fielding a call from the local Republicans

I got a call from the local Republican effort last night. I'm not exactly in the bullseye of their publicity effort (538 uses the jargon "ground game" here, and notes that the Democrats are way ahead of the Republicans nationwide), since I don't answer the only landline I own, don't own a television (and so don't see any television ads), don't listen to the radio, and rarely read the local paper.

They actually called my wife's house, and I fielded the call there.

The woman calling asked which of these three issues are the most important to me

• jobs/the economy
• national security
• some third thing, I forget what

I noticed that the questions did not refer to "character issues" or "the war" or "gas prices" or abortion. It was the sort of ad I'd expect at this stage of the campaign: centrist, middle-America stuff meant to find undecided voters, etc.

There were three or four more questions, all meant to let me know who was on the Republican ticket. Which was news to me, since until then I had no idea who was running against Ben Lujan (the younger) for the open 3rd New Mexico Congressional seat. Turns out it's someone name Dan East.

For the life of me I couldn't figure what the call was supposed to accomplish. Maybe the Republican Party is gathering data, but I doubt they'd put real people on calls like that when they could do the same thing with a robot call.

What a mess. I'll be shocked if the Republicans don't end up losing all four open seats (one Senate, three House) in New Mexico this year. Not only are they disorganized, but all the Democrats running for the national offices are members of New Mexico political families or multistate families like the Udalls.