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Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, said he was not intervening in a primary election contest between two Republican senators when he gave one of them a $1,000 contribution.
“I don’t get involved in primaries,” Ingle said, emphasizing that he made the contribution more than a year ago.
The Journal noted Wednesday that Sen. William Burt, R-Alamogordo, reported receiving the contribution in March. Burt was pitted in the June 5 primary election against Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell — who has since withdrawn his candidacy — as the result of state Senate redistricting.
But Ingle said he actually cut his political action committee check to Burt in March 2011, nearly a year in advance of Adair and Burt filing as candidates and well in advance of the Senate redistricting.
The problem was that Burt said he did not deposit Ingle’s check until March 9 of this year. Burt then included the $1,000 contribution in the campaign finance disclose report he filed with the secretary of state this week.
“I sat on it — I didn’t deposit it,” said Burt, who described the situation as “my mistake.”
— Dan Boyd, dboyd@abqjournal.com
NATIONAL HELP: A national Republican group said Wednesday that it plans to open its coffers this fall to buy TV ads in New Mexico to help elect Republican Senate candidate Heather Wilson.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee has reserved $3 million for airtime on New Mexico stations to support Wilson’s general election campaign, a committee official told the Washington newspaper Roll Call on Wednesday.
Wilson is the party favorite to win the GOP primary against Greg Sowards on June 5.
The New Mexico spending for Wilson is among a $25 million ad buy the National Republican Senatorial Committee reserved in six of eight states where Senate races are considered a “tossup” between Republicans and Democrats.
National Republican strategists are targeting New Mexico as a state to gain ground toward winning a Senate majority if a Republican is elected to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman.
A spokesman for Wilson’s campaign declined to comment.
— James Monteleone, jmonteleone@abqjournal.com
Tough on MARTINEZ: Former New Mexico Gov. and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson is slamming current Gov. Susana Martinez for being too tough on illegal immigrants.
Johnson said this week while campaigning in Las Vegas that the Republican governor should advocate for immigration reform.
A spokesman for Martinez countered that although she wants to overturn a state law that allows illegal immigrants to have driver’s licenses, she does support guest worker programs.
Last week, Johnson criticized Martinez as too inexperienced to be the GOP vice presidential nominee. Johnson said GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney selecting Martinez would be a “Palin-esque” mistake, referring to the toll the inexperience of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin took on Sen. John McCain’s presidential bid.
Johnson was a long-shot candidate for the Republican presidential nomination when he announced in December that he would instead pursue the Libertarian ticket.
—The Associated Press
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal
