The husband of a Democratic New Mexico State House candidate was seen on video tearing down the sign of his wife's Republican opponent.
Jessica Velasquez, the District 22 Democratic candidate, defended her husband Aaron's removal of the sign from land grant property near Roosevelt Middle School in Tijeras last week. On Friday, Republican candidate Gregg Schmedes posted a video to Facebook showing Aaron Velasquez dismantling the sign and tossing it onto the ground nearby. Schmedes said he "caught" and recorded his opponent's husband removing the sign after his campaign markers were removed four times.
"My opponent's husband, caught on camera! Unbelievable. 4th time this sign has been vandalized. #unhinged," Schmedes wrote on Facebook.
But Velasquez fired back at her Republican opponent and defended her husband's videotaped actions. Her campaign issued a statement Friday saying Schmedes' signs and cameras violated trespassing laws because they were placed on privately owned land grant property without permission. Moises Gonzales, President of Cañón de Carnué Land Grant, agreed with Velasquez and demanded the Republican stop placing signs on the private property.
"We still own the land, we still maintain the land and all we ask is that you respect us as a community," Gonzales told KRQE-TV. "We have a lot of folks that put up campaign signs. In our opinion we just ask one simple rule: you request to put up a sign."
Velasquez's statement over the incident she dubbed "Sign Games 2018" calls on "Dr. Schmedes to apologize to the land grant for his unlawful actions of trespassing on private property and filming without permission. I am committed to representing House District 22 independently and fairly. New Mexicans deserve better than partisan politics and petty smear tactics."
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