Insurance Company Ponies Up $375,000 To Get Consultant McCleskey Off The Hook In Chandler Defamation Suit, Plus: More Details On Those New NM Congress Maps

Jay McCleskey (right)

It took a $375,000 settlement to get controversial political consultant Jay McCleksey off the hook in a defamation suit filed against him and the PAC he ran on behalf of Governor Susana Martinez by Luna County rancher Scott Chandler. Chandler reports he received the funds from McCleskey's insurance company. 

In November McCleskey had said the suit was settled but Chandler balked saying he was not willing to agree with that until the check arrived. Further negotiations produced the sum of $375,000. 

The settlement comes after Chandler asked a court to include Gov. Susana Martinez as a defendant in the suit. That could have opened her up to a wide range of questioning under oath. The settlement avoids that potentially embarrassing event.

In 2018 Chandler collected nearly $1 million from the state when he brought a defamation suit against Gov. Martinez and the State Police for a faulty investigation of the ranch he ran for abused children.

Chandler's latest lawsuit sued McCleskey and his political action committee for defamation related to mailers that were sent out about his ranch during the 2016 Republican primary for the state House. Chandler lost the primary by 16 votes. 

Chandler came with this statement following the $375,000 settlement:

In essence, law was made and precedent was set to provide a warning to those who chose to cross the line using "scorched earth" tactics to win. Our case will not only serve as a warning but, as a potential roadmap for others who find themselves, as we did in 2016, facing lies and unbelievable actions of unscrupulous individuals. Jay McCleskey, even in his own words, implicated a sitting Governor and their PAC acting as if they could operate above the law. In McCleskey's depostion he was asked who authorized him to say "on behalf of Advance New Mexico that it didn't consider Mr. Chandler to be a good candidate for the general election," Mr. McCleskey answered "{t}he governor." 

Full news release here. Settlement agreement here. 

Scott Chandler 

McCleskey's heyday was in 2010 when he consulted Martinez's successful Guv bid and again for her 2014 re-election. But lately his star has faded. The GOP consultant, hungry for business, even signed with a Democrat--Manny Gonzales--in the recent ABQ mayoral race but lost badly. He did successfully consult two city council candidates--Lewis and Grout--who won GOP leaning seats.

Now McCleskey is back consulting former TV weatherman Mark Ronchetti who was his client in 2020 when Ronchetti lost the US Senate race to Ben Ray Lujan. Ronchetti is now running for the GOP nomination for Governor. 

Dems are bracing for more of the slash and burn tactics from McCleskey who came close to being  ruined by Chandler for the use of those tactics. But Chandler and his attorney Pete Domenici Jr. appeared to back off from going in for a final kill of the consultant as well as Martinez. When it comes to McCleskey and the Republicans the story remains “to be continued.”

Photo with this report: Jay McCleskey with Republican attorney Robert Aragon and City Councilor-elect Renee Grout on Election Night, December 2.

NM CONGRESS AND PREZ

Analysis of the new congressional maps for New Mexico continues to pour in. The experts at the Daily Kos are first with how the new districts stack up in presidential voting:

Compared to the existing map used for the previous decade, the new boundaries dramatically reconfigure each district to transform the 2nd from a solidly Republican seat into a light-blue swing district. Under the old lines, the 2nd voted 55-43 for Donald Trump in 2020 and supported him 50-40 four years earlier; with the new border, it would have backed Joe Biden 52-46, according to Dave's Redistricting APP, and Hillary Clinton 48-42. 

This transformation is achieved by splitting up Albuquerque, about 95% of which was in the reliably blue 1st District under the old map. Now, about a quarter of the city—including its most heavily Latino southwestern quadrant—is in the 2nd. To compensate, the revamped 1st extends further into the suburbs north of the city as well as rural areas in the middle of the state. As a result, it drops from 60-37 Biden to 56-42 Biden. 

The 3rd undergoes a similar change, giving up some of those suburbs north of Albuquerque to the 1st while grabbing a swath of dark red territory in the state's southeast. Likewise, it falls from 58-40 Biden to 54-44 Biden (or about Biden +11 without rounding). Local politics might offer a keener lens, though: The 3rd now includes a large swath of the area known as "Little Texas," which is home to much of the state's oil industry. That in turn could pose new challenges for Democratic Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez.

By the way, even as Leger Fernandez tends to potential trouble in her own backyard, she has joined Sen. Heinrich in endorsing former Las Cruces City Councilman Gabe Vasquez for the Dem nomination for the southern congressional seat held by GOP Rep. Yvette Herrell. 

BATTING FOR YVETTE

Herrell has made no public comment on the congressional maps that are on their way to the  Governor for her signature (or veto) but Doug Antoon, a Republican analyst, attorney and a longtime supporter of Herrell's, comes with this:

In an upcoming wave year in which Republicans are expected to pick up seats that are rated 7, 8 or 9 points in favor of the Democrats, the objective analysis should be that Reps. Melanie Stansbury and Teresa Leger Fernandez should be scared, not Yvette. 

Update: Herrell statement:

The gerrymandered map New Mexico Democrats have proposed shows how desperate they are to try to save Nancy Pelosi’s majority. I look forward to running and winning in 2022 and providing New Mexico voters the conservative representation they deserve.

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This is the home of New Mexico politics. 

E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com)

Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.  

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2021