Campaigns trade barbs over attack ad

Pearce, Lujan Grisham clash over photo at campaign event

With “Breaking Bad” as the backdrop, Republican Steve Pearce is airing a television ad that links his Democratic opponent, Michelle Lujan Grisham, to a convicted drug dealer — a connection Lujan Grisham supporters say is outlandish.

Pearce’s ad features two photos of Lujan Grisham posing with Jerry Padilla Sr., a convicted heroin dealer who was released from federal prison in 1994. His sons headed Los Padillas street gang.

In one photo, the two are smiling, and Padilla appears to be wearing a campaign sticker touting Lujan Grish-

am’s candidacy.

The Lujan Grisham campaign said Monday that she has no connection to Padilla and that she routinely takes pictures with people at public events, as other candidates do.

Her campaign organized a news conference Monday featuring a current and former law enforcement officers who spoke on her behalf — including former State Police Chief Robert Shilling and ex-Public Safety Secretary Darren White, both of whom served under Republican governors.

Jeremy Romero, a retired police officer who now uses a wheelchair after an on-duty crash, said the Padilla and Lujan Grisham picture isn’t evidence of a meaningful connection between them. Candidates don’t ask for someone’s ID before taking photos, he said.

“When I see the attack ads, when I see the slanderous remarks coming from the Republican Party, it’s hurtful,” Romero said, “because Michelle has been a champion in my corner since Day One.”

Pearce’s running mate, Michelle Garcia Holmes, a retired police detective, held her own news conference after Lujan Grisham’s supporters held theirs. She said that 21 sheriffs — including five Democrats — had endorsed Pearce and that the ads are truthful.

“The ads are accurate — period,” Garcia Holmes told reporters. “These are the facts.”

Pearce and Lujan Grisham — both of whom are giving up seats in Congress to run for governor — are trading blows as they enter the last two weeks of the campaign. A Journal Poll from mid-September showed Lujan Grisham with a lead of 7 percentage points, though the race has turned much more negative since then.

Pearce’s new “Breaking Bad” ad, at a cost of $235,000, is in heavy rotation statewide on cable and network stations, a campaign spokesman said.

“‘Breaking Bad’ isn’t show business,” the narrator says. “It’s reality, and Michelle Lujan Grisham is part of the problem.”

White, the former Cabinet secretary for public safety, said Monday that Lujan Grisham has a comprehensive approach to tackling crime, which is why he and others are supporting her.

“Breaking Bad,” of course, is the television show about a high school teacher’s evolution into a drug kingpin.