Politics

As the race for New Mexico’s Second Congressional District tightens between Republican former Congresswoman Yvette Herrell and far-left Democrat Rep. Gabe Vasquez, outside groups are trying to drop last-minute disinformation about Herrell into the district before Election Day.

In the last couple of days, voters have received mailers from a group calling itself the “Center for Voter Information,” which is a leftist dark money 501(c)(4) advocacy group well-known for helping Democrats with deceptive mailers against Republicans.

The group’s mailer, from longtime Democrat campaign strategist Tom Lopach, reads, “The Center for Voter Information provides important election information to voters like you across the country. We asked voters in New Mexico what they would like to know about the candidates for U.S. House of Representatives running in the election on Tuesday, November 5. The candidates in your district are Democrat Gabe Vasquez and Republican Yvette Herrell.” 

It then lists three topic areas: “Supporting Small Business Programs,” “Checks on Gun Purchases,” and “Cutting Social Security and Medicare.”

The group claims Herrell does not support small businesses, referencing 2022’s H.B. 5376, which was Democrats’ bill to increase taxes and put $80 million into the IRS to hire thousands of new agents to come after American taxpayers. The bill was entirely supported by Democrats, with not a single Republican voting for it. To claim Vasquez supports small businesses, the mailer vaguely references an August 12, 2022, X post from the Democrat supporting the legislation Herrell opposed due to its fiscal irresponsibility and its harm to small businesses.

On the contrary, Herrell has won awards from small business groups in New Mexico during her time in the Legislature and in the U.S. Congress. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s leading small business advocacy organization, has endorsed Herrell.

“Yvette Herrell has been a proven advocate for small businesses,” said Jason Espinoza, NFIB New Mexico State Director. “Herrell deeply understands small business issues and was a consistent leader in advocating for and protecting small business interests during her time in Congress. This includes deregulation and making small business tax relief permanent. We know Yvette Herrell will continue these efforts to help small businesses both in New Mexico and across the country, and we are proud to endorse her today.”

“During her time in Congress, Yvette Herrell held a 100% NFIB Voting Record and proved to be a strong ally of small business,” said Sharon Sussin, NFIB Senior National Political Director. “Her record of supporting pro-small business legislation speaks to her dedication to helping Main Street grow and we are proud to endorse her today.”

Under “Checks on Gun Purchases,” CVI’s mailer references an extremist anti-gun bill that Herrell opposed while also referencing Vasquez’s support for unconstitutional attacks on New Mexicans’ Second Amendment rights. The bill referenced 2022’s S.B. 2938, massively increased background checks to make buying firearms harder for Americans, and created unconstitutional “red flag” laws on the federal level. 

Under “Cutting Social Security and Medicare,” the group falsely wrote that Herrell supported cutting them, which is patently false, referring to a constitutional amendment aiming to balance the budget, similar to the one New Mexico already has. It claims Vasquez opposes a balanced budget amendment, and Herrell supports it. CVI writes that passing such an amendment “would almost certainly result in drastic cuts to Social Security and Medicare,” which again is a false statement.

Ironically, at the end of the mailer, Lopach writes, “A candidate’s position is sometimes more complicated than a ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ We have done our best to represent each candidate in a fair and reasonable way,” despite deceiving voters on Herrell’s record. 

According to Influence Watch, “As of September 2020, CVI and VPC have generated 939,000 registration applications and 2 million vote-by-mail applications for the 2020 election. 1 These applications are generally targeted towards demographic groups which tend to support the Democratic Party, and have been extensively criticized by state-level officials.”

The group has also gotten in hot water over its work to support partisan causes, which were revealed in multiple sources, such as Sasha Issenberg’s book, “The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns.” Issenberg writes, “Even though the group was officially nonpartisan, for tax purposes, there was no secret that the goal of all its efforts was to generate new votes for Democrats.” CVI also has deep ties to the Clinton Foundation.

The Influence Watch report further noted, “The Center for Voter Information makes ‘independent expenditures’ for or against candidates each election cycle. In the 2020 election CVI spent $533,820 in support of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden (D-DE), and no funds for other candidates.”

It is important for voters to independently verify information about candidates and their positions ahead of the election, which will be held on November 5, and be wary of seemingly innocuous groups’ mailers trashing candidates without verifying the information for accuracy and truth.