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New Mexico’s Republican Secretary of State Dianna Duran is going to some extreme lengths to hide her party affiliation from voters. Duran’s campaign has painted over the word Republican on her own campaign signs.

ProgressNowNM has the details, “After ProgressNowNM staff spotted Duran campaign signs which had been partially painted over at the Billy the Kid Pageant days in Lincoln last weekend, we asked campaign staffers to explain. Campaign volunteers told us that identifying with the Republican brand is ‘bad in print’ and that her party affiliation was ‘not a good thing for them to know.'”

Picture of the painted over sign via ProgressNM:

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A male volunteer added, Democrats “get a little fussy sometimes”, and “she needs all the help she can get.”

The Republican brand is so damaged that their own candidates are blacking out their party affiliation on campaign signs.

Audio of the Duran campaign saying that her party affiliation is not a good thing for voters to know:

Republicans are not popular in New Mexico, as only 1/3 of the state’s voters are registered Republicans, but the painting over of party affiliation on campaign signs is a silly and desperate move. It’s hard to believe that Duran’s campaign couldn’t afford to print up some new signs without the party affiliation on them. Painting over the signs is the kind of cheesy stunt that was destined to be caught by somebody. There is an obvious blotch of paint that doesn’t match the rest of the sign.

Duran is one of the state’s two highest ranking Republican officials. The other is Gov. Susana Martinez, so one would think it would be to her benefit to play up the fact that Duran is one of the top Republicans in New Mexico if it weren’t for the fact that the New Mexico Republican Party was caught training poll watchers to turn away handicapped and Spanish speaking citizens in 2012. Maybe Duran wants voters to forget how she wasted taxpayer money on a voter fraud investigation that turned up no instances of improperly registered voters actually voting.

The next time the media starts talking about the decline of President Obama or the 2014 Republican “wave” remember that there are Republicans out there who are blacking out their party affiliation on campaign signs.