We knew absolutely that Joe Monahan would not be able to resist. Exactly as we predicted, anti-Republican blogger Joe Monahan issued a glowing endorsement of Steve Pearce for Republican Party chair this morning.
How did we predict this? How did we know beyond any doubt that this would happen? As we pointed out on several occasions, Monahan wants his SOURCES — the Republicans who are willing to steal emails, publish them (so he can publish them), attack any Republican who is having success (Susana Martinez), and help him in his never-ending quest to continually divide the Republican Party.
Pearce and his team are not only supportive of Monahan's efforts, Pearce actually HIRES people who steal emails from Republicans. He HIRES people who campaign against Republicans.
NOTE: We are not saying that Pearce is not a conservative. He is. And we objectively admit he may be just as good a choice as anyone to lead the New Mexico Republican Party (he has worked to destroy).
We are simply saying that he adheres to no standards whatsoever when it comes to hiring people who will do his bidding and help him pursue his goals. And Monahan benefits greatly from leaks and gossip from Republicans. It shores up his Democrat base of readers.
(Though it merits pointing out, regarding Pearce, that he has never won an election outside CD2, a district that is actually one point better than the state of Texas in GOP performance. The two times he has been a statewide Republican nominee, Pearce has not only lost in landslides, he has taken every single other statewide and congressional Republican candidate with him—all 15 statewide contests, all 6 congressional races and a total of 15 losses in legislative seats. That's a total of 36 races lost in the two times he headed the GOP ticket. Pretty sobering stuff.)
What are the Facts that Monahan has Distorted on Behalf of the Pearce-Yates-Billingsley Cabal?
Underlined below are claims made by Monahan in his blog, followed by our corrections of his claims:
References to "The Martinez Machine" in state GOP politics.
“The Martinez machine” hasn’t been involved in state GOP politics since 2013, when Pearce best friend and disciple John Billingsley was elected chair—with the stated mission of running Martinez out of the party. Martinez supporters did oppose Billingsley at that time, and lost.
People wearing Cat-in-the-Hat outfits or walking around with goofy vests festooned with 300 souvenir pins, or moaning about gasoline being 3¢ cheaper in the next town over, all voted for Billingsley in droves. (He and his associates do great among the bitch and moan crowd—that's right in their wheelhouse.)
Billingsley of course promptly ran the party into the ground. He was the first of what might be called "The Fifteen-hundred Dollar Chairmen," a tradition Ryan Cangiolosi has fought hard to preserve. ($1,503 on hand on November 1. Amazing. But we digress.)
"The machine candidate is ABQ businessman John Rockwell"
This is just plain dumb. Martinez has 25 days left in office. She has no "machine," she has no candidate and is doing nothing, nor his her political team. Her political team does far more work in other states than they do in New Mexico and actually could not care less about who leads the state GOP. (With the Yates-Cangiolosi-Billingsley-Pearce "triumphalism" and "run Martinez out" attitude, the Martinez team was left with no role to play in the state party.)
It also appears that Rockwell, who is a nice man, is also doing nothing. He seems hardly to be aware of a campaign in general, much less running one himself. It's beyond absurd to claim that Martinez has a candidate.
"The Martinez faction had former NM GOP House Speaker Don Tripp issue an endorsement of Rockwell over Pearce."
This is sheer chutzpah on the part of Monahan (and presumably his Pearce-Yates-Billingsley associated allies): No one has ever "had" Don Tripp do anything. The wealthy, independent Socorro businessman has always operated on his own.
It has to be remembered that Tripp endorsed Yvette Herrell in the CD2 Republican Primary, while Martinez supported Monty Newman. To claim Martinez told Tripp to do anything is just plain ignorant—or an attempt to deceive uninformed Central Committee members.
It's highly unlikely that pushing this story to Monahan will endear the Pearce crowd to Tripp, but he is also very composed, even aloof in many ways, so we doubt he will react at all.
NOTE: We just checked with Tripp via text. Here is what he wrote: "John asked me to [endorse him]. Only John."
In addition to his fabrication, Monahan then goes on to try to launch another anti-Tripp narrative that tries to blame Tripp for the Republican situation:
"But Tripp served only one term as speaker during which he did little to advance the GOP's chances of holding on to the majority in the chamber. They promptly lost to the Dems after only one term under Tripp."
That's just stupid. And it certainly appears such a suggestive narrative could only come from a very devious source, very likely one of Monahan's numerous sources in the Pearce camp.
"Pearce has secured the endorsement of incoming state House Minority Leader James Townsend of Artesia and State Rep. Yvette Herrell of Alamogordo"
Why name only those two? We published the names of the numerous politicians who have endorsed Pearce.
"It will be interesting to see how many votes will go against Pearce."
Not that many, we suspect.
"Another argument against him is that he has not sworn off any 2020 run for the southern congressional seat he gave up to run for Guv."
We are not sure who is making that argument. We have published the fact that Pearce could certainly easily win that seat back from Xochitl Torres Small. But this particular issue may be an important consideration for any thinking Republican activist—is Pearce truly concerned about rebuilding the state GOP, or left without a position as he now is, is he simply seeking a position from which he can concentrate on putting himself back in Congress?
"But Pearce brings to the table money--lots of it--and he has enough of his own so he won't be forced to kneel before the altar of Martinez acolytes like former GOP National Committeeman Pat Rogers who was ousted by much of the same central committee that will pick the new chair."
Again, a dumb comment on many fronts (but if you're wearing a Cat-in-the-hat outfit, you're probably impressed). "Having" money, and "spending" and "raising" it are two entirely different things—or maybe three entirely different things. No one doubts that Pearce is vastly more wealthy than Michelle Lujan Grisham (unless investigations of Delta Consulting reveal even more skimming than has been published already, but we digress). But she certainly raised and spent more. (And she didn't pay her fundraiser $306,000 even as they vastly outraised Pearce's.)
Which, incidentally, highlights more absurdity from Monahan:
Remember all the Monahan posts about how much money the Martinez team was “raking in” from her campaigns and PACs? This line—very suspiciously coincidentally—was precisely the argument John Billingsley and Harvey Yates used starting in 2013 and then repeatedly trotted out in their campaigns for state party positions
So why is it that Monahan has not virtually lost his mind about Andrea Goff being paid an absurd $306,000 to be Pearce's finance director? After all, that's a figure way outside the industry standard for a gubernatorial campaign. Why hasn’t Monahan asserted that Pearce’s media consultant was “paid” $2.6 million from Pearce’s campaign?
Here's why:
Monahan ignores the $306,000 issue because Goff has been a good source for him—leaks and gossip are all good for Monahan.
Monahan ignores the $2.6 million issue because he well knows that the vast majority of the $2.6 million Pearce “paid” his media consultant actually went to pay for airtime at TV stations and that commission for media consultants—in New Mexico and elsewhere—are identical. He knew those same facts were true with Martinez and McCleskey as well. But making the sensational claim that Jay McCleskey “made” millions helped his principal goal: inflaming poorly informed Republicans (who know little of the technical ins and outs of media expenses) and therefore providing fodder for division within the GOP.
"The Machine appears to have flipped one R who has become prominent in recent months--Michelle Garcia Holmes."
Really? Where does he get that? As we have pointed out, there is no machine. So we are sure no one with Martinez "flipped" her. Has Michelle Garcia Holmes even had one word with the “Martinez machine”? We highly doubt it.
NOTE: We reached out to Garcia Holmes, as we did with Tripp, but received no reply.
In any case, why put down yet another female Hispanic Republican, as Monahan always does (and some in the Pearce-Yates crowd do)? What's with that? She is perfectly capable of making independent decisions. Why attack?
Answer: It serves the Pearce cause and the cause of all those who leak information to Monahan.
So the putdowns must be inserted, as these are:
"She was an unsuccessful independent ABQ mayoral candidate in 2017 ...She has now turned on Pearce...and announced her support of Rockwell. But she is a newcomer to the party and has little influence with the central committee."
How does he know she "turned on" Pearce? How close were they to start with? Does Monahan even have a clue? We doubt it.
"Ultimately it is that change that most insider Republicans hunger for and which Pearce represents."
Claiming Pearce is somehow "change" is downright laughable. Cangiolosi was his hand-picked candidate. For all intents and purposes, Pearce and his anti-Martinez crowd around him ran everything in the Party throughout the last cycle. The only change anyone will get is from the name "Cangiolosi" to the name "Pearce." No other changes will be made.
Bottom Line
Monahan knows that every significant allegation in his endorsement today is a fabrication. But he also knows that Pearce and his people will help him with leaks and in his never-ending quest to divide the party. The Democrats love what Monahan does. That's why he does it. They also appear to love the idea of Steve Pearce as GOP State Chair.
The Democrat Party of New Mexico published yet another tweet today along the same lines as Monahan, but bragging that they are "preparing to govern." Republicans may be wise to consider how convenient it is that the Democrats and their mouthpiece (Monahan) are both encouraging the election of Steve Pearce.
And this should also serve as an important reminder for journalists—Monahan is always pushing an agenda. His posts are not just the latest leaks and gossip of the day. They’re his efforts to push one side or another of his agenda. And he’s willing to be breathtakingly dishonest about it.
And again, we have never said that Rockwell or Pearce is the better choice. We actually don't believe either of them has a plan or a vision for how to maneuver the party through the difficult waters ahead — difficulties engendered by the Pearce-Yates-Billingsley cabal.
But just because Rockwell played no role in the catastrophe, while his opponents directed the entire thing, doesn't mean he has a plan for how to recover.
And we have always been willing to publish articles or opinions on either side. We do believe that everyone participating in the process needs to have as much relevant information, history, and background as can be provided.
Email us (at nmpj@dfn.com) with your feedback, comments, questions and ideas.
Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican
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