Dems continue to focus on Tinsley’s Santa Fe home

Democrats will present Republican 2nd Congressional District candidate Ed Tinsley with a mock Santa Fe “Resident of the Month Award” later today, the latest political stunt in their effort to highlight the home he owns there.

The award will be presented on the Santa Fe Plaza at 3:30 p.m. by Santa Fe Mayor David Coss.

Tinsley owns a ranch in Capitan in the 2nd District and a home in Santa Fe in the 3rd District. While Tinsley votes, pays taxes and says he spends most of his time at the ranch, Democrats, including his opponent, Harry Teague, have repeatedly accused him of not living in the district he is running to represent.

Today’s ceremony comes on the heels of the Tinsley campaign erroneously sending fund-raising letters to the Democratic Party’s state headquarters addressed to a number of high-profile Democrats late last week. This week, about 100 fund-raising letters from the Tinsley campaign have also arrived at a post office box owned by Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tom Udall, and one fund-raising letter has arrived at the home of Teague.

“Ed Tinsley definitely got the attention of certain residents of Santa Fe with his fundraising letter campaign to New Mexico Democrats in the north,” Josh Geise, executive director of the state Democratic Party, said in a news release announcing the mock Santa Fe award. “Even though we won’t be contributing to his campaign, we did want to show him we care.”

Tinsley, according to the release, “will be recognized for his outstanding service to Santa Fe, including his tenure on the board of the Valle National Park and his abysmal employment practices as the head of the Tinsley Hospitality Group. Mayor Coss will be joined by County Clerk Valerie Espinoza, state Representative-elect Brian Egolf and County Commissioner Liz Stefanics.”

Egolf received two fund-raising letters from Tinsley, one sent to the Democratic headquarters and the other sent to Udall’s address.

Tinsley will also be presented, according to the news release, “with a basket of mementos from Santa Fe so he can carry a piece of Santa Fe with him as he visits southern New Mexico to campaign for Congress.” Ben Ray Luján, the Democratic candidate for the 3rd District seat, won’t be able to attend the ceremony, according to the news release.

“Ben regrets that he won’t be able to attend the mayor’s press conference to honor one of his constituents, Ed Tinsley,” Mark Nicastre, Luján’s communications director, said in the release. “Ben hopes to get Ed’s support in November and looks forward to representing him in Congress. After all, his home in Santa Fe is only about 15 minutes away from our campaign office.”

The Tinsley campaign didn’t have an immediate comment. Though Tinsley won’t likely attend today’s tongue-in-cheek ceremony, his restaurant business is located on the Santa Fe Plaza near the location of the ceremony.

Update, 2:50 p.m.

Jim Pettit, Tinsley’s communications director, called today’s ceremony “a silly political stunt that’s wasting taxpayer resources” — the salaries of the elected officials who are participating.

“We’d rather engage with Teague on issues that matter, but he refuses to do that,” Pettit said.