Governor? No Weh!

It has been a week since we attended the Rio Rancho Tea Party Express on September 1st, and while we have been blogging over the course of the last few days about what we saw and heard at the Tea Party, we've saved this post especially for today.

According to NMPolitics.net, Weh made his formal announcement entering the race for New Mexico Governor via Facebook -- stating that he is a "likely candidate."

Weh, now officially a candidate, joins Janice Arnold-Jones and Susana Martinez with one or two candidates still considering a run on the Republican side of the ballot. (Former US-Rep. Heather Wilson among the group.)

So how does this relate to last week's Tea Party? Weh used the rally as a tool to advance his campaign.

While at the rally, at least two paid Weh staffers (we spoke with one of them) were distributing literature to the crowd. We caught one of them on camera, which can be viewed on our Flickr page. In another photo, you can see one of the crowd enthusiastically holding Weh's literature along with his Anti-Obama sign. According to his Twitter account, Weh himself was also at the event.

Weh certainly is not the first Republican candidate for office which has cashed in on events like last Tuesday's Tea Party (In fact, we also spoke with Adam Kokesh at the rally and got his literature as well) by feeding on the misinformation of the crowd and organizers, but seeing his campaign willingly participating in the event is distressing.

Weh's literature stated that voters should "Think Different," but nothing we saw from Weh shows that he is encouraging free thought.

Allen, are the people we saw at the Tea Party representative of the voters you want in 2010?

Those with hate-filled signs and woefully misinformed "facts"?

Are the empty shouts of rhetoric what we can expect from your campaign as well?

Where were you, Allen? Why did you not publicly condemn and discourage signs like this? New Mexico does not need leaders who turn blind eyes to racially charged and blatantly disrespectful depictions of our President.

Sure, people can "Think Differently", but when they are being told lies and half-truths, we can't expect too much, can we?