Ronchetti Wapo

Weatherman Mark Ronchetti Wapo of New Mexico knows when the winds have changed. Unfortunately, it may be too late for him to avoid a surprise late summer storm.

Ronchetti Wapo had retired as the long-time chief meteorologist for Albuquerque’s CBS and Fox affiliates to run as a Republican for an open U.S. Senate seat in 2020, falling only six points short that year.

Determined to make up ground this time around in what everyone anticipated would be more favorable conditions for Republicans, Ronchetti decided to challenge incumbent Gov.

Michelle Lujan Grisham this year during what everyone anticipated would be an easier electoral climate for their party this time around.

Ronchetti’s aides reported internal polling gave him a one-point lead in mid-June, but that was before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and rocked American politics to its core.

A subsequent Albuquerque Journal survey conducted Aug. 19-25 puts Ronchetti down seven points with 57 percent of likely voters saying abortion should always or mostly remain legal.

Ronchetti Wapo

The New Mexico election is another indication of Republicans’ efforts to moderate their extreme views on women’s reproductive rights.

Ronchetti Wapo recently removed language on his website that described him as “strongly Pro-Life” and cast him as an “argumentative champion” on this issue. Instead, it states he seeks “a middle ground,” permitting abortions only in cases of rape or incest with protection for the mother’s life.

Ronchetti acknowledges supporting banning abortion after 15 weeks but notes that such legislation requires approval from New Mexico’s Democratic state legislature; additionally, he pledges to safeguard access to contraception throughout.

Ronchetti Wapo recently declared in a television commercial that she is “pro-life,” but believes we can all come together on policy that upholds our shared values.”

Compare that to Ronchetti’s website in October 2020: “Life should be protected – at all stages… He believes unborn babies possess souls, is capable of feeling emotions, and are just like human beings – they just happen to be living inside their mother.”

Thank God for the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, a site that regularly downloads content across the web and makes it easy to track when Republican candidates alter their web pages to minimize references to Donald Trump or abortion – as many have done recently.

Recently, all kinds of Republicans have been busy whitewashing their records on abortion in an effort to appear moderate, conciliatory, and anything but antiabortion.

Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters recently gained notoriety for no longer declaring himself “100% pro-life” and dropping a plank from his platform that supported federal personhood law. But he is far from alone in this decision.

Tiffany Smiley, the Republican challenger to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), declares in a new commercial: “I am pro-life but I oppose a federal abortion ban.”

Bo Hines, a North Carolina congressional candidate running in this spring’s primary, advocated for an outright federal abortion ban with “no exceptions.” However, his website has since gone silent on the subject.

Colorado state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, running for a district that includes the Denver suburbs, made headlines during her primary campaign with her opposition to Plan B morning-after pills. However, after being nominated by Republicans, she removed language about upholding the “Sanctity of Life” and stopped featuring videos of her speech at a March for Life rally.

Politicians in the final days often gravitate to the middle, but Republicans seem more cynical than usual about their shift away from extreme positions on abortion. There’s little indication that any of these candidates have actually altered their minds; most appear simply to adjust their makeup.

Ronchetti is the poster child for this issue. Steve Smothermon, senior pastor of Legacy Church in Albuquerque, revealed in a July sermon that Ronchetti told him he wouldn’t be elected if he ran on banning abortion altogether. “His goal would be to end abortion in New Mexico – how do I know this?’ Because I spent hours talking with him,” Smothermon assured his congregation.

Ronchetti’s campaign denied the report, yet his words echo those of then-candidate Glenn Youngkin when he was caught on tape last summer saying he was holding back on abortion to avoid alienating independent voters ahead of Virginia’s gubernatorial election.

As Youngkin promised at that time: “When I’m governor and have a majority in the House, we can start going on offense!”

After the court reversed Roe, Youngkin promised a 15-week ban would take effect in January 2023. However, that was before Kansas voters rejected an antiabortion ballot measure and Democrats unexpectedly won a special congressional election in New York that made abortion rights the issue.

Red states will likely continue passing bans; however, how hard GOP leaders push in purple states will depend on how much backlash the Supreme Court has left them after November.

Republicans will keep their fingers crossed until they see those numbers.

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