Allen Weh
Republican gubernatorial candidate Allen Weh has made a big fuss about state GOP Chairman Harvey Yates inserting himself into the race by calling Weh’s ads dishonest.
“The chairman’s biased interference in a primary contest is harmful to the Republican Party and wrong for our state,” Weh Campaign Manager Whitney Cheshire said Sunday in a news release.
But when Weh was state party chairman, he inserted himself into a GOP primary race more directly than Yates has done in this instance.
When Darren White and Joe Carraro were both running for the GOP nomination for the Albuquerque-area 1st Congressional District seat in Congress, Weh personally gave White’s campaign money. Under Weh’s leadership, the state GOP gave White money too.
Federal records show that Weh gave $2,300 to White’s campaign on March 18, 2008. And the state GOP gave White $5,000 on June 2 of that year – the day before the primary.
Weh and the state GOP weren’t alone in taking sides in that primary. The National Republican Congressional Committee backed White too, as part of an intentional effort among the party infrastructure in New Mexico and Washington to help the candidate they viewed as most likely to win the general election.
White went on to easily defeat Carraro in the primary, but he lost to Democrat Martin Heinrich in the general election.