SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - New Mexico political candidates and committees have disclosed their final spending sprees of the 2016 election season that gave Democrats the Secretary of State’s Office and majority control of the Legislature.
Final spending tallies for Nov. 8 elections were due before midnight Friday at the Secretary of State’s Office. Political committees in particular unleashed a stream of negative advertising this year in the most competitive legislative races.
Standouts in an intricate web of political finances include the GOP-aligned political committee Advance New Mexico Now, run by Jay McCleskey - the top political adviser to New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez. Advance spent more than $2 million since January, including $281,000 after Nov. 1.
The committee was instrumental in defeating Democratic Senate majority leader Michael Sanchez of Belen, by sponsoring negative ads with disputed claims about Sanchez and his treatment of crime victims. Another ad claimed without proof that Sanchez traveled to Hawaii at taxpayers’ expense, when the senator insisted he has never been there.
Overall, Democrats extended their majority hold on the Senate, and won back control of the House of Representatives after two years of Republican control.
Automatic recounts are underway in three state legislative races where the margin of victory was less than 1 percent. If results remain unchanged, Democrats would outnumber Republicans 26-16 in the Senate and 38-32 in the House of Representatives.
New Mexico Together, a political committee aligned with six Democratic candidates for state senate, spent $146,000 in the final days of the general election campaign, and $476,000 in all during the 2016 election cycle.
The committee was behind negative ads against incumbent GOP Sen. Ted Barela of Estancia, who lost to Democrat Liz Stefanics of Santa Fe, and against Senator-elect Greg Baca, the political newcomer who defeated Sanchez.
The Democratic committee Patriot Majority New Mexico spent nearly $1.7 million during the 2016 campaign season.
In the final days before the Nov. 8 election, it collected $50,000 from organized labor committees and $40,000 from an advocacy group for gun control called Everytown for Gun Safety - and paid out $200,000 that was funneled largely toward political canvassing.
Two candidates for Secretary of State spent more than $1 million, as Democrat Maggie Toulouse Oliver of Albuquerque defeated Republican Nora Espinoza of Roswell to become the state’s top elections regulator. Toulouse Oliver’s campaign spent about $720,000, while Espinoza spent $358,000.
Campaign contribution limits increasing slightly after the election. Individuals can give up to $5,500 per election toward statewide candidates and $2,500 to legislative candidates.
Judith Nakamura became the first Republican elected to the New Mexico Supreme Court in decades in a publicly financed campaign against Democrat Michael Vigil. The candidates had almost evenly matched campaign accounts.
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