Chavez has most cash in hand, reports show

Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez

ALBUQUERQUE — Reports filed Friday with Albuquerque’s city clerk show that incumbent Mayor Martin Chavez has spent the least amount of public campaign funds among the city’s three mayoral candidates.

It’s unclear, however, how the campaign is, or should be, accounting for the value of materials it has been using since before the new financing system began.

From the initial distribution of $328,000 in public funds given to each campaign, the combined 2009 financial reports show Chavez with roughly $292,000 remaining. State Rep. Richard Berry has about $250,000, and former state senator Richard Romero has about $240,000.

Each candidate is also allowed in-kind contributions of approximately $32,860, or an additional 10 percent. Berry is the only one so far reporting significant in-kind contributions, with $14,476 primarily from three measure finance committees set up to help him qualify for public financing last March.

Chavez’s ability to retain more cash early in the campaign may be a sign of his incumbency advantage, which is emerging as a major theme in this year’s election season.

Unlike his two opponents, Chavez didn’t form a paid campaign team until the latter part of the second quarter. While Romero and Berry were campaigning, Chavez–who is in his third term–fielded media questions spurred by his opponents primarily through his administration’s staff.

Now that his re-election bid is official, the mayor’s second quarter reports should provide an accounting of his use of funds for the campaign. But Chavez does not seem to be accounting for the value of items that his campaign is using now but were purchased before the new campaign finance system took effect on January 1.

City Clerk Randy Autio said public financing rules suggest the fair market value of some items should be reported.

“If you have something that was paid for through previous political activity, I think you’ll have to reflect that coming in by listing the fair market value of what the prior campaign gave to this campaign,” he said. “Using public financing, you can only do that through an in-kind donation.”

The difficult part, Autio continued, is determining if those items were personal property of the candidate–which doesn’t have to be reported–or if the items are clearly recycled items paid for by previous political campaign funds.

An excerpt from page 13 of the report Chavez filed with the New Mexico Secretary of State's Office back in May.

Web site, photo, a poll and a robo call

Chavez has recycled his long-standing political website utilizing its domain name as well as photographs that were taken in prior years.

The website has been up continuously since at least 2007, when it was used by Chavez for his short-lived U.S. Senate campaign. The site was pared down in 2008 to a single page with a form to join his mailing list.

At some point after March 2009, the site was changed to thank supporters for helping the mayor qualify for public financing and promised to keep them “updated on the campaign.” The tagline at the bottom of the page was changed to “Paid for by Marty Chavez for mayor.” (The site was taken offline the evening that the Independent’s story ran detailing these changes.) The current version was unveiled last week, using the same domain name.

There is also one prominent photograph on the current web site, as well as Chavez’s campaign banner that has been used in past political work.

According to Mark Fleisher, Chavez’s campaign manager, the site was created and is hosted by Buzzmaker, LLC. The new report shows $6,079 paid to the company in the second quarter; in the first-quarter report, filed in April, no expenditures for Buzzmaker were listed. In the report from the fourth quarter of 2008, an $814 expenditure to the company is listed for “hosting & web site.”

Fleisher said expenses for the site don’t appear in the first-quarter report because the site wasn’t being actively used prior to its second-quarter revamp for the mayoral campaign.

“There wasn’t anything on it,” he said.

When asked about the site’s form for gathering email addresses, he said it didn’t collect any emails.

He added that he would get back to us on whether the expenditures for the website and the recycled photograph were or should be reported but has not done so yet.

Chavez also raised and spent $41,050 in December 2008, according to a notarized campaign report he filed in May with the Secretary of State. The report detailed his political spending in the last quarter of 2008. The fundraising was done through a state exploratory committee, hence the state reporting, although at the time it was unclear what office the activities of “Marty for New Mexico” were directed at. 

The report describes two of the largest expenditures as a “poll” that cost $22,350 and a “robo call” that cost $4,481.

Chavez said in February on New Mexico in Focus (21 minutes into the show) that the poll was wide-ranging and covered many topics. But the results that were given to local blogger Joe Monahan and reported in January highlighted high approval ratings for the job Chavez has done as mayor. “Chavez Camp Touts First Poll Of Mayoral Contest,” his January 9th headline said.

The report also lists an automated call, which it calls a “robo call.”

While the report doesn’t provide any other detail, at least one call made the rounds among some Albuquerque residents in the last week of December. It didn’t specify who was responsible for its production, but it specifically asked whether recipients would re-elect Chavez for mayor.

Here is the transcript of the audio clip:

“Do you think the Mayor of Albuquerque, Marty Chavez, is doing a good job as mayor, and if the election were held tomorrow would you vote for him for re-election? Press number 1 if you would vote for Mayor Marty Chavez, press number 2 if you would not vote for the mayor for re-election, or press number 9 if you are undecided or you do not wish to respond to the questionnaire.”

When asked if he thought the cost of the robo call should be reported, if the information it yielded is being used in Chavez’s campaign now, Autio said it’s a question that the city attorney would have to answer, normally. But, he said, the city has contracted with a judge to make such rulings in the coming months as they arise to avoid any perceptions that politics might be at play in how the election is administered. Both Autio and the city attorney are appointees of the mayor.

“There’s a fixed amount of money that everyone should be spending,” he said, “and you’ve properly identified an issue that should be looked at.”