{"id":779,"date":"2006-10-27T15:07:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-27T21:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/lyons-accused-of-improper-campaign-practices\/"},"modified":"2006-10-27T15:07:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-27T21:07:00","slug":"lyons-accused-of-improper-campaign-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/lyons-accused-of-improper-campaign-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"Lyons accused of improper campaign practices"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The incumbent in the state land commissioner race is battling allegations that campaign workers deceived a school principal into letting them film a commercial there and that he\u2019s using state employees and resources to aid his re-election efforts. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He is down two points in the newest Albuquerque Journal poll<\/a>, but Republican incumbent Pat Lyons has more money to spend than Democrat Jim Baca in the final days of the campaign, making this the hottest statewide race.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The troubles began earlier this week, when Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019 campaign unveiled a new television advertisement promoting the money his office has made for education. It featured children at an elementary school in Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Parents of two students featured in the ad, both Baca supporters, complained to the Albuquerque Tribune<\/a> and Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cI didn\u2019t understand how he could put my daughter in an ad so prominently and not even call me,\u201d Dave Pittis said of his daughter.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Parents had signed waivers allowing their children to be filmed and photographed at the school, but Pittis said he didn\u2019t expect that to apply to campaign advertisements.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lyons\u2019 office filmed a commercial in the same school a year ago promoting the state land office, Kristin Haase, Lyons\u2019 spokeswoman, told me. That prior relationship is what made the campaign decide to approach the school again. Haase said she left two voice mails for the schools\u2019 principal, Sandy Davis, asking for permission to shoot a second commercial, this one for the campaign, and said Lyons<\/st1:city>\u2019 campaign manager later spoke with Davis<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> and conveyed that the ad was for the campaign.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Though she approved the filming of the second ad, Davis<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> told the New Mexican she was deceived.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think about it being a political ad,\u201d she told the newspaper. \u201cIf I had any idea it was going to be political, I would not have done it, or I would have checked with the parents\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Regardless, immediately after Pittis called the state land office to complain about its use of his daughter\u2019s image in the second commercial, Haase said she had the commercial reworked so that his daughter\u2019s image was removed. Production of a new commercial that will replace this one was sped up, and it will begin airing this weekend, she said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Haase told me there was no deception.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cTo say that (the principal) was deceived is just not the case,\u201d she said. \u201cShe may not have been paying attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> also came under fire because his office sent out this week copies of its 2006 annual report. Each copy of the booklet probably cost $2-3 dollars to print and cost $1.59 to mail.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The inside cover features a letter by Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> about his philosophy and management of the office. The first page contains Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019 biography.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThe timing for the annual report isn\u2019t fortuitous,\u201d Baca told me. \u201cIt\u2019s bad enough that I\u2019m running against so much oil and gas money. Now I\u2019m running against government money, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Haase said the office sends out about 1,000 copies of the annual report each year. Though it\u2019s normally done in January or February, it was done earlier this year because \u201cwe could be out of office in a few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nothing underhanded,\u201d Haase said. \u201cThe term ends Dec. 31, and we, by statute, have to get that out.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The last issue is Haase herself. She has been intimately involved in the campaign, and is the assistant state land commissioner for communication. She said she does all campaign work, including production of the controversial television commercial, on her own time. The cellular telephone number I and other members of the media call her on is her personal number, she said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just an employee of the state land office who\u2019s volunteering my time to help my boss get re-elected,\u201d she said. \u201cI can assure you that probably every governor exempt employee is helping (Bill Richardson\u2019s) campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Baca said he believes it\u2019s inappropriate for Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> to use government employees and resources in this manner. Mary Herrera, the Bernalillo<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> clerk and Democratic candidate for secretary of state, has faced similar criticism from her Republican opponent, Vickie Perea.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

According to the New Mexican, Baca himself was criticized as the mayor of Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> for recruiting high-school students to work as interns on his re-election campaign several years ago. An Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> school district official approved the distribution of fliers for the program. Interns received class credit.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Baca told the New Mexican the program was designed so that high-school and college students around the country could \u201clearn about politics by working on a campaign \u2026 but I didn\u2019t go in during school hours and shoot a campaign commercial under false pretenses.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The incumbent in the state land commissioner race is battling allegations that campaign workers deceived a school principal into letting them film a commercial there and that he\u2019s using state employees and resources to aid his re-election efforts. He is down two points in the newest Albuquerque Journal poll, but Republican incumbent Pat Lyons has […]<\/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-779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779","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=779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}