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I've seen a lot of dirty tricks covering local elections across five states. One of the lowest was in Montana when a candidate recruited someone with the same name as his primary opponent and convinced the stooge to file for the same office and then disappear from the press. It worked, too, diluting the votes of his real Republican primary opponent.

A candidate whose lust for power is so strong, and whose ethics are so challenged, isn't fit for office.

It’s been a while, but the political stunt Deb Halaand's gubernatorial campaign pulled last week was one of the most irresponsible dirty tricks I’ve seen in state politics in years.

The Haaland campaign last week posted specific information about four houses her Democratic rival Sam Bregman owns in Albuquerque, Angel Fire and Houston. One of them is the Albuquerque home of Bregman's 88-year-old mother, another the Houston home of his daughter and grandchildren.

It was beyond irresponsible, it was reprehensible.

We heard the weak explanation from Haaland's campaign manager, about how property information is "freely available" and "there are ways to look this up."

But we all know what Haaland's campaign was up to: They were trying to portray Bregman as a "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" lawyer while Haaland was the poor single mom who put down the booze for baby wipes after racking up DWI convictions in her young adult years.

It didn't work, and it won't work, because Haaland was recently among Washington's elites as Interior secretary during the Biden administration.

Since the Bregman family doxing, we haven't heard from Haaland herself. We've only heard weak excuses from her campaign spokesperson, Hannah Menchhoff, just as we did after Haaland's association with disgraced sexual predator Jeffery Epstein came to light earlier this year.

"Deb never had any interaction with him and the way in which the plane was chartered was never communicated to her," Menchhoff said about Haaland's September 2014 flight from Santa Fe to Washington aboard a private jet chartered by Epstein.

That's why I affectionately call her know-nothing Haaland. But her blissful unawareness is becoming concerning.

Haaland herself doesn't answer questions, such as why she flew on Epstein's private plane. But heck, who hasn't?

In Haaland's latest deafening silence, Menchhoff says the campaign used property information freely available on public websites to dox the Bregman family. But it's Haaland who needs to answer why her campaign published Bregman's Bernalillo County Assessor Office parcel ID numbers, which are just a click away from street addresses.

Whose idea was it in the first place?

Did Haaland approve the doxing in advance? Was she unaware it had happened until Bregman rightfully protested? Did she know nothing, again?

Who conceded it was incredibly poor judgment and decided to take the information down from the campaign's website in less than 24 hours? Was it the campaign's attorney, the spokesperson, the IT guy?

Has anyone from Haaland's campaign been fired for the dirty trick? If so, who? If not, why not?

Has Haaland apologized to Bregman? Can we expect more of this?

And what the hell was Haaland, or whoever, thinking in such a tense political era when crazies are vandalizing political headquarters here in Albuquerque with regularity, attempting assassinations and firing gunshots at the homes of elected officials?

Moreover, not only is Bregman a high-profile political candidate, he's the district attorney of Bernalillo County. Posting information about where he and his family live was an affront to every law enforcement official in New Mexico and their families.

Or, as Bregman put it to Haaland's face at a candidate forum Saturday afternoon in Galisteo, it was "an epic failure of judgment."

"You want to post that to get some political shot in? That's called doxing. It's not right and I can't believe we have actually stooped to that level in this campaign," Bregman told Haaland at Saturday's candidate forum. "My family in danger because of a political campaign? Ridiculous, ridiculous."

Questions about Haaland's ethics and judgment have been percolating for years.

During the COVID lockdown, Haaland evaded gathering restrictions by keeping the cargo doors open at her "open-air" wedding reception at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa in August 2021. Masked and vaccinated guests for the sadly ill-fated marriage at New Mexico’s most coveted resort included U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and a presentation by the Pueblo Sisters, which didn't include Warren.

In 2022, the Southwest Public Policy Institute filed a complaint alleging Haaland violated the Hatch Act while Interior secretary by using her official authority to endorse a partisan candidate.

Protect the Public's Trust filed a complaint in 2022 alleging Haaland failed to properly report bank accounts or assets on financial disclosure forms while earning a congressional salary.

In 2023, the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources investigated Haaland regarding her ties to the Pueblo Action Alliance, an extremist special interest group her daughter worked for and that lobbied the Interior Department in a direct conflict of interest.

Then came Haaland's surprise appearance in the Epstein files.

What's next, deeper political ties with disgraced former colleague Eric Swalwell than hitherto known? Doesn't Haaland know Swalwell well? Sure she does. They served together on the House Judiciary Committee from 2019-21. Haaland referred to Swalwell as a friend in a video conference with him in July 2020.

"Thanks for having me Eric!" Haaland posted on X after the show, a post that has since been scrubbed from her website.

However, their relationship has apparently chilled, reading between the lines of a Haaland statement, now that she knows a little more about her former House colleague.

"Eric Swalwell's actions are horrific and he has no business being in positions of power," Haaland dumped Swalwell overboard like chum on a shark-hunting boat. "After we learned about this, I immediately removed his name from my supporters, and rejected the endorsement."

Another know-nothing Haaland moment, and another questionable association with a sexual predator. That's two that I know of.

Nothing ever comes of any of it, but there is a pattern. I think I'm seeing why Sandia Pueblo, Ohkay Owingeh and the Jicarilla Apache Nation have endorsed Bregman.

Beyond the lingering concerns about Haaland's ethics and judgment, the Bregman family doxing also raises questions about who's in charge of Haaland's campaign and whether the candidate herself has the leadership skills necessary to serve as the state's chief executive. If she can't manage her own campaign staff, how can she manage the vast apparatus of state government?

Haaland herself needs to answer questions about her associations with unscrupulous sex offenders — that no one seems to have known anything about — and the doxing of Bregman's family. I've heard enough from her paid campaign spokesperson, no one is voting for or against Menchhoff.

If Haaland can't answer questions herself, how can she handle legitimate inquiries as governor? Do we swear in Menchhoff instead?

Voters have only a few weeks before early voting for the June 2 primary begins on May 16 and absentee ballots are mailed out beginning May 5 to get some answers about Haaland's ethics and judgment. It's time for Haaland to provide them herself if she expects our votes.

"What did you know, when did you know it, and what have you done about it" are questions that come to mind.

Jeff Tucker is a Journal columnist, former Opinion editor and a member of the Journal’s Editorial Board. He can be reached a jtucker@abqjournal.com.