![\"\"](\"http:\/\/bp1.blogger.com\/_IabUCQmoheQ\/SJi4r0_ADxI\/AAAAAAAAGXU\/THqkZ3rR-uQ\/s1600-h\/Robinson,+Shannon.jpg\")
<\/a> <\/p>\nRobinson says insiders who decided to \u2018snitch\u2019 helped reveal conspiracy that led to lawmakers’ defeat<\/span><\/p>\n \n By Heath Haussamen<\/p>\n A lawsuit alleging an illegal conspiracy to defeat three incumbent lawmakers in the June primary is baseless, several people and groups named as defendants say, but one of the lawmakers says insiders who decided to \u201csnitch\u201d will help prove the allegations.<\/p>\n Sens. Shannon Robinson<\/a> and James Taylor<\/a> and Rep. Dan Silva<\/a> claim in their lawsuit that several nonprofits and the three challengers who defeated the Albuquerque Democrats in the June primary conspired to illegally hide the spending of at least $180,000 on a secret campaign against them. The defeated lawmakers allege in the lawsuit that the money was funneled through the Center for Civic Policy<\/a> and the League of Young Voters<\/a> — which no longer exists in New Mexico — to at least six other nonprofits.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is a completely false allegation. I have no idea where that comes from,\u201d said Matt Brix, the center\u2019s policy director. He added that the center has never taken any money from Soros or his Open Society Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are so many completely outlandish allegations that we don\u2019t even know where to begin. Everything in the lawsuit is categorically untrue,\u201d Brix said.<\/p>\n You can read the lawsuit by clicking here<\/a>. (Page 12 is missing from that electronic version of the lawsuit, but you can find it here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n \u201cThere has been extreme secrecy by their organizations, and at the same time, any time you have a conspiracy going on, people are going to snitch,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n Robinson, Eric Griego<\/a> defeated The three defeated lawmakers are currently representing themselves in the case. Robinson is an attorney, and said he expects \u2018I need to know what happened\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n The lawsuit names several nonprofits and people tied to those nonprofits as defendants, and makes allegations against other nonprofits it doesn\u2019t name as defendants. Some of the groups endorsed the defeated lawmakers\u2019 challengers in the primary. Others, including the Center for Civic Policy, engaged in what they call a \u201cLegislative Accountability Project\u201d that used mailers, radio ads and phone calls to highlight lawmakers\u2019 voting records two to three months before the primary.<\/p>\n The groups say the accountability project was related to the coming special session, not the election. You can view one of the mailers attacking Robinson by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Robinson said some groups the lawsuit names as part of the conspiracy aren\u2019t listed as defendants, including ACORN<\/a> and the Sierra Club<\/a>, because they are based in other states. He said he \u201cjust can\u2019t sue them and end up in federal court.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawsuit claims that New Mexico Youth Organized, which is part of the Center for Civic Policy, received at least $95,000 for the alleged illegal campaign; SouthWest Organizing Project<\/a> and ACORN each received at least $80,000; and Conservation Voters of New Mexico<\/a> received at least $60,000.<\/p>\n Asked for evidence to back up those figures, Robinson cited the \u201cinsiders\u201d and said the numbers can be derived from estimating the cost of the mailers the groups sent out. Asked for evidence of a conspiracy, Silva said campaign literature sent by his opponent and the nonprofits was similar.<\/p>\n \u201cThat would be impossible to do unless it\u2019s coordinated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Silva said he simply wants the nonprofits to disclose where they received funding for their flyers and other materials, which he called \u201cnasty.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy biggest problem with this whole thing — no one likes to lose. I did lose. My opponent got more votes. But I don\u2019t want my constituents — they\u2019re still my constituents until the end of the year — to ever have to go through this kind of election,\u201d Silva said. \u201c\u2026 I need to know what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018The voters spoke clearly\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n Neri Holguin, who ran the primary campaigns of Griego and Keller, isn\u2019t named as a defendant in the lawsuit but is listed as one of the primary conspirators. She said in an interview that the lawsuit is full of inaccuracies: It claims she managed Chavez\u2019s campaign and is treasurer of Conservation Voters, but \u201cRobinson\u2019s fundamental inaccuracies — claiming I managed races I know nothing about or claiming I served in a official capacity with groups I don\u2019t belong to — speak to the baseless merit of the entire case. He can\u2019t get the facts straight,\u201d Griego said he is confident the court will not overturn \u201cthe will of the majority of voters.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI look forward to representing District 14 in Robinson said he\u2019s confident in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to do real well. All you have to do is follow the money,\u201d he said, adding that the situation is \u201clike playing cards when the other side has a marked deck. Eric Griego says he knocked on 1,000 doors. Good for him. Then why did he have to cheat?\u201d<\/p>\n Brix said it\u2019s unfortunate that the defeated lawmakers have resorted to \u201cattacking the messengers\u201d instead of addressing the policy issues revealed by the Legislative Accountability Campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe our role as nonprofits is to continue to hold public officials accountable. We have a responsibility to inform the public, to hold legislators accountable, and we have a long history of doing so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n Update, 8:15 p.m.<\/p>\n Sandy Buffett, who runs Conservation Voters, sent this statement by e-mail:<\/p>\n \u201cConservation Voters conducted all of our 2008 primary voter contact through our long-standing N.M. political action committee — the CVNM Action Fund– and reported all expenditures\/donations in compliance with the N.M. Secretary of State in a timely and electronically filed format,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n \n By way of disclosure, I also write for the New Mexico Independent<\/a>, which is owned by the Center for Independent Media<\/a> in Robinson says insiders who decided to \u2018snitch\u2019 helped reveal conspiracy that led to lawmakers’ defeat By Heath Haussamen A lawsuit alleging an illegal conspiracy to defeat three incumbent lawmakers in the June primary is baseless, several people and groups named as defendants say, but one of the lawmakers says insiders who decided to \u201csnitch\u201d will […]<\/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-3535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535","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=3535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>The lawsuit alleges that the Center for Civic Policy received approximately $1.5 million from liberal activist George Soros<\/a> and other groups and individuals for the purpose of electing the three challengers \u201cand others.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>Robinson said in an interview that \u201csome insiders\u201d provided the defeated lawmakers with information about the conspiracy, but he did not name the insiders.<\/p>\n