All politics is local? New Mexico is test

Shanna Chavarria, a 49-year-old homemaker and a Democrat, said she wished the U.S. had not invaded Iraq and was eager "to get us home, get us out."

But, she went on, "We're there. I think we need to finish the job."

She plans to vote for Madrid, however, because Wilson is "just too party-line. Whatever the Republicans did, she did."

The Bush factor

That strong, almost reflexive anti-GOP sentiment poses the greatest threat to Wilson, a smart and nimble campaigner who has weathered several tough reelection fights since going to Congress in 1998.

She won thanks to strong Democratic and Latino support, but surveys suggest many of those voters are straying this time.

"That's where Iraq comes in," said Brian Sanderoff, the state's leading political pollster. "That's where Bush comes in."

With the president at a lackluster 36% approval rating in Albuquerque, Wilson has tried hard to distance herself from Bush and the White House.

She has been hammered for skipping a vote on Iraq this year to attend a presidential fundraiser.

So when strategist Karl Rove came to town in late September, Wilson's campaign announced she would skip the event, which was closed to reporters. Party officials would not even say where Rove planned to appear.

During last week's debate, Wilson twice refused to answer when asked whether she though Bush had been a good president.

The next day, at a news conference at her campaign headquarters, Wilson was asked four more times and again would not offer an opinion.

"History will judge," she said.

The campaign here typifies the broader national contest in other ways.

Both parties have spent millions of dollars on TV spots -- mainly attack ads -- as have labor unions, trial lawyers, Realtors and other interest groups, according to TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group, a national firm that tracks campaign advertising.

The race has been nasty, like so many others in this corrosively negative campaign season.

Madrid calls her opponent a liar and says Wilson, who served on the board overseeing the congressional page program, "looked the other way and didn't protect our children" from Foley's behavior. Wilson said she had no way of knowing what the ex-Florida lawmaker was saying in private e-mails.

Wilson says Madrid is "willing to cheat to win" and aired a TV spot accusing Madrid of allowing a man to "walk" after an attempted rape. A state prosecutor said the ad distorted the facts of a case involving a fictitious teen in an Internet chat room.

The two camps even quibbled over who got the better spot in the State Fair parade, and the politics behind their placement.

Campbell, the nurse who leans toward a Wilson vote, said all of it was enough to make a person stay home on election day.

"They're just awful," she said of the ads, which are inescapable for anyone watching Albuquerque TV.

"You feel bad about both of them."

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mark.barabak@latimes.com

Earlier articles in this series can be found at www.latimes.com/newmexico.