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WASHINGTON – On Wednesday – just one day after Tuesday’s primary election in New Mexico – national political action committees aimed at influencing New Mexico’s high-profile U.S. Senate race began flooding the state.
First up to bat? The American Future Fund. The Iowa-based Super PAC, which describes itself as “advocating conservative, free-market ideals” is spending $100,000 for television ads taking Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Martin Heinrich to task for his votes on economic stimulus and health care bills. The ads hit the airwaves in New Mexico on Wednesday.
Not to be outdone, American Crossroads, a Super PAC founded by Karl Rove, a former adviser to President George W. Bush, launched a $260,000 television ad buy Thursday that praises Republican Senate nominee Heather Wilson as “an independent voice for change.”
Super PACs – a relatively new phenomenon in American politics spawned by the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling – can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money from corporations, unions, associations and individuals to advocate for or against political candidates.
Democrats immediately pounced on the Crossroads PAC ad, pointing out that Wilson, who served in the U.S. House from 1998 to 2009, is a former board member of the Crossroads GPS, which is affiliated with American Crossroads.
Wilson sat on the GPS board from August 2010 until February 2011, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission.
Wilson spokesman Christopher Sanchez refused to address Wilson’s previous affiliation with Crossroads when asked about it by the Journal, and instead issued a statement criticizing Heinrich’s affiliation with environmental groups wielding an “extremist agenda.”
That brings us to the biggest federal PAC ad buy of all in New Mexico – so far, at least – this election cycle. A coalition of powerful na
tional environmental groups, including the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, said Wednesday that it will launch a $2 million advertising effort including television ads, direct mail and phone banks that will celebrate Heinrich’s environmental record and criticize Wilson’s.
These TV ads begin next week and are expected to last all summer.
— This article appeared on page C01 of the Albuquerque Journal
