Complaint filed over soda tax handout
Campaign manager calls failure to identify group on flier a mistake
The campaign manager for a group backing a proposed tax on sugary beverages in Santa Fe said Wednesday it was an oversight to distribute a flier without identifying who was responsible for the handout.
The anonymous flier prompted a former city councilor, Karen Heldmeyer, to file a formal complaint with the city Ethics and Campaign Review Board after she found the one-page document stuck in a gate Tuesday at her South Capitol residence.
“It’s ours,” Sandra Wechsler, campaign manager for the political action committee Pre-K for Santa Fe, said when contacted by The New Mexican. “It was a mistake not to put our tagline on it. It was an oversight on our part, and we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Her group is one of several trying to sway voters in advance of a May 2 special election on whether the city should impose a 2-cents-an-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened drinks in order to fund early childhood education programs. Supporters of the initiative have been going door to door in various neighborhoods, leaving literature touting the educational benefits of expanding prekindergarten programs and the health benefits of discouraging sugar consumption.
While some printed material clearly identifies Pre-K for Santa Fe as responsible for the messages, the anonymous flier discovered by Heldmeyer is a reprint of a Santa Fe New Mexican editorial of March 4, headlined “Pre-K for all? It’s time.” The editorial was published a few days before the mayor and City Council — with the exception of Councilor Ron Trujillo — voted to schedule the special election despite objections from business groups and other tax opponents.
The only other information on the flier is a small notation that says “Labor donated.”
Heldmeyer’s complaint says a city ordinance requires that materials distributed by political committees seeking approval or defeat of a ballot proposition must list a contact person and phone number.
“I hope that the Ethics and Campaign Review Board examines all campaigning that is occurring for this special election and requires all entities covered by the Campaign Code to adhere to the letter of the law,” she wrote.
When told that Wechsler had acknowledged her group was responsible for the flier, Heldmeyer said Wechsler should understand the city’s campaign laws.
The Santa Fe political consultant managed campaigns for former Mayor David Coss and helped form Progressive Santa Fe PAC, which campaigned on behalf Mayor Javier Gonzales’ election three years ago.
When asked what response she hopes her complaint brings, Heldmeyer said the political committee “at the very least” should account for funds spent on the flier and should “offer some type of public apology.”
Thursday is the deadline for political committees involved with the tax issue to submit initial campaign finance reports to the City Clerk’s Office.
A group called Better Way for Santa Fe & Pre-K, whose supporters include makers and distributors of soft drinks, has campaigned against what it calls an unfair tax, saying it would hurt consumers and businesses, could cost jobs and would provide an unstable source of revenue for early childhood education programs.