Councilor Dolores Archuleta, Council candidate Jim Harbison and Councilor Gil Jones, left to right, were all endorsed by the Building Industry Association of Southern New Mexico in this flyer. The organization’s director is also treasurer of the political committee that’s at the center of the complaint filed with the city clerk.
Jobs for Las Cruces PAC told people it was raising money for the Las Cruces municipal election, but now it says the money is for 2010 county and state races
A Las Cruces political action committee raised more than $20,000 at an August fundraiser after apparently telling people the money would be spent on the upcoming city council election. Now, the group says it isn’t spending any of the money on the election and, therefore, doesn’t need to file a campaign finance report with the city.
Las Cruces resident Greg Lennes filed a formal complaint with the city clerk Monday alleging that Jobs for Las Cruces Political Action Committee needs to file such a report.
City Clerk Esther Martinez said in an interview that she’s looking into Lennes’ complaint. She said the situation puts the committee in a gray area in which it may be violating the city’s election code. If the group raised money to help city council candidates, Martinez said, the group “would have to report it to me.”
“They haven’t filed anything with me, and Mr. (David) Roewe (the committee’s treasurer) is aware of this information because he had requested a copy of the campaign ordinance,” Martinez said.
Such a report would have been due on Oct. 22. A group can be fined $50 per day for every day it’s late in filing a report.
The election code states that a political committee – a group of two or more people that “raises, collects, expends or contributes money or any other things of value for the purpose of supporting or opposing a candidate in a municipal election” – must file a report of any expenditures and contributions related to the municipal election.
Roewe was quoted Sunday by the Las Cruces Sun-News as saying that the money the committee is raising is not for the city election, but “is for other races, such as the legislative races, gubernatorial elections and others like that next year.” Asked in an interview today if it was true that the committee had not raised or spent any money on the city council election, Roewe said, “That’s correct.”
But then he added this: “We raised money. Did we use the city election as a gathering ground? Oh hell yes. … We used it as a rallying point,” he said. “You do whatever you have to do to raise funds. … This is a call for the business community to get up.”
Letter states that fundraising was for city election
Roewe’s comments came after he was asked about a Sept. 14 fundraising letter signed by local businessmen John Moscato and Tom Hutchinson on behalf of the committee. The letter states that the committee had “raised more than $20,000 for the upcoming election” at an Aug. 27 fundraiser.
What election? The rest of the letter is about the city council election. It states that candidates Gill Sorg and Olga Pedroza “are not business friendly” and Councilor Sharon Thomas’ “voting record and activism speak for themselves.”
“This will be a costly election, but much more costly if we don’t get involved now and take a stand to elect pro business candidates into the city council,” the letter states. “If you have contributed, thank you. If you haven’t, please fill out the enclosed card and send an investment in the future of your business.”
Roewe is the executive director of the Building Industry Association of Southern New Mexico (BIA), and, though he said the BIA and committee are separate entities, the committee is using the BIA’s phone and fax numbers as its contact numbers. The BIA has endorsed Sorg’s opponent, Councilor Gil Jones; Pedroza’s opponent, Councilor Dolores Archuleta; and Thomas’ challenger, Jim Harbison.
Roewe contends that, regardless of how the committee raised the money, the committee plans to use it for county and state races in the 2010 election. The PAC filed a report of contributions and expenditures with the secretary of state’s office on Oct. 8.
According to the report, the PAC raised $29,900 and spent $5,282.02. It also had a little more than $2,000 in in-kind contributions.
Most of the expenses, Roewe said, were reimbursements to the BIA for purchasing voter lists and payments to a contractor who created “a database of businesses and their employees throughout the district” whose “jobs depended on having business-friendly candidates in office.”
The Oct. 22 city finance reports filed by the candidates endorsed by the BIA don’t reflect any contributions from the committee. The committee’s report to the secretary of state also doesn’t reflect any contributions to city council candidates or any other expenditures related to the city election.
Lennes’ concerns
But Lennes and others have expressed two concerns. The first relates to a telephone poll in the District 6 race between Thomas and Harbison conducted several weeks ago. Thomas says the poll was “clearly aimed” at her because it asked people whether they would vote for Harbison or Thomas if they knew one was an “extreme environmentalist.” Lennes and others have labeled the call a “push poll” even though the caller didn’t identify Thomas as an “extreme environmentalist.”
Thomas said Roewe and others have used such labels to describe her in public.
Harbison said he didn’t pay for the poll and doesn’t know who did. Roewe said the committee didn’t pay for it either – or it would have been reported to the secretary of state – and added that he also doesn’t know who paid for it.
The second concern Lennes has raised is that the next finance reports in the city election aren’t due until December. He suspects that the committee might have waited to spend its money until after last week’s finance report was due so it wouldn’t be reported until after the election.
That, Lennes said, might be beneficial to the candidates the BIA has endorsed because all three have prided themselves during the campaign on not taking any special interest money.
Lennes said he believes the committee’s fundraising should have been reported to the city.
“They raised funds directly for the local election. It says that right there in the (Sept. 14) letter,” Lennes said. “I don’t know how much clearer that could be.” He also questioned whether the committee raised the money on “false pretenses” if it didn’t intend to spend it on the city election.
Regardless of what the committee told potential donors to raise money, Roewe said it’s a state PAC and not involved in the city council races.
“I report to the state, and my stuff’s on the state Web site,” he said. “We’re pretty damn transparent.”
Martinez said she hopes to get to the bottom of the situation and respond to Lennes’ complaint by the end of the week. The election is Tuesday.