Candidates will say anything in this mean season
It’s been a tough week for Jimbo Williams, a Republican candidate for the state Senate who promised to always tell the truth.
Jimbo falsely claimed his opponent, Democrat Siah Correa Hemphill, was on paid Family Medical Leave from the school district in Silver City when she applied for a part-time job elsewhere.
Of course, Correa Hemphill was on unpaid leave. Everything she did was within the rules, but Jimbo stands to gain votes by misrepresenting her workplace record.
He and the state Republican Party distributed an advertisement calling Correa Hemphill one of those “scam artists” who cheats the public. Jimbo told me he would correct any inaccuracies but hasn’t.
Now Jimbo and the New Mexico Republican Party have sent another campaign mailer built on deception.
The ad states: “Siah Hemphill stands with the radical Sierra Club that wants to abandon the Copper Flats mines and put thousands of our neighbors out of work.”
The mine’s name is Copper Flat, not flats. More important, it has been closed since 1982. Correa Hemphill was 10 years old at the time. Based on Jimbo’s ad, the mine would be one of New Mexico’s bigger employers. His description is as wrong as can be.
Copper Flat employed as many as 237 people for about four months. The mine in Sierra County then closed because of financial losses.
It went online when copper prices had dropped to some of the lowest levels since the Great Depression.
Jimbo’s ad also contains doctored photography. It features a lonely landscape with a sign saying the mine is closed.
“That’s not even a picture of Copper Flat,” Correa Hemphill said.
Another part of Jimbo’s mailer plops a photo of a forlorn, bearded fellow in a hard hat alongside gloomy text: “Don’t let the sun go down on the mining industry. Stop Siah Hemphill.”
Sunshine is a good disinfectant. That’s the point of writing about Jimbo’s ads. They rank
as the least truthful in a mean season of lies and misleading claims.
Jimbo and Correa Hemphill are running in a district that includes parts of Catron, Grant and Socorro counties. It’s an open seat that either candidate could win.
Correa Hemphill ousted Sen. Gabriel Ramos, the incumbent by appointment, in the Democratic primary. Now Ramos is supporting Jimbo, who hopes a rift in the rival party will lift his campaign.
Other candidates also are going public with deceptive or even laughable ads and statements.
Two are the contenders for New Mexico’s open U.S. Senate seat, Democratic Rep. Ben Ray Luján and Republican Mark Ronchetti.
Luján’s pleas for cash have long been a mix of egotism, fiction and scare tactics.
“I told you control of the entire Senate rests on my race,” Luján wrote in a recent solicitation for money. “If I lose this Senate race our once-in-a-lifetime shot to unseat [Mitch] McConnell will be over.”
Luján should have asked for cash to save himself from drowning in hyperbole.
At least eight Senate races across the country are more competitive than the one between Luján and Ronchetti, formerly a television weatherman.
Democrats can still take control of the Senate if Ronchetti upsets Luján. It would be a harder task but possible. And if Luján defeats Ronchetti, Republicans still can hold their advantage.
For a U.S. Senate candidate, Luján is a pretty good carnival barker. He continues to run one of the more condescending campaigns.
As for Ronchetti, he spoke against President Donald Trump until he left his job in television to run for the Senate.
What Ronchetti stands for is impossible to gauge. A contortionist of a campaigner, Ronchetti at least can be good for a laugh.
“This morning, Vice President Biden joined Former President Barack Obama in endorsing my opponent, Nancy Pelosi’s Assistant Speaker of the House Ben Ray Luján,” Ronchetti wrote in a windy solicitation. “Ben Ray now has the full backing of the Democrat Party machine and they are planning on pouring millions of out-of-state dollars into this race so they can buy this Senate seat.”
Did Ronchetti believe Biden was toying with the idea of endorsing New Mexico’s wa±ing Republican? Ronchetti knows these endorsements mean nothing. He has so little to commend they became a talking point.
As for buying a political office, that choice of words provides a built-in excuse for Ronchetti if he loses. He can claim outside forces conspired against him.
Ronchetti is free to rake in donations from Republicans across the country. To land them, all he has to do is prove he’s within striking distance of Luján.
The U.S. Senate candidates aren’t providing much in the way of intellect or inspiration. But they haven’t descended to the bottom, either.
They can thank Jimbo. He’s claimed the guttersnipe level all for himself.
Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.