Ex-staffer claims Lujan Grisham team got 2018 debate questions in advance

Nov. 5—A former campaign staffer turned critic of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said members of her team received some questions in advance of a 2018 KOB-TV debate against GOP contender Steve Pearce.

James Hallinan, who entered into an out-of-court settlement with the governor after he accused her of throwing water on his crotch and groping him while he worked on her first gubernatorial campaign, said Friday he was one of several campaign staffers who "absolutely" received texts from Joseph Lee Lynch, a cameraman who worked for KOB-TV at the time.

"He was sending [messages] and soliciting a lot of us on the campaign to get a job," Hallinan said of Lynch.

Albuquerque lawyer Thomas Grover tweeted screen shots of some of those texts earlier this week. One says: "I've seen the questions? Want them?"

Based on the screenshot imagery, it was sent to an unknown recipient about two weeks before the televised 2018 debate.

Several other screenshots reveal at least three questions posed by New Mexicans who were part of a KOB-TV statewide town hall initiative designed to develop queries on an array of topics — crime, education, water, immigration — for the debate.

None of the screenshots show the recipient of the messages.

Hallinan also named several other people who he said got the texts; most no longer work for Lujan Grisham. Attempts to reach some of those individuals Friday were unsuccessful.

The question of whether Lujan Grisham received copies of some of those questions led the campaign of Republican Mark Ronchetti, her opponent in the 2022 election, to call upon KOB-TV to conduct an investigation.

KOB-TV Vice President and General Manager Michelle Donaldson called the allegations "patently false" in an email Thursday, writing the station has "adhered to the highest standards of journalism integrity and would never engage in behavior that undermines our standards., the respect of our viewers or the public trust."

Donaldson added the station takes such accusations "very seriously and if we find that a staff member acted on their own and without our knowledge they will no longer be part of the team at KOB-TV."

Reached by phone Thursday afternoon, Lynch said he had only recently been made aware of the situation but had not seen the screenshots in question. "I'd like to see what I am accused of," he said.

After The New Mexican sent him a link to the screenshot with his name on it. he did not respond to a follow-up phone call and email query. Attempts to reach him Friday were unsuccessful.

Grover said Thursday he received copies of the screenshots from an anonymous source he does not know. He said they came both from a "no-name email" and a thumb drive within an envelope delivered to his office.

He said he could not confirm the texts actually went to Lujan Grisham or any of her staff members.

"There are real boundaries that need to be respected," Grover said of the separation of media and government. He also said he got the impression Lynch was working on his own as a "rogue" agent.

"I don't believe or suspect a corporate agenda KOB was doing," said Grover, who said he does not work for the Ronchetti campaign.

While campaigning in Las Vegas on Friday, Ronchetti said it's clear KOB-TV fed the question to the Lujan Grisham campaign and she "cheated" in preparing for the debate.

"That's [why] I need you guys," Ronchetti told supporters. "We have to stand up and realize that when you have a media structure that does that sort of thing it doesn't represent people, and that's our problem."

Delaney Corcoran, spokeswoman for Lujan Grisham's campaign, wrote in an email, "It's no surprise that Mark Ronchetti is spending the closing days of the 2022 campaign cooking up bizarre and ridiculous conspiracy theories about Gov. Lujan Grisham's 2018 victory."

Donaldson wrote in her email that her station invites "the Ronchetti campaign and the alleged anonymous source to contact KOB-TV and share all relevant evidence so we can fully investigate these allegations and maintain our commitment to transparency and the high standards we have set for the people we serve in New Mexico."

Lee left KOB-TV in 2019, according to his Facebook page.