Republican Rebranding Hits Sad New Low

After GOP candidates across the nation fell flat in the 2012 elections, the Republican National Committee released a report stressing the urgent need for the party to rebrand itself as kinder, gentler, and more inclusive if it hopes to compete in any non-red states in the future.

Unfortunately, that turned out to be hard work. But this was significantly easier:

Photo via ProgressNowNM

That’s a campaign sign for Dianna Duran, New Mexico’s Republican secretary of state. You wouldn’t know from the sign that Duran is the state’s second-highest-ranking Republican; her campaign staff painted over that crucial detail.

As ProgressNowNMreports, it was no accident. The left-leaning site interviewed campaign volunteers, who explained that Duran’s party affiliation would seem “bad in print,” and “probably in northern New Mexico, it would not be a good thing for them to know.”

Indeed, New Mexico’s 3rd congressional district, which covers the northern part of the state, is hostile territory for the GOP. President Obama won it 57 to 39 percent in 2012, and Democratic congressman Ben Ray Luján did even better, capturing 63 percent of the vote.

Of course, the “new” GOP was supposed to be able to compete in districts like NM-3, which is 36 percent Hispanic. But then again, they were also supposed to moderate Mitt Romney’s “self-deportation” immigration plan — not carve out space to the right of it.

Photo: Steve Terrell via Flickr

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