With Trump at bay, Ronchetti can't be counted out

“I’m a Christian conservative who used to be a Republican until the Orange One. I’m afraid that has taken a part of my soul, and that’s not coming back,” Ronchetti said.

Then a television weatherman, Ronchetti wasn’t running for office when he denigrated Trump in 2019. By the next year, Ronchetti stopped being a mudslinger or a truth-slinger. He became a candidate for the U.S. Senate and backpedaled on Trump.

“Mark was obviously joking in that clip and never left the Republican Party,” said a spokesman for Ronchetti’s Senate campaign. “Mark has been clear from Day One of this campaign that he supports President Trump and his policies.”

Did Ronchetti really change his view of Trump? Or did the weatherman mouth a different position only because he entered professional politics while Trump was in power? Clarity wasn’t a strong point for Ronchetti.

He’s a natural politician, though. Ronchetti proved in his late-starting 2020 Senate campaign he is capable of winning over enough independents and conservative Democrats to be a dangerous adversary.

Ronchetti lost the Senate race by 6 percentage points while receiving more votes than Trump did in New Mexico. That meant a bloc of New Mexicans cast their ballots for the odd couple of Ronchetti and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Ronchetti returned this year to crush four featherweights in the Republican primary for governor.

So dominant was Ronchetti that he got more votes in Bernalillo County — 21,893 — than second-place finisher Rebecca Dow received in all 33 counties.

Dow showered praise on Trump. She also rode a horse, fired a pistol and appeared alongside rural sheriffs. Neither her allegiance to Trump nor her Texas-style campaign impressed voters.

Ronchetti was wise enough not to seek favor from Trump this year. In a candidate questionnaire for The New Mexican, Ronchetti said Biden defeated Trump for the presidency.

By stating the obvious, Ronchetti made sure he wouldn’t receive the kiss of death in the general election — an endorsement from Trump. Ronchetti kept enough distance from Trump to give at least an appearance of autonomy.

Ronchetti is the underdog in his campaign against Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. He also is by far the strongest candidate Republicans could have nominated, though supposedly influential members of the GOP tried to block his advance.

Republican Party regulars were so out of touch with the general public they denied Ronchetti a place on the primary ballot at their nominating convention. He had to submit petition signatures to qualify. Ronchetti won the five-way primary with 58 percent of the vote.

Trump steered clear of New Mexico’s gubernatorial primary. In contrast, the former president is invested in the Arizona governor’s race. That’s a good development for Democrats.

Trump endorsed Kari Lake, a former anchorwoman at the Fox television station in Phoenix. Lake claims Trump carried Arizona in 2020, ignoring a recount and a Republican-sponsored review of the election that showed Biden won.

If Lake takes the Republican gubernatorial nomination next month, her insistence election fraud robbed Trump of victory will inspire Democrats.

Many Republicans also see potential for Trump’s involvement in Arizona to backfire. Outgoing Gov. Doug Ducey last week endorsed Republican businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson instead of Trump’s candidate for governor.

Republicans from the world of television, Ronchetti and Lake have different views of Trump.

Lake campaigns as though she can’t win without Trump, though Arizonans rejected him two years ago. Ronchetti understands Trump could only hurt his chances in New Mexico’s general election.

Trump belatedly backing Ronchetti would please no one more than Lujan Grisham. She would pick up a hundred votes every time the former president opened his mouth.