Monday, January 31, 2011

Stop Sam?

An antonymous Democrat -- at least he or she claims to be a Democrat -- has started a web site and Facebook page aimed at derailing Albuquerque lawyer Sam Bregman's bid for the chairmanship of the state Democratic Party.

I believe electing Sam Bregman as Democratic Chair is a mistake. Though he says he shares our values, he has been an on-record and public face defending corrupt officials and those implicated in pay-to-play scandals; corruption in not one of our values.
One only needs to take a quick look at the Bregman record to see the opportunity we’d be handing Republicans ... Everytime Sam attacks Susana and the GOP all they will have to say in return is," that's funny coming from the King of pay to play, the guy who has represented every corrupt official in New Mexico; Sam Bregman"

The site then lists the names of Robert Vigil, Marc Correra and other controversial clients, most of which I sited in my column a few weeks ago. Also included is state Rep. Sandra Jeff, (mistakenly listed as a "former" lawmaker, who indeed was involved in an altercation with Rep. Patty Lundstrom in late 2009, though no charges ever resulted.

The "Stop Sam" Facebook page only has 10 people who "like" it. Among them are former Santa Fe County Commissioner Harry Montoya and Michael Segura, whose wife Letitia Montoya also is running for state Democratic Party chairman.

At least these folks aren't anonymous. If anyone indeed is going to "stop Sam," it won't be done anonymously. Even if Javier Gonzales doesn't seek re-election, as he indicated last week, I think this is an early indication of how nasty is contest is going to get.

It should be noted that one of my photos -- the above one with Bregman and Marc Correra is included on the Website. I have my FLICKR political photos copyrighted with a Creative Commons license, which means people can use them as long as they give me credit. I do that so bloggers, etc. can use shots they might need. (I "borrow" photos from others occasionally, though I give credit when possible.)   Needless to say, I had nothing to do with this site (nor any others who have used my pix, including the Club For Growth attack ad on Tom Udall a couple of years ago, which used a photo of mine without giving me credit, or anything)