Opinion: Kevin de León’s defenders emerge, but they’re still a minority, not a majority
Kevin de León’s gubernatorial campaign has been in free fall for a couple of weeks, but it’s not because his campaign has lacked supporters. It’s because his campaign has been lacking big-picture perspective.
It is true that a number of people have publicly expressed a negative view of de León. These include: former New Mexico governors Gary Johnson, from Libertarian to independent; Libertarian state senator Ray Cushing; current Santa Fe County sheriff Larry Hicks; state Assemblyman Jerry Ortiz; former state senator Michael Sanchez, who was replaced by de León last August; former Assemblyman and state senator Bill Osmont; the Associated Press; The Associated Press Editorial Board; the New Mexico Independent; The Washington Post; former New York Times reporter Carl R. Perkins; and, this weekend, CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Some people have supported de León’s campaign for governor, but they have not necessarily been in the mainstream. And now, after the first official weekend of campaigning, both sides of the question have emerged, and are emerging far from each other.
New Mexico Independent
After de León’s campaign pulled back last week to work on television, they announced that the candidate would be appearing with a TV and radio surrogate at a public forum at the Bernalillo High School gym on Friday. Friday’s forum will be one of the first public forums in the campaign, and one of the last that the candidate hasn’t yet had with his general election opponent.
The Independent’s first endorsement of de León (as it should be, considering the newspaper’s support of Republicans) came from state Assemblyman Ortiz, who told me, “I think he would represent the best interests of the state of New Mexico, and of all New Mexicans.” Another endorsement came from former New York Times reporter Carl R. Perkins. This endorsement was followed by another from the Associated Press Editorial Board, who said they were “pleased” de León