Money for What?

I am getting a lot of calls for money from prospective candidates. Yesterday County Commissioner Bill McCamley in Dona Ana County called from Las Cruces. He will be running aginst Republican Congressman Steve Pearce in 2008. I will gladly send him some money. I am currently sending money every month to Bill Richardson, (on the budget plan.) And I plan on heavily supporting Martin Heinrich for his run against Heather Wilson for Congress in this Albuquerque District. I will also be helping Lt. Governor Diane Denish and her run for Governor.

Yesterday, I got a chuckle from a fund raising letter I recieved from Mayor Marty Chavez. It was a typical fundraising letter in which he said he needed money and that politicians needed to be honest about the issues with the voters. The two page letter went on and on but it never did mention what Marty was running for, just that he needed money. This morning, in the Albuquerque Journal, Mayor Chavez said he wanted to make Albuquerque City Government more open. That is good. I also think it would be good if he were more open about what he was running for before asking me to send money. I actually might send him some too, but I need to know what he is wants it for.

Marty may not actually know yet which office he will shoot for. In some ways he is just a victim of our money driven campaign system where you have to start raising money as early as possible. Twenty month campaigns will stress us all out. It will fatigue the voters, but probably not as much as the war in Iraq and our poor standing in the eyes of the world.