NM-Sen: Domenici Avoids the Heat; GOP Starts Negative Push Polling

I'm not sure how much retiring NM Sen. Pete Domenici's endorsement would mean in the Repub primary battle between Steve Pearce and Heather Wilson, but he's taking the easy way out and refusing to back either candidate publicly. Instead, he's said he'll work hard for whoever gets the GOP's primary nod on June 3rd.

I guess Domenici may have had enough of controversy and heat given all the negative attention he got for attempting to pressure former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to speed up Dem indictments. Maybe he's content to bask in public neutrality and enjoy the many thanks-for-the-memories tributes he'll be getting if he stays out of the fray until the general election.

By refusing to go on the record for the primary, he won't get caught between the dueling forces of "common sense conservatism" and to-the-right-of-Atila-the-Hun extremism that have been rocking the NM Repub Party for many moons -- and is represented by the Wilson vs. Pearce battle. After all, Domenici himself went from being viewed early on as a moderate Republican to just another Bush clone as his Senate career evolved in later years. Despite being Wilson's long-time mentor, maybe he's now moved into the Club for Growth sector of the GOP that's inhabited by extreme right wingers like Pearce. Stranger things have happened within a Repub Party that's been decimated by plunging public support, weak candidates and falling campaign donations.

"Common Sense Issues" Push Polling Begins
In the meantime, the GOP Swift Boat brigade is already getting active in New Mexico with negative push-polling against Tom Udall, the nominee who's running unopposed in the Dem Senate primary. A Udall campaign email reports:

We've just received some disturbing news from one of our staff - the GOP "Swift Boat" attacks on Tom Udall have begun here in New Mexico. She got an automated "push-poll" phone call from an organization misleadingly calling itself "Common Sense Issues" this weekend. This group has been caught push-polling for Mike Huckabee in Iowa and the firm they used to make those calls has been fined in multiple states for violating the law. Now they're here slinging mud at Tom Udall.

A Newsweek story reports on the connections between the nonprofit "Common Sense Issues" -- whose executive director is Patrick Davis, a former national Republican Party staffer -- and Huckabee's campaign, as well as complaints from Huckabee's rivals about their operations:

Common Sense Issues is a tax-exempt group registered in Delaware whose organizers have acknowledged the use of controversial telephone polling tactics to promote Huckabee's presidential bid—and allegedly to trash the campaigns of the former Arkansas governor's rivals. The nonprofit also helped set up and run Trusthuckabee.com, a Web site that was involved in front-line efforts to recruit and mobilize Huckabee supporters to turn out for the Iowa caucuses.

Rival candidates have criticized Common Sense Issues's tactics, questioning whether the group's ties to the Huckabee campaign are really arms-length—as required by federal law. The Huckabee campaign has distanced itself from Common Sense Issues, renouncing its support and joining his rivals in calling for investigations into the nonprofit's activities.

Pollster.com reported in January that, according to the New York Times, "Common Sense Issues" was responsible for "a million calls to households in South Carolina telling voters, according to one of the calls, that [John] McCain has "voted to use unborn babies in medical research." The word is they're also active in Colorado, push-polling against the Senate campaign of Dem Mark Udall.

The Udall campaign is asking for donations to help fund a response to the push-polling. You know what to do.

Technorati Tags:Tom Udall, Common Sense Issues, push polling, New Mexico, NM-Sen, Mike Huckabee, Pete Domenici, Heather Wilson, Steve Pearce