Diane Denish or Susana Martinez for Governor of New Mexico

New Mexico voters want another choice. New Mexico will soon have its first woman governor in its history. The voters are not upset that they will be led by a woman, the voters are upset that a smear campaign is in full swing by the candidates for the state's top office.

When Democratic candidate Diane Denish was endorsed by a teacher about Diane's educational policies, Republican candidate Susana Martinez staff dug deep and discovered that the teacher's husband had once been prosecuted by Susana Martinez during her tenure as District Attorney. While this particular teacher may have a personal vendetta against Susana Martinez, she is not the only teacher to support Diane Denish. The smear campaign did nothing to promote Susana Martinez's own education platform.

New Mexico's outgoing governor, Democrat Bill Richardson, has been losing popularity since his bid for the Presidential election went south. The National Republican Party has been funneling money into Susana Martinez's campaign to ensure that the state's Governorship will change from the unpopular National Democratic Party to the Republican Party. With nine states in the same situation, most are slated to go to the Republican Party when the finals are tallied in November. Susana Martinez's campaign is in full swing to take advantage of Bill Richardson's disfavored position by linking Lt. Governor Diane Denish to Bill Richardson, whether Ms. Denish deserves it or not.

It was just two short years ago when the voting public elected for change by taking all power from the Republican's and handing the reins over completely to the Democrats by electing President Obama as well as giving the Democrats controlling votes in the House and Senate. The voting public is about to make the same mistake by swinging the opposite way and replacing all Democrats with Republicans. The only good thing is the checks and balances of having both parties in control of a portion of the government will be back in place and neither party will have a "blank check" on the nation's economy, at least for the next two years until the next Presidential election.

It is truly sad when you go to the website for a candidate and go to their pressroom only to find 5 out of 6 of the headlines are about slamming their opponent rather than advancing the candidate's own platform. Diane Denish's website is slightly better with 3 out of 6 the headlines slamming her opponent, though most of Denish's headlines are responding to Ms. Martinez's smears.

Voters are disgusted with the political preening and negative campaigns. An informal poll shows most will vote out of duty rather than desire. The voters will do their best to pick the lesser of two evils and that is a sad way for New Mexico to elect their first female Governor.