Friday, October 10, 2008

Updated: WHITE LAUNCHES NEW TV AD.

The day after the National Republican Congressional Committee cut funding for some Darren White TV commercial's, his campaign has released a new ad, called the "Trolley." The ad highlights his Democrat Martin Heinrich’s push to extend the City of Albuquerque 's quarter-cent transportation tax for 10 years – without voter approval – to pay for a $270 million trolley car that would service his own Nob Hill neighborhood.



Campaign spokesman Stephen Schatz claims, "When the transportation tax was first passed in the nineties, voters were promised it was temporary and would sunset in 10 years. But Martin Heinrich tried to extend the tax without voter approval."

Schatz also said, "This led to weeks of public and media criticism, which ultimately forced Heinrich to back off his plan to increase taxes without voter approval to fund the trolley car."

Blogger Joe Monahan reports the NRCC will put up about $232,000 in tube time for Darren starting October 14th.

UPDATE- 5:31

The Editor of the New Mexico Independent David Alire Garcia has an in-depth story on the "war of words" in the 2008 1st Congressional District race here. Garcia says the Heinrich campaign is still trying to clarify the flap over whether or not he was an unregistered lobbyist.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As usual, it wasn't that simple. According to the Weekly Alibi in late 2006: "At the previous meeting, councilors voted 6-3 to extend the transportation tax 11 years beyond its voter-approved sunset date of 2009. The extended tax would pay for various street, trail and transit needs as well as Mayor Martin Chavez' trolley project. Many Downtown business and hospitality industry people supported the tax."
http://www.alibi.com/index.php?scn=news&story=17205