Doug Turner
Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Turner originally reported in his finance report filed last week that he received a $5,000 contribution from David Doyle, a state House candidate from Corrales.
Turner reported that the contribution came on April 5, the final day of the reporting period.
But Doyle never actually contributed any amount to the campaign, and Turner has now filed an amended report that doesn’t list a contribution from Doyle.
I became aware a couple of days after Turner filed the original report last Monday that Doyle never made the contribution. So I contacted Turner Campaign Director Carri Phillis about it. After looking into the situation, she told me that Doyle’s wife, not Doyle, had signed the check, and the contribution should have been reported under her name.
Phillis told me the Turner campaign would file an amended report later in the week to reflect that the contribution came from Doyle’s wife.
So I was surprised over the weekend when I checked Turner’s amended finance report and found that something entirely different happened. I e-mailed Phillis to ask why the contribution was removed from the report instead of the name of the contributor being changed.
“This has been a crazy week of travel etc. and I take full responsibility for the confusion and the error,” she responded. “I had thought that the contribution had actually been received but I was wrong.”
She said Doyle pledged to make the contribution but had not actually made it.
Fair enough. The change brings Turner’s total fundraising from October 1 to April 5 down from $400,771.92 to $395,771.92, with half of that coming in the form of loans from Turner’s public relations company to his campaign.