BACK PAT: RE-ELECT PAT ROGERS

RNC NATIONAL COMMITTEEMAN FOR NEW MEXICO

April 22, 2016

My fellow Republicans:

As we move forward in this critical election year, you will be

making decisions about the leaders and delegates of New
Mexicos Republican Party. I would urge Republicans to keep
their eyes on whats important: nominating and electing a
Republican President, maintaining our hard-fought but tenuous
State House majority, electing Nora Espinoza as our next
Secretary of State and perhaps winning our first State Senate
majority in 86 years.

I would also ask you for careful, thoughtful consideration

regarding the kind of state leadership that will be needed to
achieve these goals, as you will soon have to make that choice.

Harvey Yates has announced his candidacy for the position of

National Committeeman in The Santa Fe New Mexican. (The
article is below.)

As Harvey notes in his announcement in The New Mexican, there

was a time we were close allies in the effort to elect Republicans
and assist Republican candidates. And now, Harvey admits that
our paths have divergedso far in fact that this flagship
Democratic Party newspaper just outright labels Harvey a
leading Martinez critic. In fact as you will see below, the New
Mexican also likes Harvey because of the other Republicans he
has opposed through recent years.

Please dont get me wrong: I am not ever going to suggest that

our own Republican elected officialswhether the governor, state
officers, legislators, judges or the many local officials around the
statecannot be criticized or even taken to task as the case may
be, over particular aspects of public policy. We are thoughtful
conservatives, and it goes without saying that we should hold our
leaders accountable. But in my view, that is something for the
Republican family to debate and decide.

The Proper Role of a National Committeeman

None of our elected leaders should ever become so personally

invested in disputes or grudges, or become so embittered, that
they become famous in our statewide media for having carved out
the role of Republican critic for themselves. When they do that
to such a degree, it becomes their identification, and they are
immediately referred to, indeed caricaturedas the New Mexican
has done with Harveyas the Republicans own antiRepublican. This is especially painful when it is gleefully inflicted
by the states leading Democrat Party organ. This is not a
newspaper that endorses the best candidate for any election. This
is a newspaper that promotes and panders to all things liberal and
Democrat.

I have had, and do have from time to time, my own differences

with Republican elected officials. But as our National
Committeeman I express those privately, and work behind the
scenes to urge changes where needed. We live in a strong
Democrat state. The great majority of our governors, senators,
and congressmen have been Democrats. The same goes for our
legislators, attorneys general, secretaries of state, land
commissioners, judges and other officials. It is hard for us to win
elections. We have to be better in so many waysbetter

candidates, better campaigns, better messages. The last thing we

need are party leaders publicly pulling in a different direction.

A National Committeeman should never use his position as a

platform to gain further recognition as a leading critic of any
Republican, including a sitting Republican governor, and to use
that to further divide our party. So it is true that Harvey and I have
radically different views of President Reagans 11th
Commandment.

We also have very different means of communicating. That is why

I am writing to you and other Republican delegates and leaders
directly, personally, and privately. I would never choose to
communicate with you about Republican Party internal debates
through the statewide media or through Democrat-dominated
newspapers and bloggers so that our discussion becomes, as
Harvey has chosen to try to make it, a public airing of perceived
injuries and grievances. I dont see that as effective in moving our
Party or our Country forward.

The Approach I have taken

Through the years I have fought many battles on behalf of our

partyfor Governors Carruthers, Johnson and Martinez. Did I
agree with them on every issue? Of course not. But did I see
them as vastly superior to such notables as Toney Anaya, the
late-Bruce King, Marty Chavez, Bill Richardson, Diane Denish
and Gary King? Absolutely. (And Im certain YOU did too.)

Remember, THIS is our focus: the vast superiority of our

candidates, our platform, our ideas, and our policies, over theirs.

For 30 years, the state party has asked me over and over to go
into court and represent our causes, from getting Phil Archuletta

back on the ballot against Bill Richardson, to leading the

statewide legal team for Bush-Cheney, to battling the infamously
corrupt ACORN and Progress Now in their fraudulent schemes, to
keeping the Democrats from throwing Ralph Nader off the ballot,
to helping numerous legislative candidates whose rights to ballot
access were repeatedly threatened.
.
Thats the kind of approach to our partyas a family of likeminded citizensthat any National Committeeman or
Committeewoman should always take.

Unity makes the impossible, possible. A lack of unity in the New

Mexico Republican party makes the possible, impossible.

The National Committeemans position is simply not a position

that is suited to settling old political scores or engendering new
ones. Only if we all work together will we achieve our goals and
move our Party and this state forward.

Harvey has said a younger man should represent New Mexico.

Well (leaving aside the fact I am actually younger than Harvey) I
will confess to having been much youngerabout [Senator] Cliff
Pirtles age when I first went to work for Jack Schmitt. I was
younger when I represented Phil Archuletta. I was younger when I
represented Joe Skeen, Steve Schiff, Heather Wilson, Pat Lyons,
Larry Larraaga, Brian Moore, Conrad James and many other
legislators in the (successful) redistricting fights in 2001 and 2011.

A word about the different directions we have chosen

Harvey is correct in saying that the road that we both used to be

on, to assist Republicans and the Republican Party, has diverged,
but I believe its Harvey who has taken the wrong path, not me.

I want to make a special point of acknowledging that Harvey and

his extended family have been generous to many Republican
candidates over the years. This is a family that did not have to
participate in political and civic life, but many have chosen to give
of their time and ,resources to the great benefit of our state and
our party. And for that all New Mexicans should be grateful.

Harveys personal feuds, however, with other Republicans have

led him to lose sight of our goals as conservatives in a state
dominated by the Democrat Party.

When viewed in light of one path Harvey took in 2012, his

reference to younger appears ironic. That year, Harvey didnt
think about the future of our partyand absolutely didnt think
about helping all of us win a majority in the legislature. Instead,
he poured all his efforts into re-electing Democrat Senator Tim
Jennings, who had only been serving for 34 years. Jennings 28year-old conservative Republican opponent, now-Senator Cliff
Pirtle, was the target of thousands ofmailers sent to every
household in the district, featuring lavish praise by Harvey Yates
for Senator Jennings.

As a Republican lawyer representing Republicans in and out of

court in New Mexico, I have a clear understandingwhat a punch
in the gut feels like. When a distinguished party leader like
Harvey Yates contributes $3,000 to a Democrat in a critical
legislative district full of Republicans, I understand the damage
that does.

Thank goodness Harvey lost that one. If Harvey had had his way,
we would have 17 state senators and need a net gain of 4 more
this year in order to capture the state senate. Instead, because
Jennings and Harvey lost, we have 18 senators, and need a gain

of 3. Isnt that the kind of goal a Republican Party leader should

be focused on?

And please dont buy the misdirection that suggests the Democrat
Harvey supported was a conservative. One thing Republicans
are tired ofas reflected strongly this yearis continuous
surrendering of our principles just to get along with Democrats.
(Compromise can be advantageous when achieved with
adherence to principle, but we should not do so just for the sake
of saying we are compromisers.)

The mailers were sent out with Harveys endorsement for the
Democrat who had been in Santa Fe 34 long years and were
delivered to households with mailers that strongly attacked our
own Cliff Pirtle for being funded by big oil and gas companies.
And there were many other very liberal messages in support
ofthe Democrat, as he was one of the most ardent supporters of
drivers licenses for illegal immigrants. In fact, it was Tim Jennings
defeat that convinced the rest of his Democrat caucus theyd
better not go into the 2016 election still owning that issue. So they
backed down and repealed the law. If Harvey and Jennings had
won we would absolutely have not repealed drivers licenses for
illegal immigrants.

Finally, a word about where we should be headed

I have always taken a different approach, and will continue to do

so. I have not used, and would never use the position of National
Committeeman to divide or distract, or to try to destroy old or new
personal enemies. I dont view anyone in our party as an
enemy with whom I have a score to settle.

I may disagree with fellow Republicans from time to time, but I

work those out privately. You have never seen me, and will never

see me, let differences with other Republicans define me as it has

with Harveyto the point that his name has become synonymous
with Republican critic.

If you re-elect me National Committeeman, my goals will be

promoting Republicans, all Republicans and the Republican
causes, and conservative principles that unite us.

As your National Committeeman, I will use all my time, talents

and position to promote this party, our candidates, and our
important principles.

Yes, Id appreciate your vote on May 21st, for Republican National

Committeeman for New Mexico, and I humbly ask you for your
vote.

With my best regards,

Pat Rogers

Republican National Committeeman for New Mexico2008-2016;

Executive Committee RNC 2008-2010;RNC Rules Committee
2008-2016; NM Rules Committee Delegate for NM,2008
Convention.

P.S.Want to talk about it? My number is 505-350-1575.

If you want to call the newspapers or the bloggers, you will have
to find those numbers on your own.