{"id":37962,"date":"2012-03-16T07:34:17","date_gmt":"2012-03-16T13:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=37962"},"modified":"2012-03-16T10:27:13","modified_gmt":"2012-03-16T16:27:13","slug":"will-tie-to-indicted-woman-hurt-chavez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/03\/will-tie-to-indicted-woman-hurt-chavez\/","title":{"rendered":"Will tie to indicted woman hurt Ch\u00e1vez?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"1st<\/a>

1st Congressional District candidate Marty Ch\u00e1vez<\/p><\/div>\n

1st Congressional District candidate Marty Ch\u00e1vez isn\u2019t clarifying the status of his relationship with a woman who\u2019s under indictment; his campaign says he wants to move on to \u2018pressing issues facing New Mexican families.\u2019<\/h4>\n

Marty Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s<\/a> name has been in the news lately not just because he\u2019s running for the 1st Congressional District seat in the U.S. House, but also because of his relationship with a woman who\u2019s under indictment in a hospital embezzlement case.<\/p>\n

At last weekend\u2019s Democratic Party preprimary nominating convention, the situation was a topic of discussion among at least some delegates. Ch\u00e1vez, Albuquerque\u2019s former mayor, finished second<\/a> at the convention. The question on the minds of some is whether the indictment of Loretta Mares will hurt Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s campaign. The answer, from some of those NMPolitics.net has talked with, seems to be that it\u2019s not clear.<\/p>\n

That may be at least in part because, as NMPolitics.net has already reported, the status of Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s relationship with Mares isn\u2019t clear<\/a>. The campaign says the two are no longer living together but won\u2019t say whether they are still in a relationship.<\/p>\n

Some delegates, who spoke only on background, told NMPolitics.net that\u2019s one reason they\u2019re still talking about the situation \u2013 because the question remains unanswered. In addition, there was certainly a whisper campaign at the convention.<\/p>\n

Here are the basic facts:<\/p>\n

Mares was indicted last month on felony charges stemming from allegations that, in the words of The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a>, \u201cshe conspired with the hospital\u2019s former chief financial officer, Richard Crabtree, to embezzle \u2018at least $2.5 million\u2019 from what is now Christus\u00a0St. Vincent Regional Medical Center between 2005 and 2008.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mares pleaded not guilty to the charges earlier this week. At this point she\u2019s not been convicted of any crime related to the case.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been no evidence presented publicly that might tie Ch\u00e1vez to the alleged crimes. He\u2019s not been accused of doing anything improper related to the case.<\/p>\n

Living expenses were \u2018shared,\u2019 donation could be returned<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

NMPolitics.net asked several questions of Alan Packman, Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s campaign manager, in an attempt to clarify things.<\/p>\n

Packman said Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s relationship with Mares started in early 2009, which would mean they weren\u2019t in a relationship while she was allegedly involved in embezzlement.<\/p>\n

The two started living together in July 2011 and stopped living together in February of this year, according to Packman. He said living expenses were shared, but didn\u2019t elaborate. And, he said, \u201cthere will be no further comment about the relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Packman wouldn\u2019t say who was paying for the home where they both lived.<\/p>\n

Mares, under another name she goes by, Bernadette Mares, has donated $5,000 to Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s congressional campaign, according to his finance report<\/a>. Packman said the campaign will hang on to that money for now.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould Ms. Mares be convicted of a crime, her donation will be given to charity,\u201d he told NMPolitics.net.<\/p>\n

In addition, Attorney General Gary King<\/a>, whose office indicted Mares, has donated $1,000 to Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s campaign. Packman said the campaign doesn\u2019t view that as a conflict. After all, King\u2019s office brought the charges against Mares.<\/p>\n

Ch\u00e1vez wants to focus on \u2018pressing issues\u2019<\/h3>\n

The Ch\u00e1vez campaign clearly wants to put this issue behind it. Asked if he\u2019s concerned about the possibility of other candidates or political committees accusing Ch\u00e1vez of profiting politically or personally from embezzled money, Packman said this:<\/p>\n

\u201cMarty believes that candidates should be focused on all of the pressing issues facing New Mexican families right now \u2013 like rebuilding our economy \u2013 and not concerning themselves with making negative, personal attacks.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ch\u00e1vez has proposed an agreement<\/a> with the other Democrats in the race, Eric Griego<\/a> and Michelle Lujan Grisham<\/a>, aimed at discouraging third-party groups from attempting to influence the race with ads. Both have more PAC endorsements than Ch\u00e1vez, and neither has accepted his challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1st Congressional District candidate Marty Ch\u00e1vez isn\u2019t clarifying the status of his relationship with a woman who\u2019s under indictment; his campaign says he wants to move on to \u2018pressing issues facing New Mexican families.\u2019<\/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":[228,156,139,142,116],"class_list":["post-37962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-1st-congressional-district-race","tag-2012-election","tag-albuquerque","tag-crime","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37962","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=37962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}