Allen Weh
Republican gubernatorial candidate Allen Weh is the only of the five GOP hopefuls who won’t be participating in Saturday’s debate in Las Cruces.
Weh notified the Republican Party of Doña Ana County on Wednesday that he won’t be attending, according to Mark Van Dyke, the county party chairman.
“They cited scheduling conflicts that they were unable to overcome,” Van Dyke said, adding that Weh “had given us a tentative assurance that he would be here” in March.
Van Dyke said the other four gubernatorial candidates have confirmed their participation in the debate.
Weh campaign spokesman Christopher Sanchez, however, said in a statement that the Weh campaign “never confirmed for this event and wish that it had not been erroneously advertised in that manner.”
“Campaign supporters are hosting an event for Allen in Albuquerque at that time,” Sanchez said. “We are looking forward to discussing the issues with Doña Ana County voters when we take part in the upcoming forum with the Las Cruces TEA Party on April 22.”
The TEA Party has not announced that it is hosting a candidate forum on April 22, but its next meeting is scheduled for that day, according to its Web site.
The county GOP announced in March that all five gubernatorial candidates had agreed to participate in Saturday’s debate. The debate is part of the county party’s annual Lincoln-Reagan Dinner, and the cost is $100 per person.
Though the night’s program begins at 5 p.m., the debate is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. The deadline to RSVP has already passed.
Last week, Weh and Pete Domenici Jr. missed a GOP gubernatorial candidate debate in Alamogordo that was attended by the other three – Janice Arnold-Jones, Susana Martinez and Doug Turner. You can read about it from the Alamogordo Daily News.
Update, 11:40 a.m.
The county GOP provided a March 1 e-mail exchange with Weh Campaign Manager Whitney Cheshire (a former columnist for this site) to back up the party’s claim that the Weh campaign had tentatively confirmed the candidate’s attendance at the debate. Here it is, with the e-mail addresses replaced by the names of those involved in the e-mail exchange:
From: Whitney Cheshire
To: Dean Forest
Subject: RE: IMPORTANT UPDATE: Dona Ana Co. GOP Lincoln – Reagan Dinner & Gubernatorial Debate
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2010 19:35:30 -0700
Hi Dean, we can tentatively confirm for the Lincoln Dinner debate but there is a possibility that a scheduling conflict could arise. Until we know for sure please do not reserve any tickets for us as the price is very expensive for most campaign supporters and we don’t want to have to cover the cost for them if they cannot attend or if we cannot attend. Thank you for the invite and we are looking forward to participating. Whitney
***
From: Dean Forest
Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 1:09 PM
To: Whitney Cheshire
Subject: IMPORTANT UPDATE: Dona Ana Co. GOP Lincoln – Reagan Dinner & Gubernatorial Debate
Dean Forest here. We are contacting you to let you know that we need confirmation from your campaign of your participation and attendance in the Dona Ana County Republican Party Lincoln – Reagan Dinner & Gubernatorial Debate BY WEDNESDAY OF THIS WEEK. We had previously e-mailed and/or faxed the details of the dinner and debate to you, however, if you have any more questions please contact me at 505-350-3427 or 575-526-1332 and ask for Dean.
We will also reserve tickets for your campaign so you can have a chance to get your supporters to attend. We will also be taking input from all the campaigns into the specifics of our debate rules.
We look forward to having your candidate participate.
Please contact us by 5 pm this Wednesday to verify that your candidate will be participating in our debate.
Dean Forest
Executive Director,
Dona Ana County Republican Party
505-350-3427
In addition, Cheshire, in an e-mail, wrote that the TEA Party event is actually not a candidate forum. Weh is speaking to the group on that day.