Contact
Subscribe
Republican PRC primary race gets nasty
Republican PRC candidates Jamie Estrada, left, and Kent Evans.
The Public Regulation Commission District 5 GOP primary race has degraded into a nasty battle between Jamie Estrada and Kent Evans.
The back-and-forth spilled over into public view last week when Evans put out a news release stating that his campaign had filed a complaint with the Secretary of State’s Office alleging that Estrada had failed to report campaign expenses and was in violation of state law.
“Mr. Estrada has made ethics and corruption a major issue in his campaign for the District 5 seat on the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, but he has failed to live up to the standards he has campaigned on,” Evans said in the release.
Among Evans’ allegations is that Estrada, a publicly financed candidate, hasn’t reported travel and printing costs, or the costs of a campaign mailer, on his finance reports. The complaint, which was filed by former PRC Member Tony Schaeffer on behalf of the Evans campaign, is pending.
Estrada said his finance reports are in compliance with the law. He said some of the expenses Evans has questioned were paid for with the seed money he used to qualify for public financing, and that seed money was scrutinized by the secretary of state before he was approved for public financing.
Estrada said he didn’t receive an invoice for the cost of the mailer Evans has questioned until after cutoff date for expenses that had to be included on the last report. The next report is due Thursday, and the mailer should be reflected on that report.
“Just because I am not spending money on the same things that he is (yard signs, TV ads, printer ink), or just because I am spending at a different rate doesn’t make me out of compliance,” Estrada said. “Kent Evans’ decision to pull a cheap campaign stunt 11 days before the election only wastes the valuable time of busy (secretary of state) staff. Baseless campaign attacks are the typical last resort of a desperate, old-school, career politician and it degrades Evans and his campaign supporters.”
Dropping a bomb
Evans also dropped a bomb in that news release, referring to Estrada’s “involvement in an assault and battery complaint filed in Otero County.”
“If I say I will stand up for what is right, then I have to do it,” Evans said in the release about why he brought up Estrada’s alleged “involvement” in that issue. “It doesn’t make any difference to me if it is now or after I am elected. I have had to make hard decisions before and I will have to again.”
But Estrada wasn’t involved in an assault and battery. A man who served a subpoena for Estrada when Estrada was challenging the petition signatures of two other candidates has been accused of assault by the woman he served the subpoena on, but Estrada was not present when the subpoena was served.
The incident occurred when the man was serving a subpoena in the case of Otero County Commissioner Doug Moore – one of two candidates who filed to run in the Republican PRC primary but was later disqualified.
Asked about the alleged assault and battery incident that he brought up publicly, Evans referred questions to Moore.
“I really know very little about it. I heard about it,” Evans said.
A testy forum
The situation has degraded from there. Things got ugly at a May 20 tea party forum Evans and Estrada attended in Las Cruces. Here’s video of one exchange from the forum:
Estrada has put two other video clips from the forum on his Facebook page. In one, Evans earns boos when he tries to bring Schaeffer on stage to help answer a question for him. Facebook users can watch it here.
In the other video clip, Evans highlights the fact that he and his wife have children, while Estrada and his wife do not.
“Unlike my opponent, like you, I have children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren,” Evans reads from a paper in his hand. “I am deeply concerned about their future.”
Martinez hasn’t endorsed anyone
Estrada also posted a document on Facebook about what he claims to be untruths from the Evans campaign. Among the issues he highlighted is that Evans’ campaign Web site lists Doña Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez – a GOP candidate for governor – as a supporter.
“Join these area leaders in support of Kent Evans!” the Web site states. Then it quotes Martinez as saying that Evans “listens to our concerns” and “believes we should be tough on criminals while focusing on victim’s rights.”
The problem? Martinez has endorsed no one in the PRC race. The quote is one Martinez provided to Evans to use when he ran for a legislative seat, according to Estrada, who was Martinez’s gubernatorial campaign manager before he entered the PRC race.
A negative mailer
Finally, GOP voters in the district received a mailer from Estrada on Tuesday attacking Evans for endorsing Bill Richardson in the 2008 presidential race.
“So called ‘Republican’ D. Kent Evans endorsed Bill Richardson for President,” the mailer states, adding that Richardson “made government corruption a household term… spent taxpayer dollars on planes, trains and personal chefs” and “made New Mexico a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants.”
“Now that’s alarming…. Vote No on Kent Evans,” the mailer states.
The ad cites a quote Evans gave me in 2007 at a rally attended by Richardson and other supporters of a tax increase to help fund Spaceport America.
“I love him and I think he’s doing a great job,” Evans said of Richardson during a speech he gave at that rally. “I think he is going to be the next president of the United States.”
Here’s what I wrote about it in 2007:
“I asked Evans after the event if he was endorsing Richardson’s candidacy, and he said he was, adding that Richardson is the best candidate he knows about.”
Reached today, Evans said he didn’t vote for or support Richardson for president. He said he was kidding with me when he made those comments in 2007.
The other two Republicans in the PRC race, Ben Hall and Robert Maez, appear to have stayed away from the fighting between Evans and Estrada. Maez hasn’t actually done much campaigning at all.
The winner of the GOP primary will face Democrat Bill McCamley (a friend of mine – read my disclosure on that) in November.
This article has been updated for clarity.
|
Share
Tweet
|
Advertisements
|
6 comments so far. Scroll down to submit your own comment.
Leave a response
You must be logged in to post a comment.
What Kent Evans said in his attack on Jamie Estrada at the Tea Party forum was inexcusable and I was there. Kent Evans has touted his endorsement by Tony Shaefer, a man who has changed his party so much no one knows which party he belongs to and has tried to sandbag Estrada at every turn and committed the sin of maligning another candidate of his own party. In my estimation he has cut his own political throat, not only in this campaign, but also in any future campaign he might mount.
Mudslinging and in-fighting is not conducive to public knowledge and should not be allowed in any race, but more especially in a Primary race. I can understand Jamie being hurt and responding with his own attack, though this is still bad form, the voters are only interested in the facts about what the candidate can and will do when in office.
I was somewhat undecided about who would be the best candidate for the PRC race, but no longer. My vote is for Jamie Estrada and I would urge all to do the same. He is the most ethical of the candidates and will serve the public with honor and intelligence.
What Evans accuses Jamie of in this video clip you have up here is absolutely not true. I was in the very front row of this Tea party meeting and if anything bad would have been said I would have heard it. I was able to say hello to Jamie and give him my condolences for the loss of his mother and I never heard ANYTHING offensive said to Evans. Anyone who knows Kent and Anna Mae knows that they will say anything to try to win.
This is truly alarming that someone could stoop to that level and still ask to represent you! I find Mr. Evans comments and actions petty and low. It is time for a change in NM, we have to elect fresh faces, who will not play politics as usual!
I commented on the last time a story about Evans appeared on your site. You know, the one about the video from Valencia county when he couldn’t answer anyones questions? I sent him a note asking him if he thought if the Republican candidates were better than Richardson. He never replied to my message. So if he was kidding with you back in 2007 then why didn’t he clear it up with you back then? He was a republican elected official so who would want to be on the record with that kind of endorsement if it wasn’t for real.
In any case Evans has no class and can’t think for himself. Anyone who takes an endorsement from Doug Moore and associates with him is suspect in my book. We here in Alamogordo know Moore quite well. Not a good thing at all.
IMO this looks like a last best chance for the PRC – if Jamie is elected there is at least a chance that a sincere, credible, hard working, knowledgeable candidate can try to reform the PRC.
On the other hand, if yet another un-qualified political hack like Evans gets elected to the PRC – then the voters will have shown that this really doesn’t deserve to be an elected position. 5 elected PRC members, that’s more than the 3 congressional districts, and most of the public (and many of the candidates) don’t know or follow the important issues the PRC is supposed to handle.
Kent Evans has shown publically that he doesn’t even know the difference between the investor (PNM) and public (coop) utiltities he would regulate. His only record is for the number of times he runs for offices he is not qualified for. Now he’s reached the obsure by issuing a completely false press release trying to link Jamie Estrada to a court appointed summons server, admitting he “just heard about it” but didn’t know any details, and falsely accusing Jamie of filing incorrect paperwork – which was also clearly not the case.
The NM GOP should hold Evans to the same standard as the gubernatorial candidates, if Yates wants to have any credibility for chastizing Weh for his misleading statements – Yates should condem Evans press release immediately – if he lets those false accusations play to Evans benefit, the NM GOP will have lost all credibility (although I personally agree with Doug Turner that the GOP should not have weighed in on Weh, it set a precedent Yates can’t possibly meet).
Evans bizzare assertion that he, like everyone else, has kids and grandkids, and Jamie does not – is the kind of trash talk that gaurentees that if he gets the nomination, myself and others would do all we can to make sure he loses by an even bigger margin in the general. I’ve never been so offended by an R to work for D – but in this case I would. I didn’t even start my family until I was Jamie’s older than Jamie is today, that’s gotta be one of the more bizarre statements I’ve ever seen in politics.
And good for Jamie if he told Evans to f*-off for an insincere condolence (as evidenced my Evans bring it up in the forum), I wouldn’t shake hands with someone like that either.
Jamie Estrada is the only R chance of winning the seat, and the only chance for the PRC to get better rather than worse – lets hope NM voters (and GOP Chairman Yates) are paying attention.
It appears that Mr. Evans went to the Allen Weh school of campaigning… half truths, accusations, false endorsements…just as a distraction. Mr. Evans is a perrenial candidate, running for office whether he is qualified or not. He has to ask someone else to answer the question he was asked?? What difference does it make if Mr. Estrada has kids or not?? Never realized having kids qualfied you to run for office. If that is the case, Octomom in CA is a shoe in! I hope Jamie Estrada gets every single vote there is. Mr. Evans should be ashamed of himself.