A Year Ago, Mark Ronchetti’s Campaign Began in a Blunder – And It’s Only Gotten Worse

It has officially been 365 days, a full turn around the sun, since former TV weatherman Mark Ronchetti launched his campaign for governor by getting fired on-air. The year that followed has been chock full of gaffes, lies, and very public mistakes – which is no surprise when you think about how Mark Ronchetti’s gubernatorial race began: with a premature campaign website launch that cost him his job. Over the past year, Ronchetti has managed to define himself as three things: inexperienced, dishonest, and determined to ban abortion in New Mexico. Let us take you through Mark Ronchetti’s Year-in-Review highlight reel:

1. On October 21, 2022, Mark Ronchetti was forced to resign from his weatherman position at KRQE while on air when his station learned that he had accidentally published his gubernatorial campaign website (oops!):

2. In March, Mark Ronchetti showed he was both out-of-touch and inexperienced in an appearance on KSVP when he stated, “If I’m the one who’s there, and I’m the only guy there to protect you, you’ve got a problem. That’s not the governor’s job. That’s not.” He raised further questions about his leadership skills in April, when he admitted “I’m not somebody who has a deep knowledge” of the problems New Mexicans were facing.

3. June marked the beginning of the general election, in which Mark Ronchetti centered his campaign on banning abortion in New Mexico. A video of Pastor Steve Smothermon emerges, in which the pastor confirms that Ronchetti’s “goal would be to end all abortion in New Mexico”. Ronchetti also repeatedly makes national news for his desperate and dishonest attempts to re-frame his abortion ban, even changing his website twice.

4. Then around September, Mark Ronchetti realized his extremist stance against abortion is probably not the only way he should define his campaign. He starts putting out fear-mongering ads about crime. The only problem? They are all full of lies and even drew the criticism of his GOP primary opponent:

5. Now, in October, we get to Mark Ronchetti’s latest mea culpa: the policy proposals he’s pushing will necesitate billions in cuts to education, health care, and law enforcement. And when asked for a response– his campaign tries to paint the decimation as “reasonable.” There’s one thing that’s clear: either Mark Ronchetti doesn’t know how much his plans cost, or he doesn’t want you to. It seems he’s got a habit of blowing “every budget”…

We’ve seen the disaster of Mark Ronchetti’s first 365 days—what will happen in the last 17 days before election day? Only time will tell…. but there’s no way we’ve seen the last of his gaffes and blunders!

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