{"id":17625,"date":"2010-05-23T14:36:30","date_gmt":"2010-05-23T20:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=17625"},"modified":"2010-05-23T21:01:29","modified_gmt":"2010-05-24T03:01:29","slug":"who%e2%80%99s-behind-robocall-attacking-colon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/05\/who%e2%80%99s-behind-robocall-attacking-colon\/","title":{"rendered":"Who\u2019s behind robocall attacking Col\u00f3n?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Brian Col\u00f3n (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Who\u2019s behind a negative robocall that went to Democratic voters around the state on Saturday attacking Lt. Gov. candidate Brian Col\u00f3n<\/a>? That remains a mystery.<\/p>\n

The call stated that it was paid for by Democrats for Better Government. It said Col\u00f3n was born in New York, active in the Republican Party while in college and involved in moving America Forward and a pay-to-play scandal that tainted Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s<\/a> reputation. It questioned whether he took money that was missing from Moving America Forward.<\/p>\n

The robocall also attacked Col\u00f3n for being responsible for the primary voting snafu during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, and said he supported gay marriage. At least, all that is according to reports from people who heard the call. I haven\u2019t heard it myself.<\/p>\n

Some of the claims made in the call are true: Col\u00f3n was born on Long Island, but he moved with his family to New Mexico when he was a baby and has been here ever since. He did run the party when it was in charge of the 2008 presidential primary, and there were problems<\/a>, but Col\u00f3n took responsibility for them.<\/p>\n

But his campaign spokesman said, to the best of his knowledge, that Col\u00f3n was not involved in the college Republicans while a student at New Mexico State University or the University of New Mexico. At UNM he was a union organizer.<\/p>\n

Serious allegations<\/h3>\n

The most serious allegations, however, surround Moving America Forward. The political action committee was at the center of a federal investigation into allegations that CDR Financial Products<\/a> received a lucrative state investment contract in exchange for campaign contributions to Richardson and Moving America Forward and another PAC.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The investigation resulted in no criminal charges being filed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Col\u00f3n wasn\u2019t involved in the PAC. He was part of a nonprofit Richardson started called the Moving America Forward Foundation. The nonprofit had its records subpoenaed<\/a> during the federal probe into the PAC, but it\u2019s a different organization that was never directly tied to the scandal.<\/p>\n

Col\u00f3n \u201cwas not part of any investigation\u00a0nor has he ever\u00a0been\u00a0questioned about that particular c3 or any of the many nonprofits he helps raise money for,\u201d Col\u00f3n spokesman Daniel Sena said. \u201cThe call leads people to believe Col\u00f3n refused to cooperate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe call enters into slander when it leads the listener to believe Col\u00f3n actually took money from the nonprofit and implied he is now using it for his campaign,\u201d Sena said.<\/p>\n

Opponents denounce robocall<\/h3>\n

Col\u00f3n\u00a0is leading in the only scientific poll<\/a> of the race that has been released to date. His two closest opponents in that poll of the Democratic lieutenant governor\u2019s race, Lawrence Rael<\/a> and Joe Campos<\/a>, were quick to denounce the robocall.<\/p>\n

Rael said in an interview that he called Col\u00f3n\u00a0to tell him he wasn\u2019t involved and doesn\u2019t know who was.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made a decision (early in the campaign) that we were going to run a clean campaign, were going to run on our merits,\u201d Rael said. \u201c\u2026 I told him that this wasn\u2019t coming from me, that I had no idea where it was coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rael said he found it \u201cinteresting\u201d that the robocall was followed later Saturday afternoon by a positive robocall about Campos, but said he wasn\u2019t accusing Campos of being behind the robocall.<\/p>\n

Campos Campaign Manager Mark Fleisher said his candidate wasn\u2019t behind the call.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were not involved. Don\u2019t know who they are or anything about the group. Did not know it was coming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Campos followed that with a message<\/a> on his Facebook page denouncing the robocall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wholeheartedly condemn this action and want to state unequivocally that my campaign had absolutely nothing to do with this,\u201d Campos wrote. \u201cI have never and will never participate in negative campaigning. It is divisive and detrimental to the party and to the entire democratic process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other two candidates in the race, Jerry Ortiz y Pino<\/a> and Linda Lopez<\/a>, haven\u2019t responded to e-mails asking if they were involved, but Ortiz y Pino\u2019s wife posted a comment on the blog Democracy for New Mexico<\/a> stating that she and her husband \u201cdo not condone this kind of negative and anonymous bashing of any candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Update, 6:20 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Democratic Party of New Mexico spokesman James Hallinan said this:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Democratic Party of New Mexico condemns the Karl Rove-like, negative robocall conducted yesterday by an unknown party. Democrats are united in bringing meaningful change to New Mexico in 2010 and will achieve this change though openness and transparency.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: Who\u2019s behind a robocall that went to Democratic voters around the state on Saturday attacking Lt. Gov. candidate Brian Col\u00f3n? That remains a mystery.<\/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],"class_list":["post-17625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17625","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=17625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}