Denish Outspent Martinez

Although she was defeated in last month’s gubernatorial election, Democrat Diane Denish outspent her opponent, Republican Susana Martinez, according to the final campaign finance reports that were submitted on Thursday.

According to the reports, Denish spent more than $7 million in her campaign, including more than a half a million dollars in the final week of the campaign. Denish raised more than $335,000 in the final reporting period which began Oct. 27. She still has more than $187,000 in her campaign treasury, according to her report.

Martinez, who takes office on Jan. 1, spent more than $6.7 million on her successful race, including the Republican primary, in which she beat four opponents.

Martinez, in the final reporting period, raised more than $310,000 and spent more than $510,000. She reported almost $42,000 in the bank.

A good chunk of the money spent by both campaigns went to advertisements, which by the end of the campaign, were almost all negative attacks. Denish, in her concession speech, said she regretted the tone of the campaign, including her own part in creating that tone.

Martinez’s largest contributors in the final report were $20,000 each from Dian Graves Stai, a banker in Abilene, Texas and Yates Petroleum of Artesia. The Yates company gave Martinez’s campaign a total of $66,000, according to records on the Secretary of State’s website.

Other large Martinez contributions in the last days of the campaign were $10,000 each from Stephen Bechtel of the Bechtel Corporation in San Francisco — the largest engineering company in the country, Me-Tex Oil and Gas Inc. of Hobbs and Frac Tech Services, of Cisco, Texas.

Denish’s biggest contributions in the final report were $106,000 from Emily’s List, a national organization that supports female pro-abortion rights candidates; $75,000 from the Democratic Governor’s Association; and $54,850 from a Washington D.C.-based political action committee called Vote New Mexico, which is associated with a national PAC funded largely by unions.

She also received $10,000 each from the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees and the State Democratic Party.

AFSCME had previously given the Denish campaign $200,000, while Emily’s List had contributed $110,000 to the campaign.

Denish kicked in $10,000 of her personal cash to the campaign in the last days, while her daughter Sara Schreiber gave another $10,000 and her husband Herb Denish gave $5,000.