{"id":9538,"date":"2009-11-19T00:01:45","date_gmt":"2009-11-19T07:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=9538"},"modified":"2009-11-20T02:27:41","modified_gmt":"2009-11-20T09:27:41","slug":"cruces-clerk-finds-no-election-violation-by-pac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/11\/cruces-clerk-finds-no-election-violation-by-pac\/","title":{"rendered":"City clerk finds no election violation by PAC"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Las

Las Cruces City Hall (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018Now that I have been found not guilty\u2026 some apologies are in order,\u2019 the PAC\u2019s treasurer says<\/h4>\n

A controversial political action committee didn\u2019t violate any city ordinance when it failed to report to the city that it had raised money by telling people it was for the Las Cruces municipal election, Clerk Esther Martinez<\/a> announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Martinez wrote in a letter<\/a> to activist Greg Lennes, who filed the complaint against Jobs for Las Cruces Political Action Committee, that she determined \u201cthat there has been no violation of the Las Cruces Municipal Code.\u201d She wrote that her determination came after the PAC\u2019s treasurer, David Roewe, provided a response to Lennes\u2019 complaint. The letter provided no details.<\/p>\n

Martinez was not immediately available to share the reasoning behind her determination.<\/p>\n

Lennes was not pleased with the lack of details in the letter Martinez sent him Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really disappointed because I never saw an explanation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roewe, on the other hand, touted Martinez\u2019s decision in a widely distributed e-mail. He also criticized the media for being \u201cso easily duped by these obvious types of smoke and mirror manipulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was front page news when Greg Lennes made a bogus charge against myself and the PAC. Now that I have been found not guilty, will it get coverage at all?\u201d he wrote in the e-mail. \u201cWill the damage it did to our endorsed candidates be repaired. \u2026 Some apologies are in order.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what information he provided to Martinez before she made her determination, Roewe responded by e-mail that he showed her the PAC\u2019s income and expenses.<\/p>\n

Wading into a gray area<\/h3>\n

The PAC came under fire<\/a> before the Nov. 3 city election after it raised more than $20,000 at an August fundraiser by telling people the money would be spent on the city election. After the group failed to file a campaign finance report on Oct. 22, Roewe contended that, regardless of how the committee raised the money, the committee planned to use it for county and state races in the 2010 election.<\/p>\n

The PAC filed\u00a0a report of contributions and expenditures<\/a> with the secretary of state\u2019s office on Oct. 8.<\/p>\n

At the time, Martinez said the committee had waded into a gray area in which it might be in violation of the municipal code by not filing a finance report with the city. If the group raised money to help city council candidates, Martinez said at the time, it \u201cwould have to report it to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such reports are required from any group 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 according to the city\u2019s election code.<\/p>\n

A group can be fined $50 per day for every day it\u2019s late in filing a report.<\/p>\n

Asked shortly after Lennes filed his complaint if it was true that the committee had not raised or spent money on the city 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

And a Sept. 14 fundraising letter<\/a> indicates that the cash raised at the August fundraiser was \u201cfor the upcoming election\u201d \u2013 in reference to the city election. The letter also solicited additional funds for that election.<\/p>\n

New finance report coming in December<\/h3>\n

Roewe is the executive director of the Building Industry Association of Southern New Mexico (BIA), which endorsed three city council candidates — Gil Jones, Dolores Archuleta and Jim Harbison. Lennes supported those candidates\u2019 opponents \u2013 Gill Sorg, Olga Pedroza and Sharon Thomas. The three backed by Lennes won.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s little doubt that Roewe\u2019s PAC will have to file a finance report with the city in early December. After the controversy began \u2013 and after the first campaign finance report was due to the city in October \u2013 the PAC purchased ads<\/a> in the Las Cruces Sun-News raising questions about the trustworthiness of Pedroza, Sorg and Thomas.<\/p>\n

The ad stated that \u201cSome vocal supporters of candidates Pedroza, Sorg, and Thomas\u2026 have asked when our local PAC will spend money in this year\u2019s campaigns. The answer is NOW.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lennes has said publicly that he suspects the PAC was financially assisting the three candidates supported by the BIA. Today, he said he will wait to see what the PAC\u2019s December report states before deciding what to do next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A controversial political action committee didn\u2019t violate any city ordinance when it failed to report to the city that it had raised money by telling people it was for the Las Cruces municipal election, Clerk Esther Martinez announced Wednesday.<\/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-9538","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\/9538","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=9538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}