By Pat Davis, The Paper. — The Democratic Party of New Mexico took the unusual step this week of asking local television stations to stop running an ad from one of their own candidates.
This story was originally published at New Mexico Political Report, a nonprofit news service covering politics and policy in the Land of Enchantment. Learn more and support our work at nmreports.org
The dispute arose over a new ad by Katharine Clark, the current Santa Fe County Clerk running for Secretary of State, which features the party’s logo under the words “chosen by,” which seemed to imply endorsement by the party. The party does not take sides in contested primary elections. On Wednesday, the party confirmed that they had sent sent a letter to Clark’s campaign “requesting the removal of the DPNM logo and the “chosen by” language from the ad. A separate letter was sent to stations where the ad is airing, requesting they stop airing the ad in its current form,” a spokesman confirmed.
That same day, Scott Forrester, a campaign consultant working for Clark, told NM Political Report that they had received the request and said that the campaign had no intention of altering the ad. “We are reminding voters that Katherine won the pre-primary convention. I would argue that Amanda [López Askin, the Doña Ana County clerk running against Clark] could say the same thing. I think we were very carful with the words. I don’t think it implies endorsement.” Clark and López Askin both received enough votes from DPNM pre-primary convention delegates to secure a spot on the primary ballot, though Clark earned the top ballot placement spot with 46% of delegate support compared to 35% for López Askin.
Shortly after receiving the letter from DPNM, Clark’s campaign issued a press release calling for an investigation into a López Askin ad because the candidate read part, but not all, of the required “Authorized by…” and Paid for by…” disclaimer required in broadcast campaign ads.
By Thursday morning, the campaign and party said they had come to an agreement to remove the implied endorsement. “We worked out with the Party to swap out the logo while still communicating Katharine’s convention win, which was always the intent of the ad,” Forrester confirmed this morning.