Read Dennis Domrzalski’s piece on strong arm tactics Republicans use on their own. peace, mjh

Joe Carraro and others say they were threatened with smear jobs if they challenged Darren White for CD 1
Janice Arnold-Jones and Mark Boitano were told to forget running for Heather Wilson’s seat
Arnold-Jones is stunned by Republican smear tactics

The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office is checking out allegations that state Sen. Joe Carraro, an Albuquerque Republican, was threatened with a vicious smear campaign—including threats bring up and 20-year-divorce case and attempts to embarrass his children—if he went through with his decision to seek his party’s nomination for the First Congressional District seat.

The AG’s office is analyzing information to see if it warrants a full-blown investigation, said office spokesman Phil Sisneros. …

Carraro, who says the threats amount to extortion, has also taken the allegations to the FBI. He says the feds should be involved because some of the threats involved a former state Republican Party official who now works in Texas.

“These people should be in jail the way they’re threatening people,” Carraro said.

Carraro, who is running for the congressional seat being vacated by Heather Wilson, isn’t the only one who said they were threatened by Republican Party insiders. …

“They threaten to spread rumors and all kinds of things. It’s smear tactics,” Carraro said.

Arnold-Jones said that she went to state Republican Party Chairman Alan Weh last October when she was considering a run for Wilson’s seat. She said Weh told her she should forget the run because she’d never be able to raise the necessary money. She also said she was told that the party had already decided that White was the party’s candidate.

“The Republican Party first started telling me that I couldn’t raise any money,” Arnold-Jones said. “Then there were veiled threats and phone calls to my daughter. I was told that if I pursued this they would go after my daughter. [mjh: WTF?]

“My daughter is at the university. She is young, 20-years-old, and pretty conservative, but not nearly conservative enough. I did get an e-mail that was apparently cut and pasted from somebody else’s e-mail, and it said that they wanted the chairman to explain why I was tearing the Republican Party apart and that if he didn’t control me I would have primary opposition. I was stunned.”

Arnold-Jones said she got five phone calls during the period urging her not to run. She met once with White, who also urged her not to get into the race.

“One phone call said that Darren was a formidable opponent and that it would go badly for me if I pursued this,” Arnold-Jones said. “There was a face-to-face conversation with someone who said that they would go after my daughter.”

Arnold-Jones did not name the people who allegedly threatened her.

f-brilliant: Republican Party Smear Jobs

[hat tip to Democracy for New Mexico]