Candidate mails out ads implying support from schools
Scargall, running for council, apologizes for altered photos as SFPS complains
Greg Scargall, a candidate for the Santa Fe City Council, sent out directmail campaign advertisements this week with doctored photos implying that two public schools are backing him in Tuesday’s election.
Scargall’s advertisement displays supportive messages about his candidacy on the signs outside Francis X. Nava Elementary School and Kearny Elementary School. Both schools are in Council District 4. Scargall and two other candidates are running to represent the district.
Santa Fe Public Schools said it played no part in Scargall’s mailers.
“We did not approve the use of our
school marquees in any campaign advertising with a message promoting any candidate Photoshopped onto the marquee,” said Jeff Gephart, a spokesman for the school district.
Gephart said the district would report the mailers to the City Clerk’s Office and Secretary of State’s Office.
Scargall said he had no “malicious intention” in distributing the ads.
“The images were solely meant to inform voters where to vote within the district,” Scargall wrote in an email. “This was not an attempt to imply any endorsement by the schools or district.”
But Scargall’s manipulation of the photos makes them appear to be signs supporting his campaign.
“Elect Greg Scargall City Council Dist. 4,” reads the lettering above the purple Kearny sign in his mailer.
“1st Choice For City Council Dist. 4 Elect Greg Scargall,” the Nava sign reads.
Scargall’s mailer includes arrows pointing to the photographs of Kearny and Nava — along with the Genoveva Chavez Community Center — as voting locations in District 4.
Those locations, along with the other nine voting convenience centers where residents can cast ballots in the municipal election, are listed elsewhere on the mailer, sans any purported endorsement.
Scargall provided a copy of an open letter he said he sent to the school district Friday, intended for its employees. He wrote that he took “full responsibility for causing concern and anger over this issue” and offered his “deepest apology for any harm this has caused.”
Scargall, who heads the Veterans Resource Center at Santa Fe Community College, is competing for the District 4 seat being vacated by Councilor Ron Trujillo, who is running for mayor.
The other candidates in the council race are businessman Eric J. Holmes and Realtor JoAnne Vigil Coppler.