Ad war heats up in race for New Mexico governor
The sole Republican candidate for New Mexico governor launched his first television ads Wednesday that highlight his early childhood brushes with poverty as a son of Texas sharecroppers.
The ads by U.S. Rep. and gubernatorial candidate Steve Pearce of Hobbs came more than a month before voters go to the polls in the June primary.
Pearce notified the Federal Communications Commission of more than $100,000 in spending on political ads that began airing on network affiliates and cable television.
In one new ad, the seven-term congressman revisits the broken-down remains of his early childhood home on a Texas farm where his family lived without indoor plumbing.
The 70-year-old lawmaker was an Air Force pilot during the Vietnam War and later ran a successful oil-field services company before entering politics as a state legislator.
Republican Gov. Susana Martinez cannot run for a third consecutive term because of term limits.
Spending on television and radio publicity is also accelerating among the three contenders for the Democratic nomination as they burnish their public images with tales of personal adversity and prescriptions for a lagging state economy.
State Sen. Joseph Cervantes of Las Cruces rolled out TV ads that tout his background as a businessman and “homegrown New Mexican, born and raised on a farm.”
Former media executive Jeff Apodaca, the son of a former governor, was the first last year to spend significantly on television ads that describe an early bout with cancer and promises to create jobs.
U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham leads the Democratic field for governor in campaign fundraising and has received endorsements from an array of labor unions, progressive advocacy groups and four tribal governments.
She launched television ads last week and a radio publicity campaign this week that highlight her perseverance in raising two daughters as a widow and her past leadership at two state agencies.
Campaign spokesman Victor Reyes said more than $200,000 is being spent on that advertising.
Pearce and Lujan Grisham are not running for re-election to Congress.
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