Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Mostly Oil Money

We ran a good race against special interest money. In the end I just couldn't run the kind of negative ads that my opponent ran. I wouldn't have wanted his wife and children to see something like that, as mine did. Noelle and Bobbi saw the ad for the first time a few days after she had surgery. Noelle had come home to care for Bobbi while I was on the road. They saw it and were so upset they didn't tell me about it for a whole day. Since I wasn't watching TV because I was on the road I didn't really know what he was doing with that oil money that was showered on him.

We put forth progressive ideas for the Land Office that takes into account more than the oil companies desires to drill anywhere and everywhere they want. I am very hopeful that others will pursue those ideas in the legislature. We certainly owe it to the people who will inherit these lands.

So, I will be retired for a while to recuperate from this year long ordeal. Then I will do some consulting to make enough money for Bobbi and I to travel on. That sounds pretty good to us. Bobbi was really great during the campaign and we will travel this week to Puerto Vallarta. Things will look better then after a few margaritas and novels on the beach!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Pat Lyons credits his victory to "running a good, positive campaign." No one in the know on either side of this race believes that. Lyons trailed Baca from the primary to the final weeks of the campaign, when he converted a gusher of industry contributions plus more than 125K in personal funds to finance a pure-negative assault on Baca. Political observers agreed it was Lyons' only chance to win. On the other side, Lyons' had his own vulnerabilities, but Baca's decision not to respond in kind proved fatal, as illustrated by the Attorney General's race. Gary King also faced a negative barrage but responded with his own counterpunches, which stopped that momentum. Baca's desire to stay positive and reluctance to hit back hard may be admirable personally, but likely cost him the election.