On December 16 we gathered with other Las Cruces residents in front of City Hall to protest the recall petitions being circulated in our neighborhoods.
It’s important that Las Crucens know that this recall effort is not being driven by the voters in our districts. Instead, a well-financed campaign has employed paid canvassers and a barrage of phone solicitations to completely misrepresent the records of city councilors OIga Pedroza, Nathan Small, and Gill Sorg.
The group backing the campaign is called “New Mexicans for a Better Tomorrow.” According to a financial report filed with the Secretary of State’s office, seven individuals (or organizations owned by those individuals) contributed over 90% of the $28,000 raised. None of these contributors lives in the City of Las Cruces, let alone any of our three districts.
The report also lists over $3,000 of in-kind contributions from a group called the “Southern New Mexico Business Coalition.” Who are the members of this group? Do any of them live in one of our three districts? We call on contributors to this organization to come out of the shadows and identify themselves, so we can know who has launched these attacks on our neighborhoods.
We condemn the tactics being used by this campaign. Their postcards and phone calls allege misdeeds by our city councilors, but no evidence is presented, or the claims made are untrue. Paid canvassers repeat the most outrageous falsehoods without any consideration or respect for the people who live here or the good of our city.
Whatever our differences on specific issues, residents of our districts know councilors Pedroza, Small and Sorg to be good, hard-working councilors who are sincerely concerned about the people in their districts. That’s why we have elected and re-elected them -- in the case of Pedroza and Sorg only a year ago -- by wide margins.
Recall elections are meant for exceptional cases. When the process is abused, voters end up spending tens of thousands of dollars on a special election, just because a well-financed political action committee thinks we should.
The people of Las Cruces deserve better.
We call on our neighbors in Districts 3, 4 and 5 to refuse to sign these recall petitions. We call on our neighbors to say NO to unfounded attacks that make a mockery of truthfulness and common decency. We call on our neighbors to say NO to narrow-minded political ideologues whose real interest is controlling our local elections and undermining the effectiveness of the democratic process.
Just say NO to this irresponsible and cynical recall campaign.