Democrat files ethics complaint against GOP candidate
List of allegations includes incomplete finance reports, missing details for some expenditures
A Las Cruces Democrat has filed an ethics complaint against Republican Secretary of State candidate Nora Espinoza, saying her campaign finance reports are incomplete.
The complaint was filed by Robert Lara, treasurer of the state Democratic Party and a staff attorney with the District Attorney’s Office in Las Cruces.
It’s one of several complaints this year filed by supporters of Espinoza, a legislator from Roswell, or her Democratic opponent, Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver.
Lara’s complaint lists several examples in which Espinoza didn’t cite specific recipients of campaign funds used for travel expenses and other expenditures, and the purposes of some expenditures. One of these was $6,385 paid in early June to New Mexico Demographic Research. That’s the Roswell company owned by former state Sen. Rod Adair, who is Espinoza’s campaign manager. It’s possible the payment was for Adair’s services.
The complaint lists an $89 phone bill in June as a possible personal expense for Espinoza. The purpose of the expenditure says “business.”
Lara also complained that Espinoza didn’t list specific occupations for dozens of campaign donors — identifying many as “business man” or “business person.” He said she listed dozens of couples as donors, even though the Secretary of State’s Office told candidates to list only one name per contribution.
And the complaint says Espinoza’s campaign failed to list as an in-kind donation the legal services of Rep. Zach Cook, R-Ruidoso, who filed a complaint in June against Toulouse Oliver.
Cook’s complaint claimed Toulouse Oliver broke the law in her 2014 campaign for secretary of state by not reporting a donation made by a state environmentalist political action committee to a national committee that was earmarked for a TV ad to benefit Toulouse Oliver. Toulouse Oliver responded that she was not connected to either committee, so she had no control over
any of their contributions.
Espinoza said in an email, “We are reviewing the complaint. To my knowledge I have no errors on my report.”
The state Democratic Party jumped on Lara’s complaint Tuesday, comparing Espinoza’s alleged violations to those of former Secretary of State Dianna Duran, who was convicted last year on several criminal corruption charges.
In a news release Tuesday, state Democratic Party Chairwoman Debra Haaland said, “Dianna Duran went to jail for playing shell games with campaign money and now Nora Espinoza has been caught hiding information about her expenses and her donors. … How can Espinoza be trusted to enforce the rules when she clearly can’t figure out how to follow the rules for her own campaign?”
But Duran’s charges were far more serious than the complaint against Espinoza. The state Attorney General’s Office claimed Duran falsified her campaign finance reports by not reporting campaign contributions she used to help cover her gambling debts and, in some cases, used false numbers of some actual contributions.
Toulouse Oliver has made ethics her main issue in this year’s campaign.
In February, the state Democratic Party filed a complaint claiming Espinoza, in a radio interview, improperly gave the web address of her legislative website.
So far, nothing has come from any of the complaints.