Until a year ago, I was an Illinoisan--born and raised in Chicago, who then spent over 30 years in Central IL. Last fall my husband and I retired to southern New Mexico. So I think I'm qualified to address some issues and concerns raised here.

For the person who said southern New Mexico is Republican, well that surprises me! You see, having spent all those years in Republican Central IL (after living in Democrat Chicago) I made sure to check out the political landscape before moving here and found the vast majority of officeholders had a "D" after their names. That's one of the key elements that made me choose this area of the southwest.

Since being here, I've noticed that a lot of the powerbrokers appear to be Republican -- and NON-Hispanic. Maybe that's why those not familiar with Las Cruces, Dona Ana County and surrounding places get the impression it's Republican. But that began to change in the last mayoral election. Plus, the majority of officeholders on down the line are Hispanic AND Democrat. Moreover, with the pending retirement of Pete Domenici, we have strong hopes that our new U.S. Senator will be a Democrat, too.

But the problem that needs to be addressed by the Obama campaign is that the Senator MUST get over his reluctance to spend time in "downstate" New Mexico---the same problem he has/had in "downstate" Illinois. If he could go to Iowa to woo voters, he certainly can spare a little more time and effort in southern New Mexico and other small and mid-sized cities across the country, as well as town and farm/ranch areas.

But the most important thing is that the campaign leaders themselves need to get over their own reluctance to create and maintain a presence in these non-metropolitan areas. They need to get more people and supplies and money into those campaign offices located here. When the young people running the campaign here are forced to use their personal computers and their own cell phones to run the campaign, something is very, very wrong. When they have to spend their own money to purchase bumper stickers from other sources, something is very, very wrong. When throngs of people are going to the headquarters for buttons and all they have left are "Veterans for Obama" something is very, very wrong. When people with lots of enthusiasm and energy but almost no real experience are running things, something is very, very wrong.

New Mexico is very much like Illinois in that it has a single dominate city that draws attention away from the rest of the state. Here it's Albuquerque (and it's suburbs). There it's Chicago (and it's suburbs which, by the way, are not small---many have populations large enough to qualify them for "city" status by themselves).

Oh, and Las Cruces, located in southern New Mexico, is the second largest city in the state. Perhaps state and national campaign organizers don't realize this, and fail to understand that TV stations serving us are actually located in El Paso, TX (not Albuquerque). I guess that's why we're not seeing all of those ads designed to win Hispanic votes referred to in the article.

Years ago, the Illinois tourism department had a slogan which said something like "Just outside Chicago, there's a state called Illinois." I frequently repeated it in relation to Chicago and the rest of the state, which never got the attention it should have gotten. Guess I'm going to have to revamp that slogan to say "Just outside Albuquerque--and it's surrounding metropolitan communities---is a state called New Mexico."

After posting my comments on the "Obama in New Mexico: No Latino voter left behind" I saw the link to "Battleground New Mexico" and realized how little campaign organizers have learned in the last four years. Here's an excerpt from that 2004 article:

In Las Cruces, the campaign office was located in an old bank building tucked behind a plaza. Money was short and the staff was green. But the Albuquerque headquarters seemed to look over the city like a beacon. It was next to the University of New Mexico campus, at the top of a hill, in a large, free-standing, white cinderblock building. In front sat a campaign bus with a Kerry-Edwards banner draped over it.

I arrived on a Sunday and inside the open, airy office was abuzz. Campaign higher-ups stalked in and out of open offices. A bespectacled man with a "Students for Kerry" pin led a seminar on door-to-door canvassing while volunteers perched at folding tables, archaic white corded phones -- the kind you get at RadioShack for $8.99 -- pressed to their ears. On the walls, sign-up sheets stretched to the ceiling: "Doctors for Kerry," "Veterans for Kerry," "Christians for Kerry."

The crowd was eclectic, to say the least. There were grandmothers, burly union guys, stately Hispanic men in suits, single moms with or without their kids, rock-climbing dads, yuppie preppies and middle-aged Navajos. Downstairs the young, attractive press staff spun away, trying to sell the local TV stations on an impending Chris Heinz appearance. Old pickups, SUVs, hybrid sedans and station wagons rubbed against each other in the immense dirt parking lot.

I haven't been to Albuquerque to see the Obama-Biden headquarters there, but I have been to the one in Las Cruces and nothing has changed in 4 years. Pretty sad, don't you think?