The final major campaign finance reports before Election Day show Democratic gubernatorial nominee Deb Haaland continuing to operate a vastly larger financial machine than Republican Gregg Hull — burning through more than $3.2 million in just three weeks while taking in another $1.33 million.
The filings also show money from donors connected to the data-center and energy-infrastructure industries continuing to find its way into Haaland’s campaign, following earlier scrutiny over tens of thousands of dollars she accepted from companies and executives tied directly to the controversial Project Jupiter development.
Haaland entered the latest reporting period with $2.84 million in the bank, raised $1,334,472.89 and spent a staggering $3,204,277.20, leaving her with $967,455.71 as of the end of the period. Her campaign also reported another $185,656.41 in in-kind contributions.
Hull, meanwhile, began with $521,796.33, raised $348,623.35 and spent $622,292.97, leaving the Republican with $248,126.71.
The enormous disparity caps a governor’s race in which Haaland has shattered New Mexico fundraising records. The Albuquerque Journal reported Thursday that Haaland has now spent nearly $19.6 million since launching her campaign and raised approximately $20.5 million. Hull’s total spending stands at just over $2.6 million.
Data-center connections keep surfacing
One of the more politically sensitive pieces of Haaland’s fundraising continues to be money connected to the rapidly expanding data-center industry.
In the previous reporting period, Searchlight New Mexico found that Haaland accepted at least $87,200 from Oracle America and individuals whose identifying information matched senior executives at Oracle and Clayco, two companies directly involved with the massive Project Jupiter data-center campus in Doña Ana County.
Oracle itself gave $12,400, while executives matching top officials at Oracle and Clayco contributed another $74,800. Project Jupiter is being developed by companies including Oracle and STACK Infrastructure, with Clayco among the major construction firms.
The latest filings do not show another direct Oracle or Clayco corporate contribution, but data-center-industry connections have not disappeared.
On Oct. 26, Haaland accepted $5,000 from Lukas Hansen, who is listed in the state filing simply as an engineer from California.
Hansen’s public professional profile is considerably more specific: he works for Yates Construction and describes his work as “Building Data Centers & Power Infrastructure.” Yates itself is heavily involved in large-scale data-center construction around the country.
Then came another eye-catching contribution filed after the main reporting period.
An Oct. 28 contribution schedule shows Kevin Bassalleck giving Haaland the maximum $12,400 contribution. The filing describes Bassalleck only as a “President.”
Bassalleck is founder and president of Albuquerque-based Gridworks, a major solar and battery infrastructure contractor. Gridworks’ own project portfolio says it built the 100-megawatt Encino North and South solar project specifically to provide renewable electricity to Meta’s Los Lunas data center. The company has also worked on other PNM-linked projects supplying power infrastructure around New Mexico.
That does not make either Bassalleck or Hansen a Project Jupiter donor. But the contributions continue a broader pattern of significant checks from people and businesses operating in the infrastructure ecosystem surrounding large-scale computing and energy demand.
Haaland has proposed a temporary moratorium on new large data-center projects until statewide water, energy and other safeguards are enacted. Her campaign previously defended accepting the Project Jupiter-linked contributions, saying she had been clear about concerns surrounding transparency, water and environmental impacts.
Exxon, gun-control PAC, uranium company among Haaland donors
The massive Haaland filing contains plenty of other notable names.
Everytown for Gun Safety’s political action committee contributed the maximum $12,400 on Oct. 7.
A day later, Exxon Mobil Corporation contributed $6,200.
Haaland also collected $12,400 from Rio Grande Resources, the company associated with the uranium industry in Grants, along with $10,000 from PMI US Corporate Services, $10,000 from liquor company Sazerac, $10,000 from UnitedHealth Group and numerous contributions from unions, political committees, tribes and wealthy individuals.
Separate Oct. 28 filings also list a maximum $12,400 contribution from AFSCME PEOPLE, $5,000 from Democratic state Sen. George Muñoz, and $3,982.24 from Friends of Maggie, the campaign committee associated with Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver.
The short supplemental reports contain an apparent filing-system inconsistency: their contribution schedules list four checks totaling $33,782.24, while the summary pages display smaller totals. The itemized schedule itself lists all four donations.
Haaland drops more than $2.1 million with one ad firm
Where Haaland’s money went is just as striking.
Her campaign made three enormous payments to Washington-based Sage Media Planning & Placement for advertising buys: $680,938.87 on Oct. 9, $723,382.65 on Oct. 16 and $738,011.41 on Oct. 22. Together, those three payments total more than $2.14 million.
The campaign also spent heavily on digital operations, including more than $163,000 in one payment to MissionWired and multiple payments totaling $250,000 to Kentucky-based The Perkey Group for digital consulting.
Haaland additionally sent $215,000 to the Democratic Party of New Mexico through four separate payments during the reporting period.
Hull spends heavily on TV, consultants
Hull’s smaller operation was also spending aggressively as the campaign entered its closing days.
His largest individual expenditure was $100,000 to Red Surge for television or cable airtime and production on Oct. 7. Another $50,000 television payment and $2,000 print-ad payment went to the same firm on Oct. 21, bringing the reported total to $152,000.
Hull also spent $86,748.31 with Virginia-based Peakland Strategies for campaign consulting.
Other sizable expenditures included roughly $71,500 to Rio Rancho-based LWE Digital, $32,500 to Perez & Associates and more than $141,000 in various payments to the Republican Party of New Mexico for mailings and other campaign-related purposes.
Hull’s notable donors included $12,400 from Harvard Petroleum Company, $12,400 each from Patrick Guthrie and Charles Brewer, $11,200 from California CEO Joan Hubbard, and $10,000 contributions from several other individuals.
Two very different money machines
The filings reinforce one of the clearest contrasts of the entire gubernatorial contest.
Hull has emphasized that the overwhelming majority of his donors are New Mexicans. Haaland, meanwhile, has tapped a massive national fundraising network built during her time in Congress and as U.S. interior secretary. A recent Journal analysis found roughly 65% of Haaland’s fundraising at that point came from outside New Mexico, while Hull has said more than 95% of his donors are from inside the state.
Haaland’s campaign argues the volume of small-dollar contributions demonstrates broad grassroots backing, while Hull has made the geographic source of campaign money a central part of his argument.
What the newest reports make indisputable is the sheer difference in scale.
Haaland spent more than $3.2 million in roughly three weeks — more than Hull has spent during much of his entire gubernatorial campaign — and still entered the campaign’s final stretch with substantially more cash available.
And as data centers remain one of New Mexico’s most contentious political issues, the names behind some of Haaland’s newest checks ensure questions about who is financing the candidates — and what industries those donors represent — are unlikely to disappear before Election Day.