Last night blogging seemed to make another evolutionary leap when KRQE's Dick Knifing reported that Blogger, Joe Monahan, reported on his website that Democrats are considering redistricting CD 1 to beat Heather Wilson, after Madrid lost by less than 1000 votes in November.
While I am a supporter of independent media and believe that Monahan is almost as much of an institution as Knifing, it's none the less disturbing that Knifing chose to cite Monahan as the source of the information despite the fact that Monahan doesn't cite the source of his information.
Being that Monahan is a blogger, I don't think it's a big deal that he didn't disclose the source of his information. However, when Television news anchors report on the same story, I do expect more thorough reporting, such as a first hand source.
That said, I don't doubt the veracity of Monahan's report that Dems are looking for an alternative route to defeating Heather Wilson in 2008. In this case, Dems in CD 1 would be following the path first blazed by Tom Delay and the Texas legislature, in seeking a mid-decade redistricting.
Interestingly, yesterday was also the deadline for candidates seeking a recount to file with the Secretary of State. Given that no request for a recount was filed with the Secretary of State's office, it would appear that all that huffing and puffing from the DPNM about requesting a recount after Madrid conceded the race seems to have been a lot of hot air. (nytimes even.)
Why the party didn't demand the recount is anybody's guess. I say they didn't because they couldn't. Madrid conceded so they had no candidate to file the recount, hence no recount, hence, thanks a lot Patricia.
My gripe here isn't about Democrats losing to Wilson...again. That's a separate gripe. Instead, I'm bothered by the fact that we somehow passed an election reform law that provided us a paper trail but prohibits us from following it.
We spent $20 plus million dollars so that we could have a system in place where the accuracy of the machine count could be independently verified. But because of the law and because of political careerists, we won't be able to verify the accuracy of the machine count until after the general election in 2008.
It's really kind of mind-numbing that Democratic leaders in the state would walk away from this experience and the first thing that they'd think to do is gerrymander the district.
The inference is that if Patsy couldn't win, then who could?
I don't know about you, but I find that a pretty insulting question. The campaign's over, guys. You can stop bullshitting us. That is unless you're already working on her next campaign.
John J. Miller on Senate 2008 on National Review Online:
NEW MEXICO: Republican senator Pete Domenici is probably safe if he runs, which he has signaled that he will do. If he changes his mind, however, Democrats will see this as a good pickup opportunity. They’ll probably want a better candidate than attorney general Patricia Madrid, who has just come off a losing race against Rep. Heather Wilson but who nevertheless harbors political ambitions. Wilson herself could be a contender if Domenici leaves the scene.
