Democratic 3rd Congressional District candidate Don Wiviott picked a fight this weekend when he unveiled an ad attacking primary opponent Ben R. Luján. Now the two are accusing each other of misleading the public in an increasingly contentious battle.
The AFL-CIO and other union groups plan to jump into the fight by holding a news conference on Tuesday to, according to a release, “set the record straight on Don Wiviott’s misleading attacks on Ben Ray Luján.”
In the ad, which you can view by clicking here, Wiviott claims that Luján hasn’t worked hard to become successful.
“Luján was a blackjack dealer in
The Luján campaign put out a “fact check” news release today calling Wiviott’s ad false and misleading. The release claims that Luján was never a blackjack dealer in
As for the statement about Luján’s “famous father” getting him a state job, the release states that Luján “was elected overwhelmingly by the people of the third Public Regulation Commission district to represent them, and his peers elected him three years in a row to serve as chairman of the PRC.”
The Luján campaign doesn’t dispute the claim about him missing meetings of the Telehealth Commission, but says that “has nothing to do with his elected duties as a Public Regulation commissioner despite the deceptive tie Don Wiviott tries to make here. His membership on the Telehealth Commission is unpaid. Ben Ray Luján missed meetings to perform his duties as Public Regulation commissioner, which Commissioner Luján believes take priority since he represents the people of the third district as a PRC Commissioner.”
The Luján campaign also took issue with the claim that Luján “doesn’t even show up.”
“He has participated in 97 percent of the PRC meetings since he was elected. And in 2007 and 2008 he participated in 100 percent of the commission’s meetings,” the release states.
In response to the Luján release, the Wiviott campaign put out its own release stating that Luján’s fact check “deserves its own fact check.” Luján “was a Las Vegas card dealer for two years,” the Wiviott release states, citing 2004 and 2007 articles in The Santa Fe New Mexican as proof. The release states that Luján worked as a dealer at
In addition, the Wiviott release states, 11 of the Telehealth Commission meetings Luján missed where held on days “when no official PRC meetings were scheduled.”
The bottom line? It’s all spin. Look for this race to get nastier as the June 3 primary approaches.
Update, May 20, 9:40 a.m.
Luján unveiled a new TV ad last night attacking Wiviott. I don’t have the video, but here’s the transcript:
“I’m Ben Ray Luján and I approve this message. Multimillionaire developer Don Wiviott’s untrue attack ads can’t hide his real record. Wiviott’s
Update, May 20, 3:15 p.m.
Here’s Luján’s newest ad, courtesy of Kate Nash at The Santa Fe New Mexican: