Sanchez Goes To Television In First Ad

State Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, under siege from Republican Gov. Susana Martinez and her political allies as he runs for re-election, is firing back on two fronts – GOTV and FOTV.

GOTV, of course, is “Get Out the Vote,” and Sanchez will join forces with Democratic U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich, candidate for U.S. Senate, and current U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., at a Tuesday afternoon rally in Belen to try to do that.

Sanchez also is using FOTV – “First (Time) On TV,” that is – to counter a barrage of negative advertising. His new soft-edged ad, which will run until the Nov. 6 general election, features him and his wife deploring nasty TV ads and inviting voters to “do what we do” – click them off.

It’s Sanchez’s first-ever foray into television advertising, according to his campaign.

Bingaman, who’s not running for re-election, is back at home combining Senate business with campaigning for fellow Democrats.

In addition to his scheduled appearance with Sanchez, Bingaman has done an ad with state House candidate Stephanie Garcia Richard of White Rock that begins airing on cable Tuesday and a telephone robocall for state House candidate Terry Fortenberry of Silver City.

And he’s done fundraising events for Heinrich and congressional candidate Michelle Lujan Grisham, as well as a get-out-the-early-vote event with U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan and other northern candidates.

- Deborah Baker; dbaker@abqjournal.com

Bean counting: The Federal Election Commission wants to know more about how Republican 1st Congressional District candidate Janice Arnold-Jones spent campaign dollars earlier this year.

The elections oversight agency in a letter to Arnold-Jones’ campaign sent Oct. 18 warned that a report from earlier this year didn’t include required summaries of how expenses from that period were used.

Arnold-Jones’ treasurer, Victor Bruno, said the mistake was a one-time computer error made while uploading the information to the FEC’s website. Bruno said he will submit the missing data before the FEC-imposed deadline of Nov. 23.

-  James Monteleone; jmonteleone@abqjournal.com