Election officials probe Republican House hopeful on contributions

ALBUQUERQUE — Federal election officials are asking a Republican U.S. House candidate running in a key New Mexico race to answer questions about possible illegal contributions.

The Federal Election Commission on Thursday asked Claire Chase in a letter to give more information about $45,000 in donations to her campaign for a U.S. House seat.

The commission said the contributions appear to come from corporations but aren’t from funds adequately set aside for political donations.

The agency said Chase has until March 5 to respond or the campaign risks an audit or “enforcement action.”

Chase campaign spokesman Mike Berg said the campaign has followed federal law and will return any contributions containing routine filing errors.

He blamed the letter on one of Chase’s GOP primary opponents, former state lawmaker Yvette Herrell.

“This is a desperate attempt by failed career politician Yvette Herrell to distract from her lackluster fundraising,” Berg said.

Dakotah Parshall, Herrell’s campaign manager, said Herrell hopes the mistakes are addressed. “Our campaign finance laws are in place to protect the integrity of our elections and every campaign should be following them,” Parshall said.

Chris Mathys, the other person in the race for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Rep. U.S. Xochitl Torres Small, said he doesn’t think Chase intentionally made mistakes and believes she will work to fix any.

Torres Small defeated Herrell in 2018 by fewer than 3,000 votes to flip a traditionally Republican-leaning district on the U.S. border. It’s one of the seats Republicans are targeting in a quest to retake the U.S. House from Democratic control.