It’s been a week since reporter Daniel Chacon of The Santa Fe New Mexican published what may be the greatest campaign description in the history of state politics.
“There isn’t a governor in the country who didn’t say, and this is the technical term, but we got kind of a poo-poo sandwich; it’s been unbelievable,” Lujan Grisham told The New Mexican’s editorial board. “It was as if we asked Stephen King to write a novel about our term as governor.”
–“Lujan Grisham: ‘Leadership matters. Experience matters’” The Santa Fe New Mexican, Oct. 15, 2022
Whether the website paywall is quashing well-deserved publicity or New Mexicans simply don’t read past the headline, the quote deserves to go viral.
Chacon may be the last truly objective newsman in New Mexico, as evidenced by the vitriol he gets from the Left and the Right whenever his articles don’t obviously lean their way–or the universal kudos he gets when political disparates read the same story and see it as a bullseye for their side.
His coverage last week of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Republican challenger Mark Ronchetti had everything for everyone.
For Democrats who are sticking with the devil they know this November, Grisham was a victim of circumstance. “We got kind of a poo-poo sandwich” is weird old lady-speak for “COVID did it,” a convenient excuse, but an effective one (it helped Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller skate to a 30-point victory last fall).
For Republicans who would vote for a literal shit sandwich if it meant avoiding another four years of the tiny tyrant’s gross mismanagement, hypocrisy, and fiscal imprudence, Chacon’s recap of Grisham’s failures on crime, education, and sexual harassment was a kill shot.
Grisham’s biggest fans and harshest critics can recite the same facts and still come out on opposite sides. Her fans utter elegant and empty endorsements like “she cares so strongly” and “gets things done.”
“She has a cause, a purpose, and she gets it done. And people do respect her.”
Actual voter, per Chacon’s”Lujan Grisham: ‘Leadership matters. Experience matters’”
Another voter cited Grisham’s “vast amount of experience,” who, “like Biden,” is “the epitome of what the government should be doing.”
After the six one-sentence paragraphs highlighting the failures of this administration, the forced eulogizing is easy fodder for critics.
“Michelle is a ding dong,” one voter said in another Chacon article, “Ronchetti promises to be a governor who listens.”
It’s funny, but it’s too generous.
From the COVID lockdown’s effects on businesses and kids to the double-speak over oil and gas, Grisham is neither stupid nor the victim of chance. Her policies were what Biden recommended, and it was disastrous for the state. To call your own first term a “poo-poo sandwich” in a horror novel is to acknowledge why your campaign is almost solely focused on abortion: it’s a distraction from the realities of her actual record.
Categories: 2022 Governor's Race
The Conservative New Mexican 
“Her policies were what Biden recommended” – Not really. Policies were more to become a mini-California perhaps even to out do them but without a revenue base. Quite stupid IMHO. And in the admiring glow of the national press, MLG presided over a period where NM was tops in the death count statistic, still are quite high on that list proving policy can’t change poverty. Sadly many believe her propaganda that the restrictions kept us safe as the numbers say otherwise.
She is an adopter of green policy forcing utility changes yet to limit service like CA. At least we avoiding the no new natural gas use mandated by CA which would really hurt NM. The EV future is unlikely in poor NM so policy goes nowhere. But the next PUC will be all political so who knows how bad it can get.
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