\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Evidence of a hotly contested primary election, scheduled for Tuesday, abounds. One merely needs to drive down certain streets in town to see the competition.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 With only minor exceptions, local campaigns appear to be clean. In Santa Fe, however, candidates are accusing one another of removing or damaging the opposition’s signs. And in Rio Arriba County, a county employee was arrested after three elections signs were allegedly found at his house. He told police he had no idea how they got there.<\/p>\n
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Probably the most plentiful political posters, which populate patios, porches and fence posts, support Matt Sandoval, long-time district attorney, who’s seeking another term. Richard D. Flores, son of former district attorney and district judge Benny Flores, hopes to unseat the incumbent. And the competition, as far as posters is concerned, is fierce. Sandoval’s signs clearly outnumber those of the challenger. Most striking are two residences on Palo Verde, where it meets Cinder Road. One wooden fence displays a sign supporting Flores; directly across the street, on a similar wooden fence, a sign for Sandoval appears, in perfect symmetry. As both are corner lots, their signs face each other as well as Cinder Road.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Drive up Palo Verde (but remember, the world’s biggest speed bumps are on that block-long street), and count the signs. Then go through Legion Drive for another view of the San Miguel version of Battle of the Poster Placers. It appears to be an expensive campaign, at least for Sandoval. How much does a 5\/8-inch sheet of plywood cost?
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 To be sure, there are posters for Mark Guerin, incumbent county treasurer, and his challenger, Alfonso Ortiz. Both men have city council and county treasurer experience, so it should be a good race.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 There are a number of contested races for county commission, as well as a smattering of other types of races. So far, candidates appear to respect one another’s signs and turf.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Only a couple of weeks ago, however, the Optic published a photo showing a sign for Rep. Benjie Regensberg, which had had his picture removed. The newspaper photo showed only space where the picture used to be.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The reportorial staff at the Optic discussed the ramifications of running the photo showing the cannibalized sign. Clearly it is news, but this kind of photo may very well have helped bring even more recognition to the incumbent representative.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 One of us opined on the many possibilities such vandalism of the sign could reap. Let’s say, for example, that instead of plastering a photo back on the sign, the representative kept the sign where it was and posed behind it. Now stay with me: Regensberg could, for example, wait until traffic passed by State Road 518, between Las Vegas and Mora. He could remain framed in that open rectangle, and as motorists drive by, wave to them.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 For sure, people would do a double-take. One can imagine the driver saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Is it just my imagination, or did Benjie’s picture move?” The passenger would answer, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I saw the same thing, and neither of us has had a drop to drink.” They they could circle back, shake hands with Regensberg, and drive home to tell their families all about it.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Such a practice would be a low-tech version of signs that animate according to traffic flow. In some big cities, you could swear a billboard came to life because the bikini-clad model advertising suntan lotion waved to you. In big cities, signs have motion-detecting sensors which tell the sign when to come to life.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 In (the other) Las Vegas animated signs are so prevalent that anything that doesn’t move draws attention.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Regensberg’s opponent, Hector Balderas, is an articulate recent law school graduate from Wagon Mound. New to politics, Balderas would like an opportunity to represent this area in the legislature. However, his political posters aren’t as plentiful as Regensberg’s
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Alfred Nelson represented this area in the senate in the early O80s. Justifiably upset by having his signs vandalized, he pondered a solution. Several of his signs became victim of spray-painting over his picture. So how did the former Las Vegas mayor and former Highlands regent handle it? He simply spray-painted his own lapel pin, which he always wore in public. People seeing the obscured face on the button likely remarked, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You know, I recognized your face right away. It looks just like some of your signs.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Evidence of a hotly contested primary election, scheduled for Tuesday, abounds. One merely needs to drive down certain streets in town to see the competition. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 With only minor exceptions, local campaigns appear to be clean. In Santa Fe, however, candidates are accusing one another of removing or damaging the opposition’s signs. And in Rio […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}