ALBUQUERQUE — Late last week, Democratic Party of New Mexico staff noticed a batch of fundraising letters arriving in droves.

For starters, the letters were unusual. The return address stated they were from congressional candidate Ed Tinsley, the Republican nominee for New Mexico’s hotly contested 2nd Congressional District race.

“They were all over the office,” Conchita Cruz, state Democratic Party press secretary, told the Independent. She estimated that over 100 such letters were received.

DPNM Executive Director Josh Geise, sensing an opportunity, couldn’t resist an easy quip at the Republican’s expense.

“We all know that he lives in the Democratic County of Santa Fe but that doesn’t mean he’s going to get our Democratic money," Geise said of Tinsley in a statement emailed to NMI in which he repeated a common Democratic line of attack in the battle for the 2nd CD, which is primarily in southern New Mexico. It is often contrasted as a world apart from the state’s other congressional districts centered in Albuquerque and northern New Mexico.

The Democratic Party’s northeast Albuquerque office received all the letters, but each mailer was addressed to separate individuals. Among those were some well-known names: Lt. Gov. Diane Denish; former speaker of the state House of Representatives Raymond Sanchez; and current state House candidate Brian Egolf – all Democrats, Cruz said.

The letters themselves, all identical form letters but individually addressed, present a straightforward fundraising pitch for the southern New Mexico congressional hopeful.

“You have my support, Ed!” each one began. The letter continued:
 

Your commonsense conservative leadership is just what New Mexico needs. You face one of the toughest races in the country and need to build up a sizable campaign fund to answer the attacks headed your way.

NMI asked the Tinsley campaign for an explanation and got this statement from the campaign’s communications director, Jim Pettit:
 

Our mail vendor included additional addresses in error. We apologize if someone received mail that wasn’t supposed to. Frankly, we would rather be talking about the issues important to New Mexico families rather than a computer glitch, but our opponent refuses to do that.

NMI contacted Egolf, a Santa Fe Democrat, and asked if he was considering ponying up to the Tinsley campaign.

“Yeah, right,” he said laughing, unaware of the incident until NMI brought it to his attention. “Of course not. Have not, will not. I’m strongly supporting Harry Teague,” Egolf said, referring to Tinsley’s Democratic opponent.

Egolf speculated that maybe the Tinsley campaign had constructed the fundraising mailing list by sifting through the Federal Election Commission database and mailing a very broad group of past donors to federal candidates in New Mexico.

“You’re not allowed to use those lists for personal solicitation. If they somehow used FEC records to combine a list, that’s really, really bad and they should know better,” Egolf, a lawyer, added.

NMI put that speculative possibility to Pettit, but has yet to receive a response.

The last line of the fundraising letter implied support for Tinsley in his political battle against a strong, lurking opposition.

"To help you fight back against the full force of the liberal Democrat attack machine, I am happy to join your grassroots team,” the letter concluded, followed by a wide range of suggested donation amounts.

The letter made no mention of the full force of a shot to the foot from a mailing mixup.