ALBUQUERQUE – Desperate to change the subject after she was roasted for discriminating against a Hispanic conservative and refusing to allow a Republican colleague into the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Michelle Lujan Grisham made the blatantly opportunistic and hypocritical decision to call on Michael Padilla to exit the Lieutenant Governor’s race over decade-old harassment cases.

Despite Padilla’s well-documented history of inappropriate behavior and legal settlements, Lujan Grisham has been a long-time supporter. She did not seem to care about Padilla’s harassment when he ran his first campaign for State Senate in 2012, or when he ran for re-election in 2014, or when he was elected to Senate Leadership, or when he announced his candidacy for Lieutenant Governor. She even posted a picture on Facebook of the two of them dancing together at a Padilla fundraiser last month.

Now Lujan Grisham owes New Mexicans an explanation: why did she go easy on Michael Padilla? If he is unfit to run for Lieutenant Governor, isn’t he also unfit to serve in the New Mexico Senate and hold a leadership position that is elected by fellow Democrats?

“Michelle Lujan Grisham is playing the worst kind of politics,” said RPNM Chairman Ryan Cangiolosi. “Desperate to distract from her own partisan failures, she’s now taken a half-hearted stand against the unacceptable behavior of a long-time ally. If Lujan Grisham actually thinks Padilla’s harassment disqualifies him to run for Lieutenant Governor, she should call on him to immediately resign from office. If mistreatment and harassment means Padilla can’t run a political campaign, it certainly means he can’t serve in the New Mexico Senate.”