{"id":17944,"date":"2010-05-30T08:14:58","date_gmt":"2010-05-30T14:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=17944"},"modified":"2010-05-30T12:12:38","modified_gmt":"2010-05-30T18:12:38","slug":"gop-leaders%e2%80%99-pac-gave-cash-to-dem-primary-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/05\/gop-leaders%e2%80%99-pac-gave-cash-to-dem-primary-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"PAC tied to GOP leaders gave cash to Dem primary candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The Roundhouse in Santa Fe (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

A conservative political committee\u00a0tied to\u00a0state GOP leaders has given cash to three House Democrats\u2019 primary challengers \u2013 and House Democratic leaders aren\u2019t happy about it.<\/p>\n

The New Mexico Independent is reporting<\/a> that the PAC, called New Mexico Turn Around<\/a>, gave $4,000 each to primary challengers of Reps.\u00a0Eleanor Chavez<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, Miguel Garcia<\/a>, D-Albuquerque,\u00a0and Richard Vigil<\/a>, D-Ribera.<\/p>\n

One of the PAC\u2019s board members is Ryan Cangiolosi, executive director of the state GOP. Harvey Yates, the party\u2019s chairman, was on the PAC\u2019s board when it was founded.<\/p>\n

Chavez was among the Democrats who criticized her primary opponent, Matthew Archuleta, for taking the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand how any Democrat can take money from the Republican Party,\u201d Chavez said in a Friday statement. \u201cI\u2019m amazed that my opponent is financing his appeal to Democratic voters with thousands of dollars from the Republican Party chairman. What does this say about his values and the sincerity of his message?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Chavez campaign also released statements from House Speaker Ben Lujan<\/a>, Majority Leader Ken Martinez<\/a>, Rep. Mimi Stewart<\/a> and Rep. Kiki Saavedra<\/a> condemning Archuleta\u2019s acceptance of the contribution.<\/p>\n

Lujan said any Democrat who took money from the PAC should donate it to charity. And Martinez called the acceptance of the contributions \u201cdisappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a Democratic primary race, and as Democrats, we stand for very different things than Republicans,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cI think it is improper for a Republican PAC to insert itself in a Democratic primary race, and even more disappointing that a Democratic candidate would take those funds and use them in a negative campaign against a fellow Democrat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Update, 12:10 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Garth Simms, who heads the board for New Mexico Turn Around, said the PAC\u2019s board and funders are a mix of Democrats, Republicans and independents. The focus is on making New Mexico friendlier for small businesses, he said.<\/p>\n

The PAC has been around for about a decade \u2013 long before Cangiolosi and Yates held their positions in the state GOP \u2013 and it has backed Democratic challengers in primary races in the past.<\/p>\n

Simms said the hope is to help candidates who are more conservative on business issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus is just to get the Democrat Party representation mainly a little back more toward the center instead of just being controlled by the progressive wing of the party,\u201d Simms said. \u201cThat\u2019s where we\u2019re coming from. There\u2019s nothing nefarious about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A prior version of this posting incorrectly stated that Cangiolosi is the PAC\u2019s executive director.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED: A conservative political committee tied to state Republican leaders has given cash to three House Democrats\u2019 primary challengers \u2013 and House Democratic leaders aren\u2019t happy about it. The head of the PAC’s board says it is bipartisan and aims to improve the state’s business climate.<\/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-17944","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\/17944","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=17944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}