{"id":17491,"date":"2010-05-20T07:53:23","date_gmt":"2010-05-20T13:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=17491"},"modified":"2010-05-21T00:40:14","modified_gmt":"2010-05-21T06:40:14","slug":"mccain%e2%80%99s-pac-gave-money-to-weh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/05\/mccain%e2%80%99s-pac-gave-money-to-weh\/","title":{"rendered":"McCain\u2019s PAC gave money to Weh"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

John McCain<\/p><\/div>\n

Sarah Palin\u2019s endorsement of Susana Martinez<\/a> in the GOP gubernatorial primary race has received a lot of attention, but a $2,500 contribution from U.S. Sen. John McCain\u2019s<\/a> political committee to Allen Weh<\/a>, one of Martinez\u2019s opponents, has gone largely unnoticed \u2013 until now.<\/p>\n

The March 26 contribution from Country First<\/a>, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee\u2019s political action committee, was reported on Weh\u2019s April 13 finance report<\/a>. I missed it until I went back over the report again this week, and I haven\u2019t found any other news reports about it.<\/p>\n

Weh never announced that he had received a contribution from McCain.<\/p>\n

Apparently, Weh\u2019s campaign isn\u2019t eager to talk about the contribution from McCain\u2019s PAC. NMPolitics.net has received no response to two e-mails sent to Weh\u2019s campaign manager and communications director about the contribution.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Allen Weh<\/p><\/div>\n

McCain\u2019s PAC hasn\u2019t responded to a question about whether the contribution should be viewed as an endorsement of Weh (that\u2019s the same question the Weh campaign has ignored). But when McCain started the PAC in January 2009, he said he would use the PAC to promote Republican candidates and causes.<\/p>\n

\u201cCountry First will allow us to strengthen our party, better define our Republican ideals and message, recruit and back strong, dedicated candidates, and continue our efforts to bring real reform to government by always putting our country and the noble ideals she stands for first,\u201d he wrote in a January 2009 e-mail, according to CBS News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith your help we can work to elect these new leaders to governorships, statehouses, the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives in 2010 and beyond,\u201d the New York Times<\/a> quoted the e-mail as saying. \u201cOnce in office they will become fierce advocates for limited government, economic opportunity, personal responsibility and strong national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PAC\u2019s Web site features several GOP candidates<\/a> from around the nation, but Weh isn\u2019t mentioned. Jon Barela<\/a>, who\u2019s running against U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich<\/a>, D-N.M., is listed on the Web site. Barela has also not promoted support from McCain.<\/p>\n

A positive or negative?<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

McCain is facing a tough re-election challenge in Arizona from tea party favorite J.D. Hayworth<\/a>, who touts himself as the \u201cconsistent conservative\u201d while attacking McCain for waffling on conservative values.<\/p>\n

McCain shook up his campaign staff<\/a> earlier this week \u2013 a sign that Hayworth\u2019s challenge is serious, and is making the senator nervous.<\/p>\n

Some conservatives view McCain as a negative. Earlier this week, speaking about Palin\u2019s endorsement of Martinez, former U.S. Rep.\u00a0Bill Redmond<\/a> of Los Alamos said Palin\u2019s endorsement would be a \u201cwash\u201d in the primary election because Republicans who don\u2019t like\u00a0McCain aren\u2019t happy that Palin has endorsed him in his Senate race.<\/p>\n

Former state Rep. Dan Foley<\/a>, a Republican who isn\u2019t backing any candidate in the gubernatorial race, said Wednesday that McCain is no \u201cdarling\u201d of conservatives, but he doesn\u2019t think that\u2019s the reason Weh isn\u2019t talking about McCain\u2019s contribution. He said Weh\u2019s attitude is that people should vote for him because of who he is, not who\u2019s backing him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that Allen Weh wants to stand on his own and his record since he is the one running,\u201d Foley said.<\/p>\n

Political analyst Jose Z. Garcia, a Democrat, said he thinks the support of any politician with national stature is helpful to a candidate from that party.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time you get an endorsement, whether it\u2019s from Sarah Palin or John McCain, it\u2019s useful,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cIt indicates a connection to important party members nationwide, and it suggests a seriousness of the candidate, and so on balance I think it would be a positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

A prior version of this posting incorrectly quoted Foley as saying Weh was no \u201cdarling\u201d of conservatives, when in fact Foley was speaking about McCain.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Palin\u2019s endorsement of Susana Martinez in the GOP gubernatorial primary race has received a lot of attention, but a $2,500 contribution from U.S. Sen. John McCain\u2019s political committee to Allen Weh, one of Martinez\u2019s opponents, has gone largely unnoticed \u2013 until now. Weh never announced the March 26 contribution, and he isn’t talking about it now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,107,116],"class_list":["post-17491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-roundhouse","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}