Northern New Mexico is abuzz with the strange story of a suspected tire-slashing politician.
Republican Gary Smith was a failed primary candidate for New Mexico's 1st Congressional District. He has been arrested twice and is alleged to have slashed dozens of tires of his Republican opponent, his former campaign manager and others connected to the GOP.
Smith, 65, was arrested on Dec. 28 in Albuquerque and charged with criminal damage to property after surveillance video showed a man puncturing tires at the home of Republican Janice Arnold-Jones.
He was arrested again on Jan. 2 on charges of aggravated stalking after additional surveillance video showed a man matching Smith's description near Arnold-Jones' home.
Arnold-Jones and Smith were both candidates in the Republican primary for the 1st District seat in 2012. In April, a judge ruled Smith didn't have the signatures to appear on the primary ballot and he was removed. Arnold-Jones later lost in the general election to Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Smith told KOB-TV at the time, "When you go to your own kind, your own brother, your own sister, and they stab you in the back repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly. They tried to keep me out of this process and today they succeeded."
His anger about the primary ballot situation seemed to provide an eerie foreshadowing of recent events.
The Santa Fe Reporter has several different surveillance videos on its website. The newspaper also has a video interview with Smith, who denies the charges.
One of the striking things about this story is the large quantity of tires that have been damaged. From the Santa Fe Reporter:
[Janice Arnold-Jones and her husband John Jones] told police they’ve had 19 tires slashed in December. Three were repaired, but the rest had to be replaced. Together, they’ve spent $1,500 replacing Arnold-Jones’ Ford Expedition tires. Jones’ employer has spent another $2,200 replacing the tires on his Ford F-150 work truck.
At least three other Republican operatives, including Smith's former campaign manager, have also been targeted, according to the Santa Fe Reporter:
Rhead Story, Smith’s campaign manager, told police he’s lost almost 40 tires since discovering the first set flattened in June.
Originally, he thought it was a random act and decided not to call police. But, after replacing several more sets of punctured tires, Rhead and his wife Wanda Story also decided to set up a portable camera.
Before the camera was operational, Wanda says she encountered Smith walking near their car outside at her Albuquerque apartment complex. It didn’t take her long to notice that Smith was carrying some sort of utility tool or ice pick. Scared for her life, Wanda dropped a laundry basket she’d been carrying and ran to safety inside her apartment.
The Storys say they have spent over $2,500 replacing their car’s tires.
“I had a hunch it was him,” Arnold-Jones said. “People tried to tell me it was the work of Democrats, but I knew that wasn’t the case. This isn’t the normal kind of political retribution you might expect. This is scary.”
