Campaign bus after the fire. (Courtesy photo)
Blaze destroyed multiple vehicles. Investigators want to know what started it.
Investigators continue to search for the cause of a fire that destroyed GOP gubernatorial candidate Allen Weh’s campaign bus and other vehicles at a storage facility in Belen on Friday night.
Though the cause of the fire isn’t yet known, arson has not been ruled out, according to a news release from the Weh campaign. The release said the Weh campaign is “patiently waiting for the results of the fire investigation.”
The bus — a mobile campaign headquarters called Freedom1 — was owned by Weh’s campaign Coalitions Director Tom Greer. The campaign has not decided whether to replace it.
Weh’s graphics had only been laid over the stars and stripes package on the bus three weeks earlier. According to sources at Weh’s headquarters, the bus had made two campaign trips — one to Farmington the other to Alamogordo. Staffers said they had planned to host a Facebook contest to re-name the bus for the remainder of the 2010 campaign.
The bus before the fire. (Courtesy photo)
Before being outfitted for Weh’s campaign, Freedom1 led a group of about 450 firefighters in a “Ride to Remember” motorcycle rally that traveled to sites attacked by terrorist on 9/11 — Ground Zero,the Pentagon and the United #93 crash site in Pennsylvania.
Most recently, Freedom1 was used to support Republican candidates running for office in New Mexico in 2008, and its artwork of stars and stripes became a regular fixture on New Mexico roads.
Weh, a former state GOP chairman, faces Doña Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez, state Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones and public relations professional Doug Turner in the gubernatorial primary.
St. Cyr is a contributing writer for this site and a reporter at 770KKOB.com. He can be reached at peter.stcyr@gmail.com.