NM-02 Congressional Candidate Bill McCamley: 30,000 Miles and Counting

I thought one of the highlights of Saturday's Democratic Party of New Mexico State Central Committee meeting was the rousing speech of Bill McCamley, who's running for the Dem nomination in New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District. I was one of the SCC members you can hear cheering in the video above and I was wearing his campaign button to boot, even though I live in NM-01 and can't vote for him.

So good to hear someone speak with a passionate, exciting and committed voice that hasn't been muffled by focus groups and talking point memos from high-paid consultants. It was clear that McCamley's message -- and all the high energy he's putting into this race -- come from the heart, from real concern about what's going on in our nation, from a dedication to making genuine change happen by putting it all on the line up close and personal.

Many candidates like to talk about "grassroot campaigning" but this guy really walks the walk (and drives the drive). As he explains in episode 1 of of his campaign video diary above, McCamley has put more than 30,000 miles on his car since April, when he entered the race to take on Repub incumbent Rep. Steve Pearce before Pearce decided to run for Senate.

NM-02 is the size of Pennsylvania and McCamley describes how he's constantly on the move, on a mission to visit every county and travel to every corner of the district to connect with voters and then reconnect.

No, McCamley's videos aren't perfectly modulated, professionally edited campaign pieces. However, I think it's clear that, more than ever, voters this election cycle are bored to death by the kind of conventional, professionally bland, overly polished pablum produced by the same old same old "media consultants" with a cookie cutter mentality. It's not so much the quality of the video production that matters -- it's the quality of the message and the sincerity of the candidate that are critical this time around.

McCamley's campaign has raised more than $200,000 so far, with more than $33,000 of that raised online via Act Blue. You can donate to keep it going no matter where you live. I did. .

Check out all of McCamley's current and future campaign videos on his watchbill channel on YouTube.

To read our previous coverage of the 2008 NM-02 Congressional race, visit our archive.