Game Called On Account of "Internal Polling"

Like some very careful burglars cleaning up fingerprints, today's ABQJournal piece by Jeff Jones cites an "internal poll" as the reason Martin Chávez gave up on running for U.S. Senate, and not sinister outside Democratic forces, i.e. Chuck Schumer and his alleged cabal of untrustworthy East Coast meddlers. According to Chavez Campaign-What Campaign? Manager Mark Fleisher:

"People like to think (it was). But ... as far as (pushing) the mayor to get out, there wasn't any of that," he said. Fleisher said he and Chávez began discussing a possible exit from the race last Monday when the Chávez camp got early results from an internal poll that "wasn't very favorable."

No, we don't get to see Marty go up against Tom in the Primary and get his swell-headed hat handed to him. Yeah, as Marjorie over at M-Pyre mentions, "I was kinda sorta looking forward to the contest." On the other hand, it's one thing to lose a Primary badly, but it's a really bad, stinky thing to barely leave the starting gate because of an "internal poll" that just has to be uglier lookin' than a truck stop bathroom. And yes, I would pay money to see this "internal poll". I am embarrassed to admit how much I would pay to see it.

Sure, nobody is necessarily going to believe Mark Fleisher or Chávez and the "internal poll" excuse, but you gotta admit that it sounds plausible because who would humiliate oneself enough to use an "internal poll" as the excuse, one that must have looked something like this:

To: Marty
From: Mark
Re: Example Question/Response From Our Polling

...Question #14:

If the election for New Mexico U.S. Senate were held today and the two candidates were Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez and Super-Irritating TV Ad Attorney-Ambulance Chaser Russ "before you accept a quick check, check with me" Whitener , who would you vote for?
(Respondents: Whitener 81%, Chávez 9%, "Can't Tell Difference Between Whitener and Chavez" 5%, Ron Bell or "that other lawyer guy with the mustache, the one that's really short, I think that's Ron Bell, right?" 5%)

So anyway, now Udall gets to idly sit on his fairly large pile of campaign cash for a while, Marty gets to focus more attention on his hyper-dysfunctional relationship with City Council, and Martin Heinrich, Darren White and others wait to find out if things are screwed up enough between Mayor and Council to get Chavez over his dislike of the continuous campaigning a U.S. House race requires.

Some of us kinda hope Councilor Debbie O'Malley and others start bringing the Mayor and his staff flowers, lattes and maybe even put aside overriding a veto here and there in the next few months. You know, make the Mayor feel at home. Okay, it's making me cringe to even suggest that.

Meanwhile, we're turning the page on the short saga known as "Marty v. Tom". It was far too brief, "flash fiction" really, but somehow... still satisfying. Especially if we really got to see that "internal poll". Viewing such enjoyable filth would be politiporn of the highest order.


P.S.: Speaking of Politiporn, I finally got around to watching the documentary "Street Fight" about the 2002 Newark mayor's race last night. Good, scary stuff. I know I give Mayor Chavez a ton of grief, but he's far from the worst mayor in the country (unless I'm missing something). Newark ex-Mayor Sharpe James might have been the worst for a number of years. Check this documentary out if you're a political junkie like me, or just want to get incredibly depressed about race relations in this country.