{"id":3156,"date":"2008-04-29T09:10:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-29T15:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/04\/realtors-group-to-back-newman-with-nearly-250k\/"},"modified":"2008-04-29T09:10:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-29T15:10:00","slug":"realtors-group-to-back-newman-with-nearly-250k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/04\/realtors-group-to-back-newman-with-nearly-250k\/","title":{"rendered":"Realtors group to back Newman with nearly $250K"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The influential National Association of Realtors Political Action Committee<\/a> plans to spend almost $250,000 to help Republican 2nd Congressional District candidate Monty Newman<\/a> in the June primary. <\/p>\n

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

The PAC filed notice<\/a> with the Federal Election Commission on Friday that it was spending a little more than $235,000 to help Newman, and on Monday it filed notice<\/a> that it was spending another $12,000. In all, the PAC has filed notice that it plans to spend $247,317.51 to help Newman, who was vice president of the Realtors association in 2005 and 2007.<\/p>\n

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

The PAC, according to information it provided to the FEC, plans to spend most of that on mailers, but some will be spent on survey costs, consulting services and accessing the 2nd District voter list.<\/p>\n

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

The Realtors group is intervening in the race through the FEC\u2019s independent expenditure rule<\/a>, which allows a PAC to spend an unlimited amount of money to advocate for the election or defeat of a candidate. The PAC and Newman can\u2019t cooperate or consult on how the PAC spends its money, and the PAC\u2019s mailers must include a disclaimer stating that they are not authorized by the candidate or his committee.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI have been a Realtor for over 30 years and have held key leadership roles at the local, state and national levels,\u201d Newman said in a statement released by his campaign. \u201cI welcome the endorsement of the National Association of Realtors on behalf of my campaign. Further, I welcome the endorsement of an association whose primary purpose is the support of property ownership and private-property rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Independent groups that intervene in races for or against a specific candidate often spend huge amounts of money and have a major impact. In New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund<\/a> has already spent almost $80,000 on an ad campaign<\/a> against GOP U.S. Senate candidates Steve Pearce<\/a> and Heather Wilson<\/a>. A group of environmental organizations, including Defenders of Wildlife, have announced their intentions to jointly intervene<\/a> in the Senate race on behalf of Democrat Tom Udall<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

With other groups expected to get involved in races in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, it\u2019s possible that millions of dollars will be spent by outside organizations in the state during this historic election year in which there are three open seats in the House and one in the Senate. New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> is also considered a swing state in the presidential race.<\/p>\n

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

\n

The only other 2nd District candidate who promotes his involvement in a national association is Republican Ed Tinsley<\/a>, a past president of the National Restaurant Association<\/a>. Spokesman Christopher Maloney said the Tinsley campaign has no knowledge of any plans by that association\u2019s PAC to intervene with an independent expenditure on behalf of Tinsley, saying such \u201ccollaboration\u201d would be an FEC violation. He said the campaign will learn of such an effort, if it happens, when the group files notice with the FEC.<\/p>\n

\n

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

An influential organization<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Mary Trupo, spokeswoman for the Realtors association, cited Newman\u2019s time as a real estate agent and his leadership positions with the association in calling him \u201ca strong supporter of important housing issues.\u201d She said the national and state associations of Realtors believe \u201che will be a strong advocate for issues important to housing, homeownership and Realtors.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\n

Trupo said the association and its PAC have a long history of supporting federal candidates through direct contributions, which are limited to $5,000 per candidate, and through independent expenditures and putting people \u201con the ground\u201d to help. She didn\u2019t immediately have details on when the mailers supporting Newman will go out.<\/p>\n

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

According to the FEC Web site<\/a>, the Realtors association\u2019s PAC has supported only one other candidate with independent expenditures this year, U.S. Rep. Albert Wynn<\/a>, D-Md. The PAC has spent just over $300,000 on TV ads and mailers in support of his re-election.<\/p>\n

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

The well-funded PAC has also given contributions as large as $5,000 to hundreds of federal candidates during the 2008 election cycle, according to FEC records. It\u2019s known in Washington<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> as a powerful organization that spends lots of money to help the candidates it backs.<\/p>\n

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

\n

In addition to the money the association\u2019s PAC has given Newman, individual real estate agents have chipped in to help his congressional bid. During the first quarter of 2008 \u2013 Newman\u2019s first in the race \u2013 he had nearly 100 contributions from real estate agents from around the nation. Newman pointed out, through the statement released by his campaign, that his support doesn\u2019t come only from people in the real-estate industry. He said he has received more contributions from people living in the 2nd District than any other Republican candidate for southern New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s seat in the U.S. House.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The influential National Association of Realtors Political Action Committee plans to spend almost $250,000 to help Republican 2nd Congressional District candidate Monty Newman in the June primary. The PAC filed notice with the Federal Election Commission on Friday that it was spending a little more than $235,000 to help Newman, and on Monday it filed […]<\/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-3156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3156","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=3156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}