REPORT: “Vasquez faces tough reelection challenge as opposition presses past allegations”
In case you missed it, the Santa Fe New Mexican covered vulnerable Gabe Vasquez’s weak re-election chances as he battles scandal after scandal.
From Vasquez’s decades-long trouble with the law to calling a colleague the n-word to calling to defund the police, one thing is clear: Vasquez has a lot of explaining to do.
Read more from the Santa Fe New Mexican here or see excerpts below:
Vasquez faces tough reelection challenge as opposition presses past allegations
Daniel Chacon
June 16, 2024
The pressure is on New Mexico’s freshman congressman leading up to the November general election as the GOP seeks to expand its majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and reclaim a seat that has flipped back and forth between Democrats and Republicans in recent years.
Considered one of the most competitive House races in the country, the battle for New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District seat pits first-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez against the previous officeholder — Republican Yvette Herrell — in a rematch likely to generate big spending and vicious attacks.
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Neither is the GOP, which continues to go after Vasquez and try to exploit a string of recent reports, which include that an arrest warrant was executed against Vasquez over outstanding traffic tickets from more than two decades ago and allegations that he tried to flush marijuana down a toilet after police were dispatched to his apartment to investigate a noise complaint in 2005 and also that he uttered a racial slur against a former colleague the year before.
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In a statement, Herrell accused Vasquez of having a “dangerous and racist past” that finally caught up with him. “His anti-law enforcement, open-border stances clearly make him unfit to serve New Mexicans,” she said.
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The recent reports Vasquez had an arrest warrant and allegedly used a racial slur will likely generate attack ads and put the freshman congressman on the defensive, Sanderoff said.
“We haven’t heard the end of this,” he said. “At a minimum, it puts him on the defensive where he allocates part of his limited resources to playing defense or to defending himself on these allegations, so it will definitely impact the campaign. Any controversy hurts [a candidate] in a close race.”
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Herrell’s campaign said New Mexicans can expect to see information about Vasquez’s supposed “anti-law enforcement” past “anywhere and everywhere.”
“Simply put: Gabe can’t outrun his deeply troubled past anymore,” the campaign said.
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