Democratic attack ad

Congressional candidate, former U.S. attorney Damon Martinez targeted

A new attack ad accuses Democratic congressional candidate and former U.S. Attorney Damon Martinez of failing to prosecute Albuquerque police officers who shot and killed 27 people over a 4½-year period, ending in 2014.

But the 30-second advertisement fails to mention that Martinez wasn’t actually the top U.S. attorney in New Mexico during most of the shootings. In fact, he became acting U.S. attorney in March 2014 and was confirmed later that year.

The ad also fails to mention Martinez’s role in responding to the shootings.

As acting U.S. attorney in April 2014, he was co-author of the Department of Justice letter that found Albuquerque police had a “pattern and practice” of violating people’s civil rights through the use of force.

Martinez was also part of the team that negotiated a 106-page settlement agreement requiring APD to carry out a series of reforms.

The negative ad was paid for by Women Vote!, a group affiliated with EMILY’s List, which backs Democratic women.

EMILY’s List hasn’t endorsed a candidate in the race, though Martinez’s two main rivals are women, retired law professor Antoinette Sedillo Lopez and former Democratic Party Chairwoman Deb Haaland.

In response, the Martinez campaign released statements Tuesday from several people involved in the effort to overhaul the Albuquerque Police Department.

Stephen and Renetta Torres, whose son was killed by Albuquerque police in the backyard of the family home, called the ad “misleading and disingenuous.”

Martinez campaign manager Abigail Collazo said that only “an out-ofstate group would be so out-of-touch as to try to pin responsibility for police violence on a progressive prosecutor who took on the APD and changed the system.”