This one has the Alligators and wall-leaners chuckling. ABQ PR guru Doug Turner--a prominent Republican and 2010 Guv candidate--has been outed as the brain behind ABQ's Jerry Ginsburg who gave $40,000 to start a special interest PAC attacking Dem City Councilor Isaac Benton. He faces Republican Councilor Roxanne Myers in the Oct. 8 election. Liberal advocacy group ProgressNow NM comes with the story:

(The Ginsburg Pac) PAC reported using Ginsburg’s money to hire a shadowy California business to run the campaign. Benton’s campaign shed some light on the group...

The California firm the PAC hired...the Barbarossa Social Club Inc., isn’t really a club and it’s not really in California. It’s a company run by Doug Turner’s brother, Adam, and it’s California address is really just a mailing address that forwards to the offices of Republican Doug Turner’s PR firm, formerly DW Turner now called Agenda.

...Agenda’s staff signed the paperwork to start Ginsburg’s PAC and that PAC hired Barbarossa for "consulting," "mailing" and "design." Barbarossa turned around and hired DW Turner/Agenda to design those attack mail pieces...

Turner says he has used the same system for other political work, but it backfired this time. Ginsburg was trying to keep his expenditures quiet and Benton had filed a complaint about it. Here's the Benton's take on the Turner caper. They say:

Doug Turner has a long record of representing Republicans, the oil and gas industry, Walmart, health insurance companies and the sprawl industry. Now that we know his involvement in the City Council District 2 race on behalf of Republican Roxanna Meyers, we truly do know where Roxanna stands on the issues that matter.

And here's Adam Turner's retort to Benton:

Jerry Ginsberg is a good guy and is doing what he's doing because he believes in good government. That’s his legal right. I think what perplexes Davis and Benton is that Jerry is a Democrat, has been a strong supporter of Denish, Obama, and DeDe Feldman, but opposes Benton. Even more infuriating for them is that he's willing to put his money where his mouth is.

Both Benton and Myers have accepted public financing and each received $47,000 for their campaigns.

Meanwhile, we've proposed a post-election peace meeting between Doug and Adam Turner, Benton and Ginsburg. We're having it at at the very exclusive Barbarossa Social Club. (Hmm. Do they take American Express there?)

US SENATE CANDIDATE?

Still no official Republican candidates announced for the '14 GOP US Senate nomination and the right to take on incumbent Dem Tom Udall, but things are starting to shake some.

Attorney and Dona Ana County GOP Chairman David Clements will visit with activists  this weekend in Albuquerque to gauge support for a campaign to challenge Udall. Friends of Clements say national conservative organizations have approached him because they see him as a fresh face who can articulate a conservative message.

Clements, 33,  was as an assistant district attorney in Dona Ana County and now works for the 6th Judicial District in SE NM He received his law degree from the University of New Mexico. Clements is married to Erin, a civil engineer who comes from a northeastern NM ranching family. They live in Las Cruces.

Former GOP Chairman Allen Weh and former Democratic State Representative turned
Republican Robert Aragon are also being talked up as possible GOP senate hopefuls.

SMOKING SOMETHING?

ABQ attorney Jeffrey Baker comes with this news on the possible Robert Aragon US senate candidacy:

I received a computer phone call asking about Robert Aragon vs Tom Udall for U.S. Senate. The questions were (I am paraphrasing): “1] Tom Udall has been in the Senate for 6 years and has done nothing; 2] The economy is lousy, and Tom Udall has done nothing to improve it; and 3] Tom Udall only cares about New Mexico during election years. Which one of these statements most closely tracks what you think about Tom Udall? Now that you know about Tom Udall, are you more likely to vote for Robert Aragon for U.S. Senate, or Tom Udall?”

United States Senator Robert Aragon? What are these people smoking?

ON THE TRAIL

Dem Pete Dinelli comes with his latest mayoral TV ad. He says he will add more cops to APD and improve response times...And here's the newspaper profile of Dinelli. And here's the Journal profile of Mayor Berry.

The three mayoral contenders will have their first broadcast debate this Sunday at 4 p.m. on KOAT-TV.

WORTH WATCHING

The Dems are trying to make a play for the southern congressional seat held by Rep. Steve Pearce, Pundit Larry Sabato comes with a first look:

NM-2 (Likely Republican): Democrats are talking up recruit Roxanne Lara, a former county commissioner, in her challenge to Rep. Steve Pearce (R). The district isn’t all that favorable on paper — Obama only got 45% here in 2012 — but it also is a majority-Hispanic district where Democrats hope they can use immigration against the incumbent (Pearce opposes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants). Lara lost a bid to become the state Democratic Party chair earlier this year. This is a long shot for Democrats, but it’s also worth watching.

Yep. This is it. The home of New Mexico politics.

Reporting from Albuquerque, I'm Joe Monahan

E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com)

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2013. Not for reproduction without permission of the author