A Pricey Competition For Dem Nod For Attorney General As Colón and Torrez File Money Reports, Plus: New Keller TV Launches First Negative Volleys At Gonzales; Blog Fact Check

Brian Colón

It appears to be a highly competitive race for the Dem nomination for attorney general and the price tag to win it could very well go over the $1 million mark. 

Campaign reports filed with the SOS this week by State Auditor Brian Colón  and Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez show Colon with $1.002 million in cash already on hand and Torres had $555,000. 

Colón has the cash lead, but Torres' first DA campaign for the Dem nomination received $107,000 in support from a Super PAC funded by liberal financier George Soros. Other progressive money could also come in to close the gap so there is more wait and see to play out.

Colón reported raising $1.060 million from April thru October 4. $367,000 of that was transferred from his auditor campaign fund. He also donated $5,000 to his own campaign. He reported spending $58,000 with his biggest expenditure $36,000 for polling by Lake Research in DC. 

Among Colon's well-known donors was PNM CEO Patricia Vincent Collawn who gave $5,000. 

Approval of Avangrid's merger with PNM is currently pending before the state and current Attorney General Hector Balderas has recommended the merger go through. 

ABQ trial attorney Randi McGinn gave $1,500 each to Colon and Torrez; restaurant owner Nick Kapnison gave Colón $5,000 as did Fresquez Concessions. Heritage Hotels owner Jim Long and spouse Rebecca Long donated a hefty $20,000. Contributions are limited to $5,400 but donors can give for both the primary and general election. 

Other donors to Colón's campaign include Tobacco giant Altria, $1,500 and former AG Gary King who gave $1,000. 

Raul Torrez

Torrez, serving his second four year term as DA, reported raising $637,000, including the transfer of $323,000 from his campaign DA account. His prominent donors include ABQ trial attorney Bert Parnall of TV fame who gave $4,000 and his law firm came with another $5,200 that we counted. 

Auto dealer Bob Pitre donated $5,000; former US Attorney John Kelly, $1,000 and ABQ trial lawyer Lisa Curtis, $1,500. 

Torrez reported spending $82,000 with over half of that going to out-of-state campaign consultants. 

There is no announced Republican candidate for AG. The office rarely goes R with the last Republican winning the post in 1986. 

While Colón and Torrez are already being tested for their ability to finance a campaign, their first voter test isn't too far off. In March of '22 the Dems will hold their pre-primary convention where delegates will vote on the candidates who will need at least 20 percent support to get an official spot on the June primary ballot. The winner of that convention will gain significant momentum. 

MESSING WITH MANNY 

After a couple of weeks of playing Mr. Nice Guy, ABQ Mayor Tim Keller's TV ads took a decided turn to the negative with this 30 second message. The spot extolls Keller's crime fighting abilities--his chief political weakness-- and calls out Sheriff Gonzales on several fronts. The transcript:

How do we fight crime? 

Mayor Keller. He tripled the homicide unit. 400 new police officers. The Gateway Center will fight addiction and homelessness and Tim Keller is fighting for new laws to detain gun crime suspects and end the revolving door. And Manny Gonzales? Caught committing campaign fraud. Says no to body cameras and murders go unreported. Manny Gonzales, dangerously wrong for Mayor. 

The fact check:

It's true the Keller administration hired 400 new cops but the target set by the mayor of having 1,100 officers still eludes him because of the many police retiring from APD. At last count there were only 920. 

It seems as if Keller is doing a preemptive attack on the lack of police which combined with the record homicide rate leave him vulnerable to the expected counterattack by Gonzales. 

The Gateway Center may indeed "fight addiction and homelessness" but that doesn't necessarily mean those sticky problems will get any better. 

"Fighting for new laws to detain gun crime suspects and end the revolving door" will have to consist largely of the Mayor lobbying the Legislature which has the authority over those matters, not him. 

As for Gonzales "committing fraud," his campaign did so by using forged signatures to try to qualify for public financing. The City Ethics Board slapped Gonzales with a $2,000 fine and reprimand. 

The City Clerk's charge that fraud was committed and denied Gonzales $600,000 in public financing also went before various courts where Gonzales lost. 

As for the Sheriff saying "no to body cameras," he did--for years. But in February before he undertook his mayoral bid, Gonzales gave in and began to deploy the cameras he so vigorously resisted.  

As for not reporting murders, the newspaper had to file an IPRA to find out the latest crime stats stats for BernCo because Gonzales refused to release them. However, Keller has had his own crime stat issue. In 2019 he announced the numbers showed a substantial drop in ABQ crime which turned out to be untrue when the stats were corrected.

The negative part of this ad is the most effective because it basically does little to veer from the truth. The positive part is more tricky for Keller as it indicates to viewers that crime will go down at some unknown point in the future, but the crime of today is so rampant persuading voters of that is a tougher sell then the takedown of Gonzales. This is the home of New Mexico politics. 

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2021