While Colorado Sen. Mark Udall is on the ropes in his bid for re-election, his cousin, New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall, is now trying to fend off the momentum of retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. Allen Weh, who is near or within the margin of error in the latest polls.
Just a week ago, Udall led Weh by 16 points. Since then, an Albuquerque Journal survey shows a seven-point race (50-43) while a Vox Populi poll released Monday suggests a 47-43 Udall lead. Weh says another poll has the margin down to two percentage points. Weh says there are good reasons for the eleventh hour momentum.
“We’ve presented a sharp contrast to Tom Udall. It’s been done based on his record. I’ve made no personal attacks on the man and don’t intend to and don’t have to,” said Weh, citing the economy, health care, national security and “other lesser-related issues in New Mexico” as the areas of sharpest difference.
“On every one of those, Tom Udall’s on the wrong side of the issue. He cast the deciding vote for Obamacare that stripped $716 billion out of Medicare and that’s starting to hurt seniors right now as we speak. That was a train wreck. He made it worse,” said Weh.
On the economy, Weh says the two couldn’t be more different because they come at issues like economic growth and job creation from opposite directions.
“He’s been a career politician. He’s never created a job or saved a job in his life. I created a business and I can relate to that and I can relate to helping stimulate our economy and what it needs to have done to do that,” he said.
However, Weh may be most frustrated with Udall’s performance on national security issues. Weh is a retired United States Marine Corps colonel, who was awarded a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, three Purple Hearts and five Air Medals among other honors for his heroism in combat. The 71-year-old Weh served the nation in uniform in Vietnam, the Gulf War, Somalia and the Iraq War. He is appalled by Udall’s foreign policy and military records both personally and professionally.
“On national security, no contest. He’s never served in uniform a day in his life. In fact in 1970, when he graduated from college, he decided to go to England to avoid service in Vietnam. That may not matter to a lot of people, but I’ll tell you what. It matters to a whole lot of Vietnam veterans,” said Weh.
This is the arena Weh sees himself having the greatest and most immediate impact if elected to the Senate. He believes President Obama needs to get congressional authorization for a long-term military campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but first he says we need a real plan to win.
“We don’t have a comprehensive strategy. The national command authority, the president, has not woken up to the fact that this is an existential threat to the United States and acted accordingly. He’s dealing with it almost in a way to just make it go away,” said Weh, who says Udall has been marching in lockstep with Obama.
“Unfortunately, my opponent, Tom Udall, votes with him 94 percent of the time and on matters of national security hasn’t broken with him. So when the president’s failed leadership, or leading from behind at best, Tom Udall’s never had the political courage to step up and say, ‘Hey Mr. President, you’re the commander-in-chief. You’ve got to do what’s right to keep America safe and America’s families safe.” He hasn’t done that,” said Weh.
The 26-year Marine Corps veteran says his voice is badly needed in the Senate.
“That particular part of my life is going to be put to good use. Right now there’s only one combat veteran in the United States Senate (Arizona Sen. John McCain). If I’m elected, I’ll be one of two or three,” said Weh, referring also to Iraq War veteran Tom Cotton who is the GOP nominee in Arkansas.
“That’s not a whole lot of men who’ve had that experience,” he said.
Another national security flash point also happens to be in New Mexico’s backyard as the debate over border security and immigration reform continues in both parties. Weh describes the borders as porous and directly blames the president for allowing it to happen.
“We’ve got to secure the border and that’s the responsibility of the executive. This executive, this president, this administration does not want to secure the border or else it would have or it could have,” said Weh, who sees one decision above all others hindering border security and another instance of Obama and Udall seeing eye to eye on key policy.
“When Barack Obama took office, he suspended construction of the remaining fence that had been authorized in 2006, which by the way, when in the House of Representatives, my opponent Tom Udall voted against,” said Weh.
The colonel says we only need to look to the Middle East to see the impact a fence can make on security.
“The fence is necessary in those built-up urban areas, much like the fence has been very effective in Jerusalem to prevent terrorists from coming into Israel,” he said.
“The border as it is now is essentially porous simply due to the decisions and actions of this administration,” said Weh.
The Udall campaign is returning fire on a number of issues. Like most Democratic candidates this year, Udall is accusing Weh of waging a war against women. In addition, he is hammering the GOP nominee for suggesting he was fine with a four dollar minimum wage and alleging Weh is hostile to working families.
Weh says that line of attack is a clear distortion of the truth. He calls it “gotcha politics” and says he is actually taking an innovative approach to the issue by pushing an increase in the minimum wage for Americans 26 years and older but eliminating it altogether for those younger.
“The traditional party line of Republicans is we’re opposed to the raise. I said I’m not opposed to raising the minimum wage. It hasn’t been raised in 6-7 years. Cost of living has gone up. We ought to raise it. But in exchange for that, I’d want a two-tiered system. We’ve got a terrible youth unemployment problem in this country. It’s particularly bad in New Mexico. Twenty-four percent of Hispanic youths are unemployed. When you have that kind of condition, what you get is a sharp rise in juvenile delinquency and crime,” said Weh.
“So instead of a kid having a job, if he gets involved in juvenile delinquency in a criminal act he’s got a strike against him for life instead of a hand up. In that context, I said, ‘So what if he’s working at Burger King for four bucks an hour? He’s got a job and he’s off the streets and out of trouble and he’s learning something,'” said Weh, who believes this episode raises even more questions about Udall.
“They had a tracker recording me in that group and then they took that little sound bite and they made an ad on it. That’s the problem of politics today. I challenged him yesterday in the debate. He brought that up. I said, ‘Tom, whay don’t you engage in a conversation? Why don’t you be constructive in a dialogue to solve the teen unemployment problem. All you care about it gotcha politics,'” said Weh.
Weh says New Mexico may be a blue state but it’s not a deeply liberal state, stating the Democrats there are blue-collar, gun-owning types who have elected Republicans to the Senate and the governor’s mansion in recent years.
As for a final message, Weh hopes the people of his state relate to him, his story and his vision.
“I’m a normal guy. I came from a middle class background, worked my way up and have enjoyed the American Dream. I want that opportunity for everybody and I’m willing to go to Washington to put common sense to work,” he said.