Lujan Grisham attacks Ronchetti on police sound bite in new ad

Aug. 2—Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's reelection campaign released a new video Tuesday accusing Republican Mark Ronchetti of wanting to defund the police — the latest attack ad in what has become an increasingly bitter race for governor.

The campaign used Ronchetti's own words from a televised debate in May when Ronchetti was still seeking the GOP nomination for governor to make its case.

But the snippet in Lujan Grisham's attack ad doesn't tell the whole story, prompting Ronchetti's campaign to hit back and accuse the Democratic incumbent of making "distortions so severe they're laughable."

"It's insulting to the intelligence of voters that Michelle Lujan Grisham thinks she can reinvent her image and ignore her miserable record of allowing runaway crime in New Mexico," Enrique Knell, Ronchetti's campaign spokesman, said in a statement.

In a news release issued hours after Lujan Grisham's video hit social media, Ronchetti's campaign said the ad "immediately drew fire" from Robert Parra, the president of the New Mexico Fraternal Order of Police.

The FOP, a law enforcement advocate, "is surprised to hear fabrications that Mr. Ronchetti is anti-law enforcement or is planning to defund the police," Parra said in a statement issued by Ronchetti's campaign. "On the contrary, according to his crime plan and our numerous discussions with him personally, Mr. Ronchetti is a strong supporter of law enforcement."

Parra said in a telephone interview Lujan Grisham's video was circulating among FOP members after its release Tuesday morning.

Parra said he was "quite surprised" by the accusations in the video because they stand in stark contrast to conversations his organization has had with Ronchetti's team.

"I have no reason to doubt his sincereness or his campaign team's," he said.

Asked whether law enforcement in New Mexico is better off under Lujan Grisham's tenure, Parra was guarded in his response. The FOP is in the process of reviewing candidates for public office and has not yet made any endorsements in the governor's race.

"There's always room for improvement regarding law enforcement support in the state of New Mexico," Parra said.

Crime has been a hot-button issue in the governor's race and escalated with the release of the video, which asserts Ronchetti, a former longtime television meteorologist turned politician, plans to cut police funding in New Mexico if he's elected governor.

"In his own words, Ronchetti has said New Mexico's law enforcement 'don't want more money, and they don't want more guns,' " Lujan Grisham's campaign wrote in a news release. "The weatherman also opposes Governor Lujan Grisham's budget that provided for 16% raises for state police officers and $72 million to hire and train police officers in local law enforcement agencies around the state."

During the televised debate in May, Ronchetti and the four other Republicans seeking the nomination for governor were asked to explain "the root of the crime problem" in Albuquerque and their solution.

In response, Ronchetti said criminals were the root cause of crime.

"We have criminals that we catch, we bring them into jail and we turn them right back out on the street," he said, adding policies advocated by the Lujan Grisham administration have "made it far more difficult to be a police officer than ... a criminal.

"Remember, when this governor took office, we continued to see a climb and climb in the violent crime rate across New Mexico," he said. "What was the answer from this governor? It was to target police and then make doing their jobs more difficult by removing qualified immunity. We have to back the blue. We have to tell them we will support them no matter what they need from us."

The comment that followed is what is being featured in the attack ad.

"When you ask them, 'What do you need? What would help you?' The answer is simple. They don't want more money, and they don't want more guns," Ronchetti said at the debate — words that also served as ammunition for some of his Republican rivals in the primary.

What Ronchetti said next wasn't included in Lujan Grisham's campaign video, which isn't airing on TV but only being shared on social media.

"They want to know that the governor of the state of New Mexico and their leaders back them up," he said at the debate.

Ronchetti's campaign said Lujan Grisham's team took a phrase out of context.

Kendall Witmer, the governor's campaign spokeswoman, defended the video on Twitter.

"If [Ronchetti] didn't want to have to answer for his statements about defunding the police, he shouldn't have said they don't need money," she tweeted. "And he also shouldn't have said he opposed the [governor's] budget which included record [money] for police hiring and a 16 percent raise for state police."

Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.