [Cangiolosi] who remains silent about a candidate who says wives should ‘voluntarily submit’to [sic] their husbands would again remain silent about blatant sexism.”
The “voluntarily submit” comment appeared in Pearce’s 2013 memoir, Just Fly the Plane, Stupid!
“The wife is to voluntarily submit, just as the husband is to lovingly lead and sacrifice,” Pearce wrote in a chapter exploring how “Christian principles” should guide a marital relationship.
The comment was highlighted in a new Lujan Grisham advertisement released Wednesday. The 30-second spot directly ties Pearce to President Donald Trump, arguing both have disrespected women.
“Like Trump, he lies,” the ad states.
At least one New Mexico Republican agreed that the state party should step back from its tweet.
“I’m a proud Republican in our state and a Pearce supporter. This goes over the line,” tweeted Commissioner Jay Block of Sandoval County. “Please apologize to Ms. Lujan Grisham. We and the other side don’t need to cross the line on appearances. Stick to policy differences please.”
The dust-up over the tweet reflected a tonal shift in the gubernatorial contest as Pearce has sought to trim his polling deficit with a series of advertisements hammering at Lujan Grisham’s record, repeatedly accusing her of representing a return to the “cronyism” and “corruption” he says marked the administration of former Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson.
That line of attack was amplified in a new advertisement Wednesday from the Republican Governors Association, which spliced unflattering images of Lujan Grisham alongside sick patients in hospitals and rehashed the Delta attacks.
“New Mexico doesn’t want another scandal-tainted administration like Richardson’s,” the ad’s narrator says.
The Lujan Grisham campaign has bristled in response, firing back that the “baseless” barbs from Pearce and the Republicans reveal a lack of ideas.
“He’s working desperately to win this election by lobbing these allegations,” Lujan Grisham said from the debate stage Tuesday. “… He has spent his entire campaign and the debate tonight attacking me instead of having solid solutions.”