Albuquerque – Last week, Democratic New Mexico state legislators and allies held a press conference to hold the New Mexican Republican Party accountable for sending an attack mailer with racist, doctored imagery to New Mexican voters across the state.

Republican leaders admitted the image, shown below, was digitally altered to change the skin tone of the mailer’s depiction of a sexual predator. As of yet, no Republican leaders have disavowed the racist, misleading mailers despite multiple calls to do so.

When the original stock photo is compared to the mailer image side-by-side, it is obvious that the NM GOP used a doctored version of the stock photo in order to depict a sexual predator as a dark-skinned person. No doubt about it, this is a racist attempt to stoke fear.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison:

“The New Mexican Republican Party knows they can’t run on their lack of legislative accomplishments, so they send a racist mailer that distorts both the facts and the original stock image to mislead and scare voters,” said Democratic Party of New Mexico Spokesperson Daniel Garcia. “It’s disturbing the Republicans think it’s appropriate to darken someone’s skin to depict them as a frightening sexual predator.”

In addition to purposefully using the racist image on their mailer, the NM GOP presented misleading information about bills that received bipartisan support.

The mailers, which were sent to at least 9 competitive House districts across the state, reference 2019’s Senate Bill 385 and 2021’s House Bill 54. SB 385 was sponsored by Republican Senator Mark Moores. The legislation was a “second chance” bill designed to prevent criminal records from prohibiting individuals who have paid their debt to society from earning a professional license, unless the conviction was related to the profession being pursued. This legislation passed with strong bipartisan support, 34-2 in the Senate, and unanimously in the House.

HB 54 broadly addressed licensing and regulation of barbers and cosmetologists. Rep. Stefani Lord (R-Sandia Park) attempted to add a floor amendment unrelated to the purpose of the bill, it was also likely unconstitutional according to the floor debate. The unrelated amendment was tabled and the legislation passed with bipartisan support.

“The reason why I voted for that bill is I believe once you’ve served your full debt to society, I think we need to do everything we can to rehabilitate you,” Rep. T. Ryan Lane (R-Aztec), one of several House Republicans who supported the bill, told the Santa Fe New Mexican.