Las Cruces City Council candidates Dolores Archuleta, Jim Harbison and Gil Jones, left to right, were all endorsed by the Building Industry Association of Southern New Mexico in this flyer. The organization’s director is also treasurer of the political committee that’s at the center of the complaint that was filed with the city clerk.

A controversial political action committee didn’t violate any city ordinance when it failed to report to the city that it had raised money by telling people it was for the Las Cruces municipal election, Clerk Esther Martinez announced Wednesday.

Martinez wrote in a letter to activist Greg Lennes, who filed the complaint against Jobs for Las Cruces Political Action Committee, that she determined “that there has been no violation of the Las Cruces Municipal Code.” She wrote that her determination came after the PAC’s treasurer, David Roewe, provided a response to Lennes’ complaint. The letter provided no details.

Martinez was not immediately available to share the reasoning behind her determination.

Lennes was not pleased with the lack of details in the letter Martinez sent him earlier today.

“I’m really disappointed because I never saw an explanation,” he said.

Roewe, on the other hand, touted Martinez’s decision in a widely distributed e-mail. He also criticized the media for being “so easily duped by these obvious types of smoke and mirror manipulations.”

“It was front page news when Greg Lennes made a bogus charge against myself and the PAC. Now that I have been found not guilty, will it get coverage at all?” he wrote in the e-mail. “Will the damage it did to our endorsed candidates be repaired. … Some apologies are in order.”

Asked what information he provided to Martinez before she made her determination, Roewe responded by e-mail that he showed her the PAC’s income and expenses.

Wading into a gray area

The PAC came under fire before the Nov. 3 city election after it raised more than $20,000 at an August fundraiser, telling people the money would be spent on the city election. After the group failed to file a campaign finance report on Oct. 22, Roewe contended that, regardless of how the committee raised the money, the committee planned to use it for county and state races in the 2010 election.

The PAC filed a report of contributions and expenditures with the secretary of state’s office on Oct. 8.

At the time, Martinez said the committee had waded into a gray area and that it might be in violation of the municipal code by not filing a finance report with the city. If the group raised money to help city council candidates, Martinez said, it “would have to report it to me.”

Such reports are required from any group that “raises, collects, expends or contributes money or any other things of value for the purpose of supporting or opposing a candidate in a municipal election,” according to the city’s election code.

A group can be fined $50 per day for every day it’s late in filing a report.

Asked shortly after Lennes filed his complaint if it was true that the committee had not raised or spent money on the city election, Roewe said, “That’s correct.”

But then he added this: “We raised money. Did we use the city election as a gathering ground? Oh hell yes. … We used it as a rallying point,” he said. “You do whatever you have to do to raise funds. … This is a call for the business community to get up.”

And a Sept. 14 fundraising letter indicates that the cash raised at the August fundraiser was “for the upcoming election” — in reference to the city election. The letter also solicited additional funds for that election.

New finance report coming in December

Roewe is the executive director of the Building Industry Association of Southern New Mexico (BIA), which endorsed three city council candidates — Gil Jones, Dolores Archuleta and Jim Harbison. Lennes supported those candidates’ opponents — Gill Sorg, Olga Pedroza and Sharon Thomas. The three backed by Lennes won.

There’s little doubt that Roewe’s PAC will have to file a finance report with the city in early December. After the controversy began — and after the first campaign finance report was due to the city in October — the PAC purchased ads in the Las Cruces Sun-News raising questions about the trustworthiness of Pedroza, Sorg and Thomas.

The ad stated that “Some vocal supporters of candidates Pedroza, Sorg and Thomas … have asked when our local PAC will spend money in this year’s campaigns. The answer is NOW.”

Lennes has said publicly that he suspects the PAC was financially assisting the three candidates supported by the BIA. Today, he said he will wait to see what the PAC’s December report states before deciding what to do next.

Jim Harbison, shown here at a recent city council candidate forum. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)

Some activists who support Las Cruces City Councilor Sharon Thomas’ re-election bid are calling her opponent a right-wing extremist.

That’s largely due to the fact that Jim Harbison registered with a Web site that’s part of the group Patriot Resistance. The site, ResistNet.com, advocates that citizens “resist – in a peaceful, patriotic way – Obama’s efforts to move our nation away from our heritage of individual liberties toward ‘brave new world’ of collectivism.”

Though the site officially opposes any calls for violence against government officials,  some of its members clearly don’t agree.

Harbison has posted nothing on the site that advocates violence.

The criticism of Harbison, who is challenging Thomas for the District 6 seat on the city council in the Nov. 3 election, has come primarily online, with postings on Facebook and e-mails sent out among hundreds or thousands of progressive activists and others on the city’s East mesa and elsewhere.

For example, Christy French of Las Cruces, the secretary for the state Democratic Party, posted a note on Facebook recently calling Harbison “an extreme right-wing nut job!” and “scary.”

But Thomas says she doesn’t consider Harbison a right-wing extremist. She said in an interview that the two “agree about managed growth and a lot of things,” and their primary policy difference seems to be about public safety.

“I don’t think he’s a radical, right-wing person,” Thomas said. “I think he had some concerns about things that were going on nationally and got involved in a conversation (on the Web site).”

Some on site use violent language

Those who register with the site have to agree, according to the site’s disclaimer, that “ResistNet is for principled, patriotic resistance to Barack Obama’s ideology and agenda and is not a forum for personal attacks, lewd or profane language, or militancy (inciting violence) against Barack Obama or others. Inciting violence, flame baiting, and trolling are reason for denial of membership and or banishment from the site.”

But in response to one posting published earlier this week on the site that asks, “Are we on the brink of revolution?” one commenter wrote, “VIOLENCE, NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!!! WATCH THOSE FEDERAL BLDGS, PROBABLY…”

Another commenter wrote that “trust in washington is over” and “the military should take them all out and arrest them.”

A second posting from earlier this week contains an article suggesting that a military coup against President Obama is possible. Several commenters have endorsed such a coup, including one who writes, “Hey, I’m for it. Please. Any patrotic (sic) general or colonel do the right thing.”

In an interview, Harbison said he doesn’t advocate violence against the government. He’s a retired member of the U.S. Army and a current member of the Doña Ana County Special Deputy Sheriff’s Commission.

“I support some of the tea party movements. I’m concerned about some of our government spending and the increased taxes,” he said. “I do not condone any attempt or any group to overthrow the government by force. That’s what the ballot box is for. … I’m someone who believes in the rule of law and the enforcement of law.”

In fact, at the center of Harbison’s campaign platform is the need for more fire stations, police substations and improvements to the 911 dispatch center. He points out that expansions of all three public-safety agencies have lagged far behind the city’s growth for the last decade.

Harbison posted one comment on the site

Harbison said he heard about ResistNet at a recent tea party event. His page on the site tells the rest of the story.

Harbison registered with the site on May 8 of this year. He joined a site group on the same day, posted one comment on May 10 and hasn’t done anything on the site since.

Here’s the comment he posted:

“I agree with the letter writing and faxes to our ‘elected’ representatives. None of which I voted for. I sent more ten letters and faxes to Teague’s and Udall’s transition offices even before they actually took office. At least Teague has the courtesy to respond. Udall simply sends party-line canned responses and obviously doesn’t give a *@*# about my concerns.

“Hopefully this site will encourage more to participate and let Washington know how concerned and angry we are…….Jim”

Harbison said in the interview that he quit being active in the site after three days because “I didn’t see where it was providing any benefit to me other than identifying me as a member who was concerned about our rising taxes and our government spending.” Because his involvement in the group has been so minimal, he said he doesn’t consider it relevant to the city council race.

‘Harbison should repudiate this fringe group’

But progressive activists like Greg Lennes of Las Cruces, the secretary of the Democratic Party of Doña Ana County, have sent e-mails to their lists expressing concern about Harbison’s involvement in ResistNet. Lennes has also sent letters about it to the local newspaper.

In an e-mail, Lennes said Patriotic Resistance is “an extremist group in that its actions and rhetoric are outside the ‘perceived’ American political center.”

“Recently a Homeland Security report warns of such rising right wing extremism,” Lennes wrote. “The agency commented that right wing extremists are using the bad state of the economy and election of the country’s first black president to recruit new members to their cause. In many cases white supremacists are infiltrating these groups.”

“As a resident of District 6, I believe strongly Mr. Harbison should repudiate this fringe group and its irresponsible rhetoric,” he said.

French, in an e-mail, also shared why she’s concerned.

“This group is a right-wing extremist group whose members opine that President Obama is similar to Hitler and Stalin and will line up children and the elderly to be slaughtered,” she said. “Granted, Mr. Harbison himself has not voiced that opinion, but he does talk (in his comment posted on ResistNet) about current elected officials with quotations around the word ‘elected.’  I don’t believe there is any doubt that Senator Udall or Congressman Teague were duly elected even if Mr. Harbison himself did not personally vote for them.”

‘A political hit job against a genuinely good and decent man’

John Hummer, chair of the Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce and a Harbison supporter, said such criticism is unfounded.

“I have no issue with Jim Harbison having concerns with higher taxes, massive bailouts and a growing government control over the private sector,” he said. “If any group tries to twist Jim Harbison’s views or damage his reputation based on this Web site, it is nothing but a political hit job against a genuinely good and decent man.”

“Jim Harbison literally fought for and defended our freedoms as a member of the U.S. Army and was awarded the Silver Star,” Hummer said. “If anyone fully understands the respect the commander and chief (president) should be afforded, as well as our constitution, it is Jim Harbison.”