DA candidate’s campaign loan is challenged

LAS CRUCES – A complaint questioning the legality of a loan that recently elected Doña Ana County District Attorney Mark D’Antonio provided to his campaign in the last days of the 2012 election season has been lodged with the office of Attorney General Gary King.

The complaint, filed by a woman named Maria Elena Vargas, raises questions about a $40,000 loan D’Antonio received shortly before the November election by a limited liability company called Puerta Privada LLC.

One of Puerta Privada’s partners is Edgar Lopez, a Las Cruces businessman who has been identified, but never charged, as a player in the pending bribery case against former District Judge Michael Murphy. Murphy is alleged to have told a lawyer interested in a judicial appointment that she needed to give money or campaign contributions to Democratic politico Lopez to ensure her appointment by former Gov. Bill Richardson.

After obtaining the loan from Puerta Privada, D’Antonio lent the bulk of the funds, $28,000, to his campaign to expand political ads in the campaign’s final days, D’Antonio told the Journal. The total came from a $25,000 loan on Oct. 30 and a $3,000 loan dated Oct. 20, according to a campaign finance report.

D’Antonio, a former federal prosecutor and later defense attorney, defeated Republican incumbent District Attorney Amy Orlando, a protege of Gov. Susana Martinez, in the November election.

In the complaint received this week by the AG’s Office, Vargas suggests that the Puerta Privada loan violates campaign contribution limits. Vargas also suggests that D’Antonio violated campaign contribution reporting requirements by listing himself as the lender, rather than Lopez’s group. State law prohibits contributions, including loans, through third parties.

Vargas’ letter refers to D’Antonio’s loan to his campaign as a “gross and illegal attempt at subterfuge.”

Both D’Antonio and Lopez said that the complaint is a politically motivated attack, and they said there was nothing improper about D’Antonio’s reporting of his personal loan or about the Puerta Privada loan to D’Antonio.

“It’s not like I’m getting the money for free or anything,” D’Antonio said, noting that other candidates obtain loans from banks and then turn around and lend to their own campaigns. The DA said that in the waning days of the campaign, he did not have the time to secure a bank loan, so he turned to Puerta Privada, of which Lopez is a minority partner. D’Antonio said he put up a house he received through a divorce agreement as collateral for the loan, and he has already paid off the bulk of it.

The case against Murphy is being handled by special prosecutor Matt Chandler, a Republican from Clovis, and D’Antonio said he has no involvement in the Murphy case.

Whether the complaint will result in a formal investigation is not known. Phil Sisneros, King’s spokesman, said the complaint will be reviewed “before any decision is made on whether we initiate an investigation.”

By policy, the AG’s Office does not discuss investigations or even confirm that they exist.
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal