If anyone thought Gov. Susana Martinez was going to spend her re-election campaign reading to kids, think again.In a campaign fundraising letter that went out this weekend, Martinez launched scathing attacks against four of her five Democratic opponents. (Sen. Linda Lopez might be feeling left out.
Here's some of what the letter said with some context in brackets:
From January 1st until the middle of March, I was unable to ask for contributions for my campaign. My Democrat opponents were not under the same restrictions and have been out furiously raising money. Well, raising money and raising eyebrows along the way.
The Albuquerque Journal reported today that Attorney General Gary King's top corruption prosecutor complained that King may have broken state law by how he tried to raise money from government employees.
[That's a reference to Assistant Attorney General Chris Lackmann, director of the Attorney General’s Government Accountability Division, who was informed he'd been terminated last week. King told the Journal that Lackmann’s firing has “absolutely nothing” to do with the complaint Lackmann sent to a district attorney in November. King also denied that his request for personal information violated state law.]
KOB-TV reported that a man who made national news when his ranch was accused of torturing and abusing children held a fundraiser for Democrat Howie Morales on Thursday. The man wants to help Morales, because our approach to fighting child abuse has apparently been too tough.
[Morales was invited to visit Deming voters by Scott Chandler who operates the Tierra Blanca High Country Youth Ranch near Hillsboro. The ranch made national headlines for alleged abuse and a death of a teen at the ranch. Morales' campaign released a statement saying "The Chandler family are among a large and diverse community from the area who have been gracious enough to support my campaign.”]
And ultra-liberal Alan Webber has been raising money at exclusive champagne brunches and holding events from San Francisco to elite members-only clubs in New York, hoping to raise campaign cash from a network of national liberals. Webber is a darling of the Left and extreme environmentalists for promoting radical policies, like having the government mandate a $4.50 per gallon minimum gas price to discourage people from driving their cars.
[Hitting Webber for "exclusive champagne brunches etc. Probably violates the political "Glass House Rule." Martinez surely has had a few fancy fundraisers as she's courted money from huge GOP donors all over the country. But, if Webber is the nominee, this might be a way to inoculate herself when the Dems start screaming "The Koch Brothers!" etc.]
Another Democrat, Lawrence Rael, is a lobbyist and government insider. How aggressive will he be raising campaign money? So aggressive that he was previously found to have violated the federal Hatch Act for mixing political campaign activities and official government work.
[That's a reference to Rael's 2008 campaign for lieutenant governor. My colleague Milan Simonich did a blog on this at his former job last year. "A letter in November 2009 from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel in Washington said it had “concluded that Mr. Rael’s current candidacy for lieutenant governor of New Mexico is in violation of the Hatch Act.” It went on to say that he was retiring from his regional government job “and we have no evidence that he willfully violated the act, we have decided not to pursue disciplinary action in this matter.”]
It's not going to get any nicer, folks.
UPDATE 7:45 pm: Democratic candidate Lawrence Rael responded to the Martinez email's comments about him:
“Contrary to what Susana Martinez would have you believe, there is a reason that the Office of the Special Counsel chose not to pursue the Hatch Act allegation, because it was without merit. ... It’s telling how little she has to attack me with, when her allegations fall apart under the slightest scrutiny.”
Posts
