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SANTA FE — I worked at home one day last week, leaving the TV on mute for most of the time.

Or what I thought would be mute most of the time.

But the closer it got to the moment "Oprah" appeared, I couldn't watch the screen without the sound.

First came the slow-mo, nitty-gritty of who knew what and when and why about the icky e-mails and instant messages sent by U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, the disgraced Florida Republican, to teenage male pages.

Then, from about 4 p.m. on, it was nothing but glorious local campaign ads.

Did you know Gov. Bill Richardson saved Cannon Air Force Base?

He apparently did that all by himself, because I didn't see the team that helped him in the ad.

What about Lt. Gov. Diane Denish? She put in some major hours working on the base issue.

There's also a military operation in the Jim Bibb for Attorney General ad.

He's the baby-faced guy whose ad touts him as a former prosecutor and FBI agent. Yeah, he looks like he's 19 at the most. But he is a medevac helicopter pilot and is married with five kids.

And, the 36-year-old has joked at recent forums about how he looks too old for the job. So at least he doesn't take himself too seriously.

As my day on the couch turned into evening, I even saw people who aren't running for something (at least officially) with spots on the tube.

There was perky Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, extolling the virtues of registering, of voting, of having our state's fine ballots in English and Spanish.

Oh, and in Navajo, too.

Can you say missing voter cards in that language?

Me neither.

While Vigil-Giron is term-limited out, there are those who are running for office - Diane Denish, John Dendahl, where are you? - but have no ads . . . .

Next - after like 417 more ads about how horrible Heather is, how misguided Madrid can be - came a Gary King piece.

The spot starts with a tattooed criminal-looking dude morphing into a white-collar, cigar-smoking politician who rips off an old lady's pension fund, asks for more and more cash for prescription drugs, and apparently is responsible for increased utility rates.

"Sometimes, crooks wear neckties and have a nice handshake while they are picking your pocket," the narrator asserts.

That's a new approach, at least. Maybe you don't have to show those grainy black-and-white mug shots of a criminal to get your message across.

Where do they get those amazingly bad photos, anyway?

I bet there's some serious cash in digging out old, unflattering pics of candidates. Or in Photoshopping an opponent into looking like a cross between La Llorona and what my neighbor's dog is going to be for Halloween.

On that note, along came the next string of anti-Heather Wilson, anti-Patsy Madrid ads. Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse.

Wilson voted against a $1,500 bonus for our troops, but voted several times to increase her own salary, at least according to an ad by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Wilson campaign spokesman Enrique Carlos Knell said she voted against the bonus but has never voted to increase her paycheck.

"Congresswoman Wilson has never voted for a pay raise and any claim that she has is a baldfaced lie."

As for the bonus, Knell said Wilson didn't support it "because it would have given a one-time payment only to soldiers that had boots on the ground in Iraq at a certain time."

The ad by Wilson's campaign suggests Madrid is responsible for a judge's sentencing Matthew Ward to probation but not jail on charges that he was an online sexual predator.

Madrid's office counters that it was a judge, not her office, who decided that Ward would get probation. Her office busted him in a sting operation.

"The only thing Heather Wilson wants to change is the subject," Madrid campaign spokeswoman Heather Brewer said.

The ad, replete with the deep-voiced narrator and the background music that gives you the creeps, says: "Today, Ward is back on our streets. And for that, Madrid should not be forgiven.

"It's no wonder Madrid's running a negative campaign."

She's not the only one.

Nash's column runs on Mondays. Call her at 379-8560 or send an e-mail to knashabqtrib.com.