Trujillo’s new radio ads are riddled with lies and personal attacks against Mayor Webber, Former City Councilor Patti Bushee, and me. That is to be expected from someone who knows no other path but deception. Enough is enough.

I feel I have been tempered in Retake’s coverage of the District 46 campaign pitting Rep. Carl Trujillo against Andrea Romero. I have focused on Trujillo’s voting record, each candidate’s endorsements, and I have summarized what has been reported in the media about independently substantiated sexual harassment claims. I have also reported on Romero’s mistakes and her addressing those mistakes.

Throughout the campaign Trujillo’s supporters and Trujillo himself have made personal attacks, misrepresentations, and underhanded campaign tactics a daily event. Today his campaign launched radio ads riddled with lies and personal attacks against Mayor Webber, former Councilor Bushee and me. So, I feel I must rebut this nonsense and remind our readers what this campaign is really about. I implore you to share this post with your friends, especially those in Dist. 46, and to gather up a few friends and go out and campaign for Andrea Romero this weekend. Mayor Webber and Andrea will be leading canvassing on Saturday at 1pm. Meet at 1101 Hickox St. Santa Fe, and canvass from 1-4pm. There will be canvassing on Sunday and Monday as well. If you can’t canvass, please call everyone you know in Dist. 46 and share this blog broadly, very broadly.

Here is a list of reasons why it is so important to vote Carl Trujillo out of office and vote in a woman of integrity who will represent all of Dist. 46.

• Trujillo has launched radio ads that attack the Mayor, a former City Councilor, and me personally, entirely misrepresenting all three of us. His ad describes me as having moved to NM just two years ago and that I know nothing about NM. Correction: I have lived in NM for six years and during that time Roxanne and I have been devoted to working with Indigenous and Hispano organizations to advance our understanding of NM cultural, historical, and political issues. Ask Somos, Chainbreaker, Earth Care, Red Nation, or Tewa Women United if we haven’t aligned behind their work and learned from their wisdom. In addition:
  • Roxanne completed Master Gardener training to learn about the land, water, climate, and growing food ;
  • We both completed Climate Masters training to learn about our local environment;
  • We went through SURJ training to learn about white privilege;
  • We spent two days in Gallup at a Red Nation Conference to learn about issues impacting Indigenous people;
  • I met for two hours with one of Trujillo’s strongest proponents, Heather Nordquist, and have spent many hours speaking with and exchanging emails with Trujillo supporters to learn more about the easement and water issues in Dist. 46; and
  • While his ad claims we know nothing about Dist. 46 or NM, we have also learned from over 100 Retake supporters from Dist. 46, including members of our Leadership Team and our Roundhouse Advocacy Team.
  • Click here to listen to these 30 second radio ads and consider what kind of person you want representing us in the Roundhouse. The ads also seriously misrepresent the Mayor and Patti Bushee.

• Trujillo has mischaracterized Romero’s reimbursement mistakes as fraud or illegal use of public funds. Correction: Romero’s reimbursements were not illegal and were processed very much in the open. Also, while she has accepted responsibility and reimbursed the Regional Coalition, the reimbursement mistakes were not hers but the fiscal agent and Coalition Treasurer, both of whom approved the expenditures. Early in her career Roxanne worked at UC Berkeley as a grants manager where she processed scores of reimbursement requests from professors who routinely made errors on their reimbursements. It was her job, not theirs, to understand and abide by the rules. Romero turned in invoices and they were approved. If they were inappropriate expenditures, then someone shouldn’t have approved them. Trujillo has made this into a major character issue for one reason — it’s all he’s got and he needs to deflect attention from his myriad of terrible votes in the Roundhouse and from charges of sexual harassment.
• Trujillo has published the home phone number of staff from Planned Parenthood and mischaracterized himself as pro-choice. In writing, Trujillo has wondered why his long time friends, like Planned Parenthood, have turned on him. Correction:  If he is pro-choice, why is he endorsed by the NM Pro-Life Alliance, a group that supports the repeal of Roe v. Wade? Why is Andrea Romero endorsed by Planned Parenthood? Maybe because Trujillo voted to limit women’s access to abortion, a not so small and inconvenient truth. Planned Parenthood didn’t ‘turn on’ Trujillo, it recommended that their supporters vote for the best candidate.
• Trujillo has claimed that multiple sexual harassment claims are “unsupported,” a “witch hunt” and a “conspiracy” while viciously attacking Laura Bonar, a woman who had the courage to come forward. Trujillo indicates that her charges are unsubstantiated. Correction: Two women have substantiated her claims and Rep. Armstrong announced that two other women had come to her with witnesses to assert that they also had been harassed by Trujillo. These are hardly unsubstantiated charges.

Examine the points above. Every one of them demonstrates how Trujillo lied, dissembled, and attacked. This is precisely why Retake Our Democracy decided to welcome Romero’s entry into the race. Months before Romero decided to run, we had interviewed legislators and progressive lobbyist allies about why so many good bills died. Among other things, we were told over and over again confidentially by progressive lobbyists and by legislators that Trujillo could not be trusted, that he voted with Republicans too often, and that when pressed, he knew only two ways to respond: to lie and to attack. If you want to know why these legislators and lobbyists did not want to state publicly their thoughts on Carl Trujillo, consider what Laura Bonar and Rep. Armstrong have endured.

District 46 voters have an important choice to make. They must choose between an incumbent who has turned attacks and lies into a campaign mantra, built rabid support by pitting Hispanos against Pueblo people on issues that could be resolved with a more collaborative, empathetic approach, and who has voted to:

• Prevent women from accessing abortion (HB 390),
• Ease concealed cover regulations (HB 106);
• Allow New Mexico to be the Nation’s dump for spent uranium fuel rods (Lea-Eddy, HM 40);
• Enable gas and oil industry to export crude oil HM 105);
• Expand the three strike law (HB5);
• Prevent slowing the privatization of education (HB 46); and
• Prevent health insurers from curbing overcharges by big pharma (HB 244).

And he joined a suit with a Libertarian lawyer and the Bail Bonds Association to challenge Sen. Wirth’s Bail Reform Amendment, approved by 82% of the voters.

Reasons to vote for Andrea Romero? She is strongly pro-choice, strongly pro-labor, strongly pro-education, strongly pro-environment, and if you can tell anything about a candidate by who supports her: Planned Parenthood, Conservation Voters of NM, four unions, and four pueblos. And Retake Our Democracy.

The Dist. 46 election isn’t just about one vote in the Roundhouse, it is about the integrity of the election process and the integrity of the two candidates. It is an easy choice. Please share this with everyone you know, post it on Facebook, call and email your friends in Dist. 46 and encourage them to vote for Andrea and join the Mayor and Andrea to canvass on Saturday.

In solidarity,

Paul & Roxanne

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