{"id":2974,"date":"2008-03-13T17:27:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-13T23:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/03\/cd2-candidate-greg-sowards-loans-campaign-325k\/"},"modified":"2008-03-13T17:27:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-13T23:27:00","slug":"cd2-candidate-greg-sowards-loans-campaign-325k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/03\/cd2-candidate-greg-sowards-loans-campaign-325k\/","title":{"rendered":"CD2 candidate Greg Sowards loans campaign $325K"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

Republican Greg Sowards<\/a> is further complicating a crowded GOP primary in the Second Congressional District race by loaning his campaign $325,000 and forcing the other candidates to take him seriously.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He\u2019s the third Republican candidate to announce a loan of several hundred thousand dollars to his campaign. Sowards originally said earlier today that he would loan his campaign $400,000, but after he learned that loans of greater than $350,000 trigger the Millionaires\u2019 Amendment<\/a> and triple contribution limits to $6,900, he instead decided to loan his campaign $325,000.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Sowards said today\u2019s was a family decision. He went to the bank this afternoon to finalize a $200,000 loan, and said he will loan his campaign another $125,000 within the next week.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reason I feel like these guys can push me out of the way, because I\u2019m the one with the good ideas,\u201d Sowards said of the other candidates who have loaned money to their own campaigns.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

On the Republican side, Aubrey Dunn<\/a> has loaned his campaign $300,000, and Ed Tinsley<\/a> told me earlier this year that he was going to give his campaign at least $200,000 by the end of this month. On the Democratic side, Harry Teague<\/a> has loaned his campaign $200,000.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Sowards, who owns several Las Cruces<\/st1:city> daycare centers and is an inventor who holds five U.S.<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> patents, ran against former U.S. Rep. Joe Skeen<\/a> in the 1996 Republican primary. That year, his family had $30,000 to loan his campaign and he borrowed another $20,000, for a total loan of $50,000 to the campaign.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

His wealth has apparently grown significantly since then.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Sowards\u2019 loan comes two days before Saturday\u2019s GOP preprimary nominating convention in Albuquerque<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>. He and other candidates are vying to get the votes of at least 20 percent of delegates, the threshold for earning the right to appear on the ballot. Candidates who don\u2019t top 20 percent can collect signatures as an alternate method to get on the ballot.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Like the other candidates, Sowards has been meeting with delegates to try to earn their support.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see what happens Saturday,\u201d Sowards said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Before this, Sowards hadn\u2019t been considered by many to be among the more serious contenders in the race, but his financial commitment indicates he\u2019ll likely gather signatures to stay in the race even if he doesn\u2019t reach 20 percent on Saturday, and he now has the funds to get his message to voters.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\n

\n

This article originally stated that Sowards was loaning his campaign $400,000, and was updated after he decided to change the number to $325,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican Greg Sowards is further complicating a crowded GOP primary in the Second Congressional District race by loaning his campaign $325,000 and forcing the other candidates to take him seriously. He\u2019s the third Republican candidate to announce a loan of several hundred thousand dollars to his campaign. Sowards originally said earlier today that he would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2974","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=2974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}