{"id":2975,"date":"2008-03-14T07:22:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-14T13:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/03\/lujan-getting-help-from-legislators-lobbyists-and-dad\/"},"modified":"2008-03-14T07:22:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-14T13:22:00","slug":"lujan-getting-help-from-legislators-lobbyists-and-dad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/03\/lujan-getting-help-from-legislators-lobbyists-and-dad\/","title":{"rendered":"Luj\u00e1n getting help from legislators, lobbyists and dad"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Third Congressional District candidate Ben R. Luj\u00e1n<\/a> has been benefiting this week from fundraisers hosted by a who\u2019s who of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> legislators and lobbyists, with his father, House Speaker Ben Lujan<\/a>, headlining the events. <\/p>\n

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

\n

It\u2019s no surprise that Ben R. Luj\u00e1n is leaning heavily on his father\u2019s influence to help him raise money. The speaker, the most powerful state legislator, has a great deal of influence over House Democrats and lobbyists. The younger Luj\u00e1n, as a member of the Public Regulation Commission<\/a>, also has some influence over lobbyists.<\/p>\n

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

Luj\u00e1n\u2019s campaign has been accusing Don Wiviott<\/a>, one of his opponents in the Democratic primary, of trying to buy the election because he put almost $600,000 of his own money in the race. But Luj\u00e1n is also opening himself up to criticism by relying so heavily on lobbyists to raise money.<\/p>\n

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

Among those who hosted a Tuesday fundraiser in Santa Fe for Luj\u00e1n were the speaker, Sen. Phil Griego<\/a>, Reps. Jim Trujillo<\/a> and Luciano \u201cLucky\u201d Varela<\/a> and registered state lobbyists Bob Barberousse<\/a>, Maurice Bonal<\/a>, J.D. Bullington<\/a>, Linda Siegle<\/a>, T.J. Trujillo<\/a> and Tony Trujillo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Among those who hosted a Wednesday fundraiser in Corrales were the speaker, Reps. Rick Miera<\/a>, Al Park<\/a>, Kiki Saavedra<\/a>, Edward Sandoval<\/a> and Daniel Silva<\/a>, and lobbyists John Anderson<\/a>, Ricardo Barros<\/a>, David Buchholtz<\/a>, Mark Duran<\/a>, Ed Mahr<\/a>, Richard Romero<\/a>, Marla Shoats<\/a>, Drew Setter<\/a>, John Lee Thompson<\/a> and Dan Weaks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

\n

A fundraiser held Thursday in Albuquerque<\/st1:city> was hosted by the speaker, former Ambassador Ed Romero and Paul Blanchard, who owns racetracks in Albuquerque<\/st1:city> and Hobbs<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

\n

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

According to fliers for the Luj\u00e1n fundraisers, required contributions ranged from $500 for guests to $2,300 for hosts. Because Wiviott loaned his campaign more than $350,000 and triggered the Millionaires\u2019 Amendment<\/a>, contribution limits have tripled for the primary from $2,300 to $6,900.<\/p>\n

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

New Mexico FBIHOP<\/a> did a good job of digging through the client lists of some of the lobbyists who attended the Wednesday fundraiser and revealed some interesting facts, including links to the pharmaceutical and uranium industries. Click here<\/a> to read more.<\/p>\n

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

You can also click on the names of the lobbyists in the above paragraphs to view pages on the Secretary of State\u2019s Web site that list their current clients. It\u2019s worth your time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Third Congressional District candidate Ben R. Luj\u00e1n has been benefiting this week from fundraisers hosted by a who\u2019s who of New Mexico legislators and lobbyists, with his father, House Speaker Ben Lujan, headlining the events. It\u2019s no surprise that Ben R. Luj\u00e1n is leaning heavily on his father\u2019s influence to help him raise money. The […]<\/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-2975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2975","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=2975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2975\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}