{"id":431698,"date":"2017-09-23T11:57:09","date_gmt":"2017-09-23T17:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=431698"},"modified":"2017-09-23T11:57:09","modified_gmt":"2017-09-23T17:57:09","slug":"santolina-developer-behind-sex-offender-ads-targeting-abq-mayoral-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/09\/santolina-developer-behind-sex-offender-ads-targeting-abq-mayoral-candidate\/","title":{"rendered":"Santolina developer behind sex offender ads targeting ABQ mayoral candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The

The Make Albuquerque Safe television ad against Tim Keller featured this image.<\/p><\/div>\n

It doesn\u2019t get much darker in the annals of Albuquerque negative political campaigning. More than a week ago, a mysterious group began running an ad on the city\u2019s television stations. The first image is of State Auditor and Albuquerque mayoral candidate Tim Keller, quickly followed by a dark figure wearing a hoodie. \u201cSex offender\u201d in bold red letters flashes on the screen before cutting to a backlit child riding a bike.<\/p>\n

Billboards later sprung up in the city.<\/p>\n

Little information was available about who paid for the ad, which began running on Sept. 13. But late Thursday night, less than 24 hours before Make Albuquerque Safe, the measure finance committee that paid for the ad, had to disclose its contributors, the developer of the vast Santolina land project said in an email statement that he was a financial backer of the committee.<\/p>\n

In his\u00a0statement<\/a>, Jeff Garrett, CEO of Garrett Development Corporation and Asset Manager for Western Albuquerque Land Holdings, said he funded the ads because he found Keller \u201clacking\u201d generally as a candidate and that he was \u201csoft on crime\u201d in particular.<\/p>\n