Senate candidates ramp up advertising

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich and his Republican challenger, Nella Domenici, are turning up the heat and going on the attack in their TV ads in the final stretch of election season.

While TV ads reach a wide audience, they don’t come cheap.

Heinrich has spent more than $1 million across broadcast and cable. Domenici has spent more than $2 million in broadcast, cable and streaming ads, including coordinated expenditures with the National Republican Senate Committee.

Heinrich’s most recent ad, which accuses Domenici of supporting a national abortion ban even though she’s on record saying she doesn’t, resulted in a cease-and-desist letter — as well as a testy exchange between attorneys for the two candidates after Domenici demanded Heinrich pull the ad and issue a public apology.

“This is not the first time that Heinrich has been dishonest about Ms. Domenici, and this pattern must end,” states the letter from Domenici’s lawyer to Heinrich’s campaign.

In response, an attorney for Heinrich told Domenici’s legal advisers to go pound sand, saying the ad is true and would keep airing on TV.

“It is not defamatory to point out when a wolf drapes itself in a sheep’s clothing,” Heinrich’s legal counsel wrote to Domenici’s lawyer.

The ad, titled “Choice,” features several women expressing concerns about the overturning of Roe v. Wade and asserting a vote for Domenici is a vote for a national abortion ban — an assertion the Democratic Party of New Mexico has repeated in a series of glossy mailers.

“Mitch McConnell and the MAGA Republicans are the ones who recruited Nella Domenici,” one of the women says in Heinrich’s ad, referring to the minority leader in the U.S. Senate.

“The Republicans have an agenda, and that agenda is to get rid of abortion in America,” another woman says in the ad.

Days before Heinrich released his abortion ad, Domenici had released an abortion ad of her own titled “Trusted.” In it, she said she opposes any federal ban.

“Abortion should be safe, legal and rare,” she says in the ad. “Women should be trusted, respected and babies should be loved and wanted.”

After Heinrich posted his attorney’s response to the cease-and-desist letter on X, formerly known as Twitter, Domenici’s campaign manager, Noah Jennings, wrote on the social media platform Domenici has been “unimpeachably clear in articulating her position” on a national abortion ban.

“The fact that you now have to write a three-page letter doing more mental gymnastics than the US Olympic team could handle is telling,” he wrote in a tweet directed at Heinrich that included Domenici’s “Trusted” ad. “You are lying to New Mexicans in your desperation to hold on to your political ambitions.”

While the two candidates have been at odds from the get-go, their rivalry has only grown more intense in recent weeks — and it’s on full display to any New Mexican with a TV.

Both candidates’ initial TV ads were more introductory in nature, with Domenici establishing her New Mexico roots and Heinrich reminding voters he’s been fighting on their behalf.

But a month ago, they both went negative.

In Heinrich’s case, three of the four TV ads he’s released so far have attacked Domenici, describing her as a carpetbagger who is a puppet of the MAGA movement. One of his ads even asserts Domenici “stood with the Chinese Communist Party a million times over.”

Heinrich’s campaign said the ads are meant to ensure voters know the truth.

“Nella Domenici is trying to buy New Mexico’s Senate seat using money she made as a hedge fund executive and outsourcing American jobs, and New Mexicans deserve to know the truth about what will happen if she is elected: a national abortion ban, tax cuts for billionaires, and devastating cuts to Social Security and Medicare,” Ronja Abel, a spokesperson for Heinrich’s campaign, said in a statement. “The future of New Mexico is on the line, and we can’t afford to let Nella Domenici, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump take us backward.”

Jennings characterized Heinrich’s ads as a sign of desperation.

“As a 12-year incumbent, Martin Heinrich doesn’t have a record of accomplishments he’s proud enough to run on, so he has resorted to a series of intentionally false advertisements to try to tear Nella down,” he said in a statement. “Martin Heinrich’s desperation to hold on to his political ambitions is clear — the dishonesty we are seeing in his advertisements is insulting and disrespectful to the voters of New Mexico, and particularly women.”

Domenici’s campaign has released seven TV ads so far, three of which have cast Heinrich in a negative light. They assert, among other things, Heinrich has not only failed New Mexico but is a dangerous politician.

“Heinrich opposed vital funding for border agencies, surrendering control to the cartels, throwing open the border, unleashing a wave of illicit drugs, leaving New Mexicans to face the fatal consequences,” states Domenici’s latest ad, titled “Fatal.”

Abel said Domenici’s ads “are nothing more than false and dangerous distractions from the reality” Republicans will impose a national abortion ban if she wins election.

At least three outside groups — the Republican Party of New Mexico, Jefferson Rising and Election Freedom Inc. — have also released ads attacking Heinrich, although Election Freedom pulled its ad buy after just one week.

The Republican Party of New Mexico’s lone ad so far was in response to Heinrich’s ad linking Domenici to the Chinese Communist Party.

“It’s hypocrite Heinrich who’s earned the label ‘Made in China,’ “ the state GOP ad states. “Instead of standing up for us, Heinrich stood with the Chinese Communist Party by eliminating tariffs designed to protect American manufacturing jobs.”