Morales’ fundraiser vulnerable

And just a couple of weeks ago, Chandler was involved in a political event in Deming for Morales, who is running in the Democratic primary for governor. And Republicans are saying — in so many words — that Morales is palling around with (alleged) child abusers.

A recent fundraising letter from the re-election campaign for Gov. Susana Martinez said, “… a man who made national news when his ranch was accused of torturing and abusing children held a fundraiser for Democrat Howie Morales on Thursday. The man wants to help Morales, because our approach to fighting child abuse has apparently been too tough.”

Tierra Blanca Ranch, located south of Hillsboro in Sierra County, became known around the state last October after several teens in the program made disturbing allegations of abuse by staff members. State police raided the property to take custody of nine teens in the program at — and discovered that none of them were there. The state issued an Amber Alert for the children — though some of them, Chandler said, were home with their parents.

Martinez said at the time that a state police search warrant executed at the time of the raid “did corroborate with the allegations of some of those boys.” No criminal charges have been filed against Chandler.

After the raid, The New York Times and NBC Nightly News were just two of the national media outlets to cover the Tierra Blanca Ranch story. And just last week, stories of Morales’ fundraiser hit national online publications, including the conservative Daily Caller and the news aggregater Mediaite.

Three civil lawsuits against Chandler and his wife followed. One was from the family of Bruce Staeger, 18, who died last September after a truck accident at the ranch. Staeger was riding in the bed of the truck. The suit claims he died as a result of negligence. It also contends that before he died, the youth was forced to eat horse manure and that he had jalapeño juice poured into his eyes as discipline.

Chandler has denied all the allegations in the civil suits and in the various news stories, saying they have been “blown out of proportion.”

His lawyer, Pete Domenici Jr. (who ran for governor as a Republican in 2010), told The New York Times last October, “Parents were aware of, and authorized the use of limited and appropriate physical restraints and limited appropriate physical discipline. Never for the purpose of punishment, only for the purpose of safety, either for the youth in the program, or the safety of others.”

Indeed, Chandler is innocent until proven guilty, and it’s possible that the ugly tales of beatings and shackling and jalapeño juice are complete hooey, all smoke and no fire.

But in context of the governor’s race, the question is whether it was politically wise for Morales to do an event with someone this controversial. Maybe Morales thinks the Tierra Blanca situation is the biggest witch hunt since the McMartin preschool sex abuse case in the 1980s. But that’s not exactly what he’s saying

Morales’ campaign manager Jon Lipshutz said the Deming event, which he said was mostly organized by Chandler’s mother, was a meet-and-greet for “a broad coalition of people who want to support Howie.” He said 25 to 30 people attended. “Howie felt that it might not be the most politically wise thing to do, but he wanted to honor those supporters.”

OK. But I can already envision the Jay McCleskey-produced attack ads for Martinez in my mind.

Obama survived Ayers and maybe Morales will survive Chandler, too. But I can’t help but think it was an easily avoided, self-inflicted wound.

Contact Steve Terrell at sterrell@ sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.