{"id":31662,"date":"2011-09-08T12:45:41","date_gmt":"2011-09-08T18:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=31662"},"modified":"2011-10-08T21:44:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-09T03:44:00","slug":"citing-citizens-united-pac-jumps-into-cruces-mayoral-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/09\/citing-citizens-united-pac-jumps-into-cruces-mayoral-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Citing Citizens United, PAC jumps into Cruces mayoral race"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_31328\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 270px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-31328\" title=\"Huerta, Michael Ray\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Huerta-Michael-Ray.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"270\" height=\"264\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Huerta-Michael-Ray.jpg 270w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Huerta-Michael-Ray-60x60.jpg 60w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Huerta-Michael-Ray-32x32.jpg 32w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Huerta-Michael-Ray-64x64.jpg 64w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Ray Huerta<\/p><\/div>\n<h4>Rhode Island corporation\u2019s PAC plans to work to elect Michael Ray Huerta and test the limits of Citizens United ruling<\/h4>\n<p>A Rhode Island corporation is forming a political action committee that will work to elect Las Cruces mayoral candidate <a href=\"http:\/\/michaelrayhuerta.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Ray Huerta<\/a> in a move that\u2019s designed to push the limits of the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s ruling in the Citizens United case.<\/p>\n<p>Bobby Oliveira said his corporation\u2019s left-leaning Total Newport Campaign PAC doesn\u2019t intend to file finance reports disclosing funding sources and spending in Rhode Island or New Mexico. He said he expects that to lead to legal battles in both states but believes the secrecy will withstand legal scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>Oliveira said conservatives are taking advantage of the Supreme Court\u2019s 2010 ruling <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission\" target=\"_blank\">in Citizens United<\/a> \u2013 which essentially said corporations and unions can spend unlimited amounts of money to support or attack candidates. He cited the Koch brothers\u2019 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2010\/oct\/13\/tea-party-billionaire-koch-brothers\" target=\"_blank\">funding of tea party activities<\/a> and the effort <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/02\/22\/us\/22koch.html?pagewanted=all\" target=\"_blank\">to kill unions<\/a> in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the Koch brothers can do it, so can we,\u201d Oliveira said.<\/p>\n<p>If Oliveira backs up his words with action, his PAC could significantly change the dynamics in the Las Cruces mayoral race. Oliveira said the PAC will operate an independent expenditure in Las Cruces that can\u2019t legally coordinate with Huerta. The PAC will knock on every door in the city twice, send out mailers in support of Huerta in the final two weeks of the campaign, and respond to any negative attacks against him, Oliveira said.<\/p>\n<p>He has already brought on political activist Georgi Blumenthal of Las Cruces, who had been a volunteer on Huerta\u2019s campaign, to work for the PAC.<\/p>\n<p>Huerta, a 25-year-old political activist, faces incumbent Mayor <a href=\"http:\/\/mayorken.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ken Miyagishima<\/a> and District 2 City Councilor <a href=\"http:\/\/doloresconnorformayor.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dolores Connor<\/a> in the Nov. 8 mayoral election.<\/p>\n<h3>Battle over disclosure is already brewing<\/h3>\n<p>Oliveira said the combination of weak campaign finance law in New Mexico and the Citizens United ruling means he can raise and spend what he wants in the mayoral race without disclosing any of it. In fact, he said New Mexico campaign finance law was one of the factors that led him to decide to support Huerta.<\/p>\n<p>But Las Cruces City Clerk <a href=\"http:\/\/www.las-cruces.org\/Departments\/Legal\/Services\/City%20Clerk\/Contact%20Us.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Esther Martinez<\/a> said city ordinance requires that the PAC file a statement of organization and finance reports. The ordinance defines a political action committee as \u201cevery two or more persons who are selected, appointed, chosen or associated for the purpose of, wholly or in part, supporting or opposing a candidate at any election,\u201d including corporations.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The ordinance requires that such committees file finance reports with the city. Martinez said she\u2019ll be in contact with Blumenthal to notify her of the requirements.<\/p>\n<p>Steven Robert Allen, executive director of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/site\/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&amp;b=4847593\" target=\"_blank\">Common Cause New Mexico<\/a>, said if city ordinance requires PACs to file finance reports, the Total Newport Campaign PAC would have to do so.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo the extent that this group exists entirely to support a candidate, they\u2019re going to have to disclose their funding if city law requires them to, and there isn\u2019t anything in Citizens United that says otherwise,\u201d Allen said. \u201cQuite the contrary, eight of the nine justices in that opinion gave an endorsement to broad disclosure requirements when it comes to this type of independent expenditure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oliveira said he expects officials in Rhode Island and New Mexico to try to force him to file finance reports. He said he also expects threats and potentially lawsuits from the other mayoral candidates. He said he welcomes the chance to argue his case in court.<\/p>\n<h3>Having to \u2018play politics\u2019 to move Las Cruces forward<\/h3>\n<p>How did Oliveira end up focused on Las Cruces? He said some Huerta supporters worked with him in 2004 on Howard Dean\u2019s presidential campaign. They became concerned that Huerta wasn\u2019t raising enough money and decided to ask Oliveira for help after Huerta subjected himself to voluntary campaign contribution limits <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/08\/it%E2%80%99s-time-to-change-the-way-things-are-done-in-cruces\/\" target=\"_blank\">in a guest column published by NMPolitics.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Four Huerta-supporting Las Crucens involved in the PAC \u2013 Landon Richardson, Brad Wood, Anna Saenz and Anne Thompson \u2013 wrote in a letter released to the media that they \u201care very concerned that our preferred challenger, Michael Huerta, cannot overcome the powers of incumbency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlease understand how much we love Las Cruces.\u00a0We don\u2019t like the idea that we have \u2018play politics\u2019 in order to move Las Cruces forward,\u201d they wrote. \u201cHowever, we are all adults and understand some sad realities about American democracy in 2011.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pressed for details about the PAC\u2019s funding, Oliveira, a longtime Democratic activist in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, said this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI have deep connections in organized labor. I have deep connections in marriage equality. One of the corporate boards I serve on is a homeland security firm. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Total-Newport\/181913035155680?sk=info\" target=\"_blank\">The Total Newport corporation<\/a>, which is being incorporated this year to set up the PAC, is involved in travel and tourism. So you can surmise from those things where our money\u2019s coming from.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He wouldn\u2019t say more about funding or how much money he plans to spend in the mayoral race.<\/p>\n<h3>Miyagishima asks, will Huerta \u2018stand by his convictions?\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>In his recent NMPolitics.net commentary, Huerta called for \u201cfairer, more transparent campaigns, and also wrote, \u201cI strongly disagree with the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in\u00a0Citizens United, allowing corporations the ability to spend as much money as they would like to support or attack a candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Referring to that commentary, Miyagishima said it will be interesting to see how Huerta reacts to the PAC\u2019s intentions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis would be the first true test,\u201d Miyagishima said. \u201cDoes he stand by his convictions or does he allow this organization here to do what they want to do?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Huerta said there\u2019s not much he can say or do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause it\u2019s against the law for campaigns to coordinate with PACs, I won\u2019t comment on what steps they should take in regards to reporting,\u201d Huerta said. He added that he has never met Oliveira or the four Las Crucens who wrote the letter released by the PAC.<\/p>\n<p>Huerta said he\u2019s been actively raising money and already has more donors than Miyagishima did during the entire 2007 campaign. He said he\u2019s honored to have support from so many people, including donors from 25 states and the Total Newport Campaign PAC.<\/p>\n<p>Huerta said the PAC\u2019s involvement should not distract from the issues in the campaign.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis campaign should be about the future of Las Cruces and which candidate can best advocate on behalf of all Las Crucens,\u201d he said. \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be about a political action committee. It shouldn\u2019t be about Citizens United. It should be about making a Las Cruces that works for all families.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Oliveira says out-of-state support won\u2019t hurt Huerta<\/h3>\n<p>Oliveira said he doesn\u2019t anticipate that his out-of-state support will turn voters away from Huerta.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf your candidate\u2019s message is strong and he or she is the right person, then the folks on the ground won\u2019t be too upset with who delivers it,\u201d Oliveira said. \u201cI think they\u2019ll respect Michael, they\u2019ll respect his message, they\u2019ll like him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oliveira said his PAC has never supported a candidate in this manner, but he was looking to get into a race this year to test Citizens United before the 2012 election, when he plans to engage in issue advocacy in Rhode Island. His idea to put together a positive ground organization in favor of a candidate or issue came after he watched two initiatives regarding gay marriage and charter schools fail in Rhode Island. He said mismanagement plagued both.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI started putting the building blocks together and, magically, the request from Las Cruces appeared,\u201d he said. \u201c&#8230; The Citizens United case opens up an invasion angle where you can take a failed political operation, especially if arrogance and amateurism are the reasons for the failure, and resuscitate it using proper methodology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRhode Island should have gay marriage and should have charter schools,\u201d he said. \u201cThe effort in Las Cruces, ironic as that may be, could move Rhode Island closer to those goals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Rhode Island corporation is forming a political action committee that will work to elect Las Cruces mayoral candidate Michael Ray Huerta in a move that\u2019s designed to push the limits of the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s ruling in the Citizens United case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[156,145,214,111,116],"class_list":["post-31662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2012-election","tag-las-cruces","tag-las-cruces-election","tag-open-government","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31662","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=31662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}