{"id":8648,"date":"2009-10-28T21:18:14","date_gmt":"2009-10-29T03:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=8648"},"modified":"2009-10-29T17:47:58","modified_gmt":"2009-10-29T23:47:58","slug":"complaint-filed-over-political-committee%e2%80%99s-fundraising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/10\/complaint-filed-over-political-committee%e2%80%99s-fundraising\/","title":{"rendered":"Complaint filed over PAC\u2019s fundraising"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Councilor

Councilor Dolores Archuleta, Council candidate Jim Harbison and Councilor Gil Jones, left to right, were all endorsed by the Building Industry Association of Southern New Mexico in this flyer. The organization\u2019s director is also treasurer of the political committee that\u2019s at the center of the complaint filed with the city clerk.<\/p><\/div>\n

Jobs for Las Cruces PAC told people it was raising money for the Las Cruces municipal election, but now it says the money is for 2010 county and state races<\/h4>\n

A Las Cruces political action committee raised more than $20,000 at an August fundraiser after apparently telling people the money would be spent on the upcoming city council election. Now, the group says it isn\u2019t spending any of the money on the election and, therefore, doesn\u2019t need to file a campaign finance report with the city.<\/p>\n

Las Cruces resident Greg Lennes filed a formal complaint with the city clerk Monday alleging that Jobs for Las Cruces Political Action Committee needs to file such a report.<\/p>\n

City Clerk Esther Martinez said in an interview that she\u2019s looking into Lennes\u2019 complaint. She said the situation puts the committee in a gray area in which it may be violating the city\u2019s election code. If the group raised money to help city council candidates, Martinez said, the group \u201cwould have to report it to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey haven\u2019t filed anything with me, and Mr. (David) Roewe (the committee\u2019s treasurer) is aware of this information because he had requested a copy of the campaign ordinance,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n

Such a report would have been due on Oct. 22. A group can be fined $50 per day for every day it\u2019s late in filing a report.<\/p>\n

The election code states that a political committee \u2013 a group of two or more people that \u201craises, collects, expends or contributes money or any other things of value for the purpose of supporting or opposing a candidate in a municipal election\u201d \u2013 must file a report of any expenditures and contributions related to the municipal election.<\/p>\n

Roewe was quoted Sunday by the Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a> as saying that the money the committee is raising is not for the city election, but \u201cis for other races, such as the legislative races, gubernatorial elections and others like that next year.\u201d Asked in an interview today if it was true that the committee had not raised or spent any money on the city council election, Roewe said, \u201cThat\u2019s correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then he added this: \u201cWe raised money. Did we use the city election as a gathering ground? Oh hell yes. \u2026 We used it as a rallying point,\u201d he said. \u201cYou do whatever you have to do to raise funds. \u2026 This is a call for the business community to get up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Letter states that fundraising was for city election<\/h3>\n

Roewe\u2019s comments came after he was asked about a Sept. 14 fundraising letter<\/a> signed by local businessmen John Moscato and Tom Hutchinson on behalf of the committee. The letter states that the committee had \u201craised more than $20,000 for the upcoming election\u201d at an Aug. 27 fundraiser.<\/p>\n

What election? The rest of the letter is about the city council election. It states that candidates Gill Sorg and Olga Pedroza \u201care not business friendly\u201d and Councilor Sharon Thomas\u2019 \u201cvoting record and activism speak for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be a costly election, but much more costly if we don\u2019t get involved now and take a stand to elect pro business candidates into the city council,\u201d the letter states. \u201cIf you have contributed, thank you. If you haven\u2019t, please fill out the enclosed card and send an investment in the future of your business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roewe is the executive director of the Building Industry Association of Southern New Mexico (BIA), and, though he said the BIA and committee are separate entities, the committee is using the BIA\u2019s phone and fax numbers as its contact numbers. The BIA has endorsed Sorg\u2019s opponent, Councilor Gil Jones; Pedroza\u2019s opponent, Councilor Dolores Archuleta; and Thomas\u2019 challenger, Jim Harbison.<\/p>\n

Roewe contends that, regardless of how the committee raised the money, the committee plans to use it for county and state races in the 2010 election. The PAC filed a report of contributions and expenditures<\/a> with the secretary of state\u2019s office on Oct. 8.<\/p>\n

According to the report, the PAC raised $29,900 and spent $5,282.02. It also had a little more than $2,000 in in-kind contributions.<\/p>\n

Most of the expenses, Roewe said, were reimbursements to the BIA for purchasing voter lists and payments to a contractor who created \u201ca database of businesses and their employees throughout the district\u201d whose \u201cjobs depended on having business-friendly candidates in office.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Oct. 22 city finance reports filed by the candidates endorsed by the BIA don\u2019t reflect any contributions from the committee. The committee\u2019s report to the secretary of state also doesn\u2019t reflect any contributions to city council candidates or any other expenditures related to the city election.<\/p>\n

Lennes\u2019 concerns<\/h3>\n

But Lennes and others have expressed two concerns. The first relates to a telephone poll in the District 6 race between Thomas and Harbison conducted several weeks ago. Thomas says the poll was \u201cclearly aimed\u201d at her because it asked people whether they would vote for Harbison or Thomas if they knew one was an \u201cextreme environmentalist.\u201d Lennes and others have labeled the call a \u201cpush poll\u201d even though the caller didn\u2019t identify Thomas as an \u201cextreme environmentalist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas said Roewe and others have used such labels to describe her in public.<\/p>\n

Harbison said he didn\u2019t pay for the poll and doesn\u2019t know who did. Roewe said the committee didn\u2019t pay for it either \u2013 or it would have been reported to the secretary of state \u2013 and added that he also doesn\u2019t know who paid for it.<\/p>\n

The second concern Lennes has raised is that the next finance reports in the city election aren\u2019t due until December. He suspects that the committee might have waited to spend its money until after last week\u2019s finance report was due so it wouldn\u2019t be reported until after the election.<\/p>\n

That, Lennes said, might be beneficial to the candidates the BIA has endorsed because all three have prided themselves during the campaign on not taking any special interest money.<\/p>\n

Lennes said he believes the committee\u2019s fundraising should have been reported to the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey raised funds directly for the local election. It says that right there in the (Sept. 14) letter,\u201d Lennes said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how much clearer that could be.\u201d He also questioned whether the committee raised the money on \u201cfalse pretenses\u201d if it didn\u2019t intend to spend it on the city election.<\/p>\n

Regardless of what the committee told potential donors to raise money, Roewe said it\u2019s a state PAC and not involved in the city council races.<\/p>\n

\u201cI report to the state, and my stuff\u2019s on the state Web site<\/a>,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re pretty damn transparent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez said she hopes to get to the bottom of the situation and respond to Lennes\u2019 complaint by the end of the week. The election is Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A local PAC used the upcoming Las Cruces municipal election to raise money, but its treasurer now says it isn\u2019t spending the cash on that election and doesn\u2019t have to file a finance report with the city. A complaint has been filed and the city clerk is investigating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[145],"class_list":["post-8648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-las-cruces"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8648","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=8648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8648\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}