WINNERSDon Wiv-¯e-it
Most candidates focus on name recognition. In a new TV commercial, Democratic District 3 congressional candidate Don Wiviott is focusing on name pronunciation. It's not "Wi-vee-aught" but actually "Wiv-¯e-it," like "gimme it," campaign spokeswoman Caroline Buerkle explains. Wiviott also is a winner for scoring 30 percent of the delegates at the Democratic Party's pre-primary nominating convention on March 15. He'd been worried he wouldn't make the 20 percent necessary to qualify.
Focus Ink
Each time election season rolls around, a whole cottage industry of campaign-material providers emerge to collect candidate capital. So profitable is the demand, that a couple of months ago Albuquerque-based Focus Ink began running ads for its printing services on Air America (KTRC-1260 AM) in Santa Fe, directly marketed at aspiring politicians. So far, according to owner (and self-identified Democratic activist) Nancy Denker, Focus Ink has scored printing jobs from State Rep. Peter Wirth's State Senate campaign, both Ben Ray Lujan and Don Wiviott's Democratic District 3 Congressional bids and Mark Martinez' Santa Fe County Commission campaign.
Upwardly mobile county commissioners
Back in December, SFR interviewed several local anti-drilling leaders who promised that any county commissioner who didn't try to prevent Tecton Energy from drilling in the Galisteo Basin would feel the pain at the ballot box [
Cover story, Dec. 12: "Mother Frackers"
]. Commissioner Paul Campos is running for the Public Regulatory Commission and Commissioner Harry Montoya is running for Congress; both can rest assured drilling won't be an issue for them. At the end of February, they helped increase the county's three-month drilling moratorium to a full year.
LOSERSThe Wiviott-mobile
When congressional candidate Don Wiviott unveiled his biodiesel campaign van, SFR was immediately enamored. Not only is it green, it also will be local, running off oil from the Flying Tortilla restaurant on Cerrillos Road as soon as the weather warms and the grease decoagulates. However, Wiviott may want to rethink his power source: According to recent news reports, Flying Tortilla is under investigation for five case of salmonella. Of course, Wiviott can just run the van at 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
Electronic muckrakers
The first round of legislative campaign-finance statements were due to the Secretary of State's Office on March 18. While the reports will eventually make it to the SOS's Web site, citizen watchdogs will have just as much trouble digging up useful data as in years past. During the 2008 legislative session, the House approved $176,000 to bring the site into the 21st Century, but the bill died in the Senate. Then again, maybe we're better off: The Association of County Clerks told the Legislative Finance Committee that ES&S, the vendor who would provide the software, has already proved "highly unreliable." (You can research campaign finance at SFR's new site:
.)
To date, Actblue.com, the fundraising powerhouse of the progressive blogosphere, has pulled together just under $300,000 for Rep. Tom Udall's US Senate campaign and just over $180,000 for Martin Heinrich's District 1 House race. Not bad, not bad at all, but how are the Republicans doing with their attempts to build up the GOP netroots? Slatecard.com, the Republican answer to
, has raised $10 for Rep. Heather Wilson's US Senate race and $10 for Darren White's campaign to succeed her in the US House. Not good, not good at all.
