RIO RANCHO, N.M. (AP) - A Super PAC raised $75,000 to attack a Republican U.S. House candidate in New Mexico over allegations she opposed Donald Trump for president, federal records show.
According to the Federal Election Commission, Citizens for a United New Mexico raised the money during the first three months of 2020 before it launched a recent advertising blitz against former state lawmaker Yvette Herrell.
The ads alleged that Herrell sent emails in 2016 “to undermine Trump’s campaign for president” and attended an “anti-Trump soiree” in San Diego - claims that Herrell said are false and misleading.
The ad references a story from The Associated Press about a March 2016 email from Herrell seeking to support U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas’ run for president. It also refers to another AP story about Herrell making comments on a podcast about the Republican-controlled Congress and the Trump administration’s “lack of leadership” during Trump’s first two years in office.
The ad was meant to undermine Herrell’s principal argument in a three-person Republican primary that she is the most stalwart supporter of Trump.
Herrell, oil executive Claire Chase and Las Cruces businessman Chris Mathys are seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Rep. Xochitl Torres Small of Las Cruces in the general election.
Records show the Super PAC is registered to a northern New Mexico oil trucking company owner and a Massachusetts GOP operative.
Election records also listed Carlsbad rancher George Brantley as one of the Super PAC’s significant donors and showed he donated $25,000.
He is married to Nancy Brantley, the campaign chair of House candidate Claire Chase, who is Herrell’s opponent in the GOP primary.
The Brantley’s connection was evidence that the Chase campaign and the Super PAC were illegally coordinating, the Herrell campaign said.
“There should be a fair and thorough investigation into this immediately,” Herrell campaign manager Dakotah Parshall said. “If Claire Chase and her Super PAC are breaking the law, they need to be held accountable.”
George and Nancy Brantley did not immediately return a phone message.
Federal campaign laws don’t prohibit spouses of campaign members from donating to Super PACs. But campaigns and Super PACs aren’t allowed to coordinate, under federal law.
Record show that Josette Herrell, Yvette’s mother, donated more than $3,500 to a pro-Yvette PAC during her unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2016.
Chase’s campaign manager, Mike Berg, dismissed the accusation that anyone from the campaign was working with the anti-Herrell Super PAC.
“Failed career politician Yvette Herrell knows as much about campaign finance laws as she does about winning campaigns. Yvette got exposed as a secret ‘Never Trumper,’ lied about it, and now realizes she’s going to lose again,” Berg said, referencing a phrase coined for conservatives who opposed Trump during his first bid for president.
Filings list Charles Gantt of Beverly, Massachusetts, as “custodian of records” of the Super PAC. Gant runs a company called Bulldog Compliance, a division of Red Curve Solutions. Bulldog Compliance helps “independent expenditure-only committees (Super PACs) and other fundraising-driven organizations,” according to its website. He has been linked to the Trump For President Committee, the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, and conservative-leaning Massachusetts Super PACs.
Records on the U.S. Federal Election Commission’s website list Butch Mathews, owner of the Farmington-based M & R Trucking company, as treasurer of the Super PAC, which has a mailing address in Carlsbad, 460 miles (740.30 kilometers) away from Farmington.
M & R Trucking has worked in the oil and gas industry for about three decades. The company is active in the natural gas region of the Four Corners and the oil-rich Permian Basin in southeastern New Mexico.
Mathews donated $2,800 to Chase last year, records showed.
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