Wilson Turns Up Heat As Race Tightens

Although Wilson's televised ads claiming that Romero has missed two years-worth of votes as a state senator amount to nothing more than exaggerated propaganda, the Wilson re-election team—composed of several pharmaceutical company CEOs, three Evangelical Christian ministers, the guy who makes those anti-abortion stickers and a chimpanzee named Full-On—is correct in their assessment of Romero's hate for children of all races, genders and sexual orientations. In fact, the Wilson camp claims to have evidence showing that Romero voted not less than 1,316 times to improve the quality and nutritional value of lunches served in public school cafeterias, a move that is a direct assault on Sysco and White Swan foodservice corporations whose frozen “foodstuff” has long been the standard when it comes to keeping our children stuffed full of chemicals and preservatives, while making many of them obese and therefore life-long patrons of the Republican Party's wet dream of a health care system.

Romero, himself a former educator and high school principal, has also, according to the Wilson camp, been instrumental in opposing a salary increase for teachers and funding for after-school programs aimed at giving at-risk students a safe, supportive place to engage in a variety of curricular and extracurricular activities as part of a global learning process designed to make our children better, brighter adults. Spokespersons for the Wilson campaign correctly point out that federal funds for education under the Bush administration's “No Child Left Behind” program are to be funneled directly into public school administrations so they can continue to create high-paying jobs for their friends, family, loved-ones and other inept former office managers looking for easier, better-paying jobs. As anyone who's lived in New Mexico for a few years knows, the more public school administrators, superintendents and board members in place, the better.

But Romero's most egregious assault on our children also happens to be an assault in a very literal sense on the adults in their midst while at school. According to the recent spate of Wilson for Congress ads, over the past four years, Richard Romero has voted 16,162 times to allow New Mexico's children to take guns and other weapons to school. And not for their own protection, mind you, but to mow down bullies, teachers and other staff they don't like. According to the Wilson ads, Romero thinks that children are better able to grapple with real-life, adult issues once they've felt the recoil of an assault rifle pound their little shoulder a few hundred times in a crowded cafeteria or library.

“I'm appalled,” said Nancy C. de Baca, mother of two students at Hoover Middle School. “Richard Romero tries to make himself out to be such a saint in those political ads where he attacks Heather Wilson for not really caring two shakes about New Mexico and voting in support of large, greedy corporations right along with the biggest moron ever to sit in the Oval Office. But this late news about [Romero] wanting to allow kids to take guns to school is just too much.”

Rick Stanley, whose daughter, Rebecca, attends Del Norte High School as a freshman said his worries about Romero's record have more to do with finances than with automatic weapons. “Let 'em blow each other away,” he said, “It's the only way they're gonna learn. But if Romero starts pumping more money into the public schools, there's no way I'll be able to afford to send my little girl, less'n I goes on the welfare.”

“Clearly, Richard Romero needs to rethink his position on New Mexico's children and their families,” said a teary-eyed Heather Wilson just before taking the stage at a $2,000-per-plate “How to Convince Rational New Mexicans Everything I Say Isn't a Lie” rally as an aide spread Vicks' VapoRub in the corners of the Congresswoman's eyes. “But I guess it really doesn't matter all that much,” Wilson continued, “since it's pretty apparent that most New Mexicans are too stupid to vote me out of office anyway.”