With the June 1 primary election only 11 days away, candidates are looking for all the attention they can get—especially in some of the more crowded races. In that spirit, Doug Turner called SFR this morning to promote his candidacy for governor. "I really believe it's a winnable race," Turner says. Excerpts from the interview follow.SFR: How do you top Sarah Palin?
Turner: I don't know. I had Steve Forbes but nobody seemed very interested in someone from the business world.
SFR: The papers and TV news seem to have established the narrative that Susana and Allen are the front-runners. Do you contest that?
Turner: I do. The narrative isn't established by me, the narrative is established by the press.
I had a meeting with the editor of the Albuquerque Journal the other day. He said, 'We do this, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, even if it's not true.' I spoke with Brian Sanderoff on Sunday. He said, 'I may have completely wrecked your fundraising for the next two weeks, but you're still in the race. ...[Among 18-45 year olds], you're killing.' That sort of synchs with all of our numbers.
Most of the people who vote are those older folks. I benefit from a lower-turnout race. ... Look at people who've been newly motivated, by events around the country. They are not the people who have voted in the last three primaries. ...
Voter turnout is quite low. Early voting and absentee has been low. Either Republicans think, 'Any of of these candidates would be good, so I'm not going to go out of my way to do it.' Or maybe it's—shit, I don't know.I know that I have a lot of Democrats who like me and would like to support me.
SFR: When I talk to your supporters, they say they're voting for you because they like you. When I talk to Susana's supporters, the first thing out of their mouths is, 'She can beat Denish.'
Turner: What that campaign has done is say the only way to beat a woman—Diane Denish—is for another woman to do it. That's never been proven correct.
I think that Susana's got a lot of baggage. You can be certain the Democrats have been doing research on her for the last year. She's been working for the state for 25 years, so there's a ton of [problematic] cases.
She says she's balanced her budget, but she's also come to the LFC and requested interim loans because she hasn't balanced her budget.
I would suspect the list is long with Allen, too.
But the list isn't long with me. I know that the Democrats have been following me around for months, and they haven't gotten much, because there's not much there.
I've had a few state contracts. We do represent some controversial industries, but I don't have a problem with that. And, I look better.
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Cross-posted at Muckracker's Guide.
