NM-02: Where Does Tinsley Really Live?

We know where NM-02's Dem Congressional candidate Harry Teague (right) lives and works. He has deep roots in Lea County, having resided there since he was nine years old.

Teague attended Will Rogers Elementary and Houston Junior High in Hobbs, as well as Hobbs High School. He left school at age 17 to help support his family by working an oil field job in the area that paid $1.50 an hour, and he ended up building a highly successful oil services business from scratch in Hobbs. His company now employs more than 250 people in NM-02. Teague also served for eight years on the Lea County Commission. Teague knows the Second District and the people of the Second District know Teague.

It's a different story with GOP candidate Ed Tinsley (left). Tinsley, who owns the multi-state steakhouse chain K-Bob's, has long owned an expensive residence in the exclusive Las Campanas compound in Santa Fe, in NM-03. He's admitted that he uses his Santa Fe home as his operating base for business travel. So why is he running for office down south in New Mexico's Second Congressional District? Because he claims he now spends 90% of his time at his Capitan ranch in in Lincoln County, despite his well-known habit of using his Santa Fe abode much of the time.

Tinsley also competed in the 2002 Repub primary and lost to Steve Pearce, who ultimately won the Congressional seat (and now is running for U.S. Senate). Back then, questions arose about where he really lived and how he could represent the interests of the Second District if he did most of his living in trendy Santa Fe. And in the just-finished GOP primary, rivals C. Earl Greer and Aubrey Dunn Jr. also questioned where Tinsley really lives. Now, right out of the box, Harry Teague is accusing Tinsley of being an outsider. According to an article in the Las Cruces Sun-News:

"I would think that the people of the 2nd Congressional District would want their representative to live in the 2nd Congressional District. And he doesn't," Teague said Wednesday.

... "It is a relevant deal," Teague said. "I wouldn't want my representative living outside my district. If we don't ask our representatives to live in our district, next thing you know they won't even live in our state."

Tinsley argues he lives in Lincoln County, while admitting he has what he calls a "second home" outside the District:

"Our home is here," Tinsley said Friday during an interview at his Lincoln County campaign headquarters. "We've lived here for the last 10 years. We spend most of our time here. But I will say this: We do have a second home."

Tinsley says he regularly has used his Santa Fe residence as "an operating base for business travel," and offers a rather confusing explanation of his living and working arrangements:

"If I could just make a living on our ranch, our home, that would be my preference," he said. "But I've had to operate restaurants in multiple states. I've also in recent years been very active in the restaurant association. I'm traveling. It puts me on the road quite a bit.

"With my business the way it is now, I probably spend 90 percent of my time here," he said. "But it hasn't always been that way. It's been a deal where we've had to balance out a lot of other issues and obligations." 

I'm sure this won't be the last we hear of questions about Tinsley's primary residence.

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