{"id":432855,"date":"2017-09-26T09:49:41","date_gmt":"2017-09-26T15:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=432855"},"modified":"2017-09-26T09:49:41","modified_gmt":"2017-09-26T15:49:41","slug":"second-santolina-backed-group-goes-after-abq-council-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/09\/second-santolina-backed-group-goes-after-abq-council-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Santolina-backed group goes after ABQ council candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_66499\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/feverblue\/7550299240\/in\/photolist-cvcfV7-92Yxoj-92VjYH-2VqKFS-ffJffR-4CaESc-5bzjuB-ffJfwP-dod3rs-vhH3xU-8dvo8A-dobxRi-5212Qa-4rhV4Y-rdqjy-4csaJH-92Vpev-5ZPuxr-92Vi5T-oA9iY-4csbqT-naNysN-ncTcyE-ncR2eX-naNwQz-ncRh5B-ncTfxA-ncQYji-ncTdnJ-naNA6Y-naNw94-ncTeWq-naNxKb-ncRiBz-naNyi5-92Vhxg-naNtLd-naNsTG-ncRcu4-naNtiQ-ncT8Z5-ncQU5g-dobAiR-uCxbrJ-dobHWq-dobHL5-dobH27-dobHpf-4cs92R-4rdPea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-66499 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Albuquerque-771x431.jpg\" alt=\"Albuquerque\" width=\"771\" height=\"431\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Albuquerque-771x431.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Albuquerque-336x188.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Albuquerque-768x429.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Albuquerque-1170x654.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Albuquerque.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Will Keightley \/ Creative Commons<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Albuquerque at sunset. (<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">photo cc info<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A new Santolina-backed political committee popped up an electronic billboard and sent out mailers on Albuquerque\u2019s west side late last week to support the re-election bid of City Councilor Ken Sanchez.<\/p>\n<p>Energize Albuquerque filed a campaign report showing a $20,000 contribution from Western Albuquerque Land Holdings, the company seeking to create a massive master planned community in far west Bernalillo County that would be called Santolina. Over the past two weeks, another committee backed in part by Santolina developer Jeff Garrett, called Make Albuquerque Safe, blanketed the city with negative ads <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/09\/santolina-developer-behind-sex-offender-ads-targeting-abq-mayoral-candidate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">against mayoral candidate Tim Keller<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Both Energize Albuquerque and Make Albuquerque Safe are helmed by Denise Romero, chairperson, and Donna Taylor, Ttreasurer.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.com\/2017\/09\/25\/second-santolina-backed-group-goes-after-abq-council-candidates\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico In Depth<\/a>. Sign up for\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=1d2ab093d81b992e50978b363&amp;id=9294743d38\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>NM In Depth reached out to Donna Taylor, whose email is listed on the committee report, and Garrett, to ask them why they support Sanchez. This report will be updated if we hear from them.<\/p>\n<p>The billboard and mailers circulating on the west side aim to make sure residents know Ken Sanchez is a Democrat, juxtaposing him with his three opponents who the mailers proclaim to be either new Democrats or independents running in a Democratic community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only real democrat running for city council district 1 is Ken Sanchez,\u201d the billboard proclaims.<\/p>\n<p>The mailers proclaim Sanchez a \u201cproud Democrat\u201d and take aim at his opponents, Sandra Mills, Johnny Luevano Jr. and Javier Benavidez, for either being \u201cbrand new\u201d or not Democrats at all.<\/p>\n<p>Mills said she hadn\u2019t seen either of the ads and couldn\u2019t comment, but stated that she is an independent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, I\u2019m an independent, and I walk through the neighborhood and it\u2019s divided,\u201d Mills told NM\u00a0In Depth.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Luevano called both ads \u201cchildish\u201d and \u201cclassless.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The mailer paints Luevano\u2019s decision to decline to state his party affiliation as negative. Luevano doesn\u2019t have a problem with the statement; it\u2019s the fact that it\u2019s negative that concerned him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t like being stretched out on a flyer like that, but it\u2019s factual,\u201d said Luevano. \u201cI\u2019ve been DTS since 2000.\u201d He said if there was an option to run as an independent he would have.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m a little confused as to why they\u2019re [Energize Albuquerque] attacking me,\u201d Luevano said. \u201cPartisan politics get nasty. It\u2019s ridiculous of them to make a mockery of public policy and politics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The mailer went after Benavidez for being a \u201cbrand new\u201d Democrat and criticized him for violating campaign rules. Benavidez was required to pay a $1,900 fine for a number of improper collections of the $5 donations he was required to collect in order to qualify for public financing.<\/p>\n<p>Benavidez said he changed his party status previously because he was interested in seeing different campaign mail during the 2016 election season. \u201cMy values have never changed,\u201d Benavidez said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI actually welcome this dialog and I think it\u2019s a great chance to talk about what it means be a Democrat,\u201d Benavidez said in response to the mailer and the billboard.<\/p>\n<p>Benavidez claimed that Sanchez was less of a Democrat because he voted to cap the minimum wage and supported a study that delayed the sick leave initiative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of people think he\u2019s a Democrat\u2026 but when it comes to his policies he acts very much like a Republican,\u201d Benavidez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The billboard and mailers support the re-election bid of City Councilor Ken Sanchez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3334,139,705],"class_list":["post-432855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2017-election","tag-albuquerque","tag-money-in-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432855","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=432855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}