Allen Weh
The state GOP chairman isn’t the only one calling out Republican gubernatorial candidate Allen Weh for misleading campaigning. The Santa Fe T.E.A. Party is accusing Weh of deceptively claiming he was endorsed by the head of the New Mexico tea party – when there is no statewide tea party organization to head.
Last week, Weh’s campaign put out a news release stating that he was endorsed by the “head of NM Tea Party.” But that’s not accurate, because there’s no such thing. There are local tea party organizations throughout the state. Some are loosely affiliated. Others are not.
The Weh news release stated that Jeanie Coates, “head of New Mexico’s Tea Party Patriots and co-founder of New Mexico Patriots, announced her personal endorsement” of Weh. The body of the news release made clear that Coates wasn’t speaking for the tea party.
But the Santa Fe T.E.A. Party still took issue with the situation because of the headline. Last week, the group put out a news release stating that Weh was misrepresenting a personal endorsement from an individual as an endorsement from all state tea party groups.
“Shame on him for using this headline in his press release – ‘Head of N.M. Tea Party Endorses Weh,’” the release stated. “It is regrettable that candidates and their supporters will try to co-opt this locally-based, grass roots tea party movement to their advantage.”
The group added that it doesn’t endorse candidates.
The Weh campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment on last week’s release from the Santa Fe T.E.A. Party.
The group sent out a second release on Sunday stating that “complaints to the campaign were made and requests to correct the headline were ignored.”
“We expect and demand accuracy in any public statement made by currently elected officials and candidates,” the news release states. “The Santa Fe T.E.A. party believes that political spin is not just deceptive, it is an attempt to sway voter opinion using wrong or misleading information and is an insult to the voters who take the time to research the facts.”