ISPAC Responds to GOP’S Frivolous Retaliation

From ISPAC, Michael Corwin.

Retaliation: The New Mexico GOP filed frivolous allegations with the FEC against ISPAC in retaliation for blowing the whistle on pay-to-play activity by Governor Susana Martinez and others regarding the awarding of the billion dollar plus racino contract (Dirty Downs Deal).

Unable to attack the information we developed, the GOP has resorted to attacking the messenger. ISPAC exposed Susana Martinez’s actions in the Dirty Downs Deal which scuttled her political team’s (Jay McCleskey) efforts to turn her into a top tier VP selection and to be the national figurehead in the drive to mislead and siphon Hispanic votes away from Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

We have targeted Susana Martinez through our federal PAC because she is in a position to impact the presidential election and we need to prevent that from happening.

On April 5, 2012 ISPAC held a press conference documenting the latest information we developed and forwarded those documents to the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office. On April 8, Governor Susana Martinez announced to the world via the Albuquerque Journal that “no means no” when it comes to a vice-presidential bid.

We have more than enough documentation to submit to the FEC to justify our using the federal PAC to benefit President Obama and Joe Biden in their quest to maintain the Hispanic vote.

Presidential Campaign: Before ISPAC received any money from CWA, the Hispanic Leadership Network, (HLN) a national Republican group founded by Jeb Bush, a strong proponent of having a Hispanic on the 2012 GOP ticket, announced that Susana Martinez would be the keynote speaker for this national conference aimed at convincing Hispanics to vote Republican in 2012. By that time, Susana Martinez was mentioned time and again as a possible VP candidate.

Republican presidential nominee-to-be, Mitt Romney, often identified Martinez as a good vice presidential selection throughout his primary campaigns.

Martinez has been mentioned in countless news articles (including those pieces written by the McCleskeys themselves) about her ability to draw high percentages of the Hispanic vote.

Gary Johnson, former Republican presidential candidate turned Independent presidential candidate, has directly attacked Susana Martinez on the presidential campaign trail trying to keep her off of the Republican ticket. He has taken her to task over her efforts to repeal driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.

Martinez has constantly cited President Obama as supposedly supporting her education reform agenda, including sending out mailers to Democrats.

State Super PAC: In May 2011 ISPAC sent notification to both the New Mexico Secretary of State and the New Mexico State Attorney General that we intended to form an independent expenditure PAC.

We provided legal reasoning as to why the $5,000 campaign contribution cap was illegal (per the US Supreme Court) when it came to independent expenditure groups that do not coordinate with campaigns or the party.

We requested a formal opinion, but made it clear that we fully intended to raise unlimited contributions within the state PAC to address state races.

The New Mexico Attorney General’s office responded that they were unable to issue a formal opinion unless a state official requested it. We then asked the Secretary of State to make the request. The SOS prepared the request, but never sent it to the AG.

Since that time, the Republican Party has filed a lawsuit to block the $5000 cap and a federal judge has ruled that it cannot be enforced regarding independent expenditure PACs. The judge’s ruling was in essence the same as our legal argument.

We believe that the legal argument, and lack of response to our request, are solid enough to support our endeavor.

Finally, we are not going to back down. While the Republicans in this state spend their days promoting an agenda that favors campaign contributors and an elite class of business interests, ISPAC is proud to fight on behalf of working families. Powerful politicians can and should be held accountable.