Dow sent cease-and-desist letter for campaign ad accusing her rival of stealing taxpayer money

Dow sent cease-and-desist letter for campaign ad accusing her rival of stealing taxpayer money

Rebecca Dow, a Republican, was District 38 state representative from 2017 to 2022, and then chose to run for governor and lost. Tara Jaramillo, a Democrat, won the District 38 seat and started serving Jan. 2023. Dow and Jaramillo are again running to be the District 38 state representative.

Positive Outcomes, Inc., founded by Jaramillo, sent Dow a cease-and-desist letter Oct. 4 giving her five days to respond to the letter’s demand to stop disseminating the digital ad that claims Jaramillo stole $1 million in taxpayer money via funding that was supposed to go to Positive Outcomes.

As of Oct. 8, 9:30 a.m., Positive Outcome’s attorney, Mary Torres, said, “Ms. Dow has not responded to me, and she has chosen to keep running her defamatory and slanderous advertisement that is the subject of Ms. Jaramillo’s cease and desist letter. We are exploring all options to ensure that Ms. Dow is held accountable for the harm caused by her defamatory advertisement directed towards Ms. Jaramillo and Positive Outcomes, Inc.”

Dow was given four days to respond to the Citizen’s request for comment on the cease-and-desist letter, but did not.

Ironically, Dow was accused of similar self-dealing via the business she founded, Appletree Educational Center, by her rival for the District 38 seat in 2020, Karen Whitlock, who filed a case with the state Ethics Commission:  https://sierracountysun.org/government/ethics-commission-directs-its-general-counsel-to-investigate-remaining-whitlock-v-dow-allegations/

Dow ended up paying the maximum fine for two violations of the Government Conduct Act: https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/dow-settles-ethics-complaint/article_23ac9d8e-14d3-11ed-ab58-a3b9a901069f.html

Although Dow did not run against Jaramillo in 2022, she mischaracterized a bill Jaramillo supported that prevented local governments from blocking healthcare for those seeking abortion and LGBTQ persons seeking gender-affirming care.

https://sierracountycitizen.org/anti-gay-anti-abortion-movement-hits-sierra-county/

I did a fact-check on several misleading assertions Dow made during her campaign for Governor:

https://sierracountysun.org/government/t-or-c/fact-checking-dows-announcement-that-she-is-seeking-governors-office-in-2022/

Below is a press release from Positive Outcomes. Below that is a PDF of the cease-and-desist letter sent to Dow.

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: October 4, 2024

Contact: JC Trujillo
Chief Financial Officer
Positive Outcomes Inc.
jc@positiveoutcomestherapy.com

Positive Outcomes Inc. Condemns False Information in Recent Political Advertisement 

A Cease and Desist Letter sent to Rebecca Dow and advertisers

SOCORRO – Positive Outcomes Inc. vigorously condemns the dissemination of false information in a recent political advertisement in the New Mexico House of Representatives race for District 38, and today, our attorney has sent a Cease and Desist Letter to Rebecca Dow and her campaign demanding she pull down her materially false and slanderous advertisement. (See attached.)

The ad attempts to smear Representative Tara Jaramillo using false claims — and by implication slanders this company and its employees, who have served this community with integrity for more than 25 years.

The advertisement from Rebecca Dow asserts taxpayer money was stolen to benefit Tara Jaramillo personally and Positive Outcomes, Inc., the company she founded.

We are outraged by these baseless accusations. Positive Outcomes Inc. has always operated with the utmost transparency and integrity. Any suggestion that we have misused taxpayer funds is entirely false and unfounded and is damaging to our reputation and could lead to financial loss,” said JC Trujillo, Chief Financial Officer of Positive Outcomes Inc. “For that reason, we are taking legal action and demanding the Dow campaign immediately cease and desist its slanderous, defamatory ad campaign.”

There is no evidence whatsoever to support this allegation, which in the end harms the more than 730 families who depend on Positive Outcomes Inc. for in-home caregiving, early childhood education and family advocacy and support services — not to mention the 480 hardworking employees of this company throughout Socorro and Sierra County.

This company stands in support of a positive, issues-focused campaign for the betterment of the community and families we serve. As a healthcare company, we take any allegations of fraud or wrong doing seriously.

Both citizens and community-minded organizations like this one have an obligation to call out misinformation and to actively support the spread of factual, reliable information.

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Kathleen Sloan
Kathleen Sloan

Kathleen Sloan has been a local-government reporter for 17 years, covering counties and cities in three states—New Mexico, Iowa and Florida. She has also covered the arts for various publications in Virginia, New Mexico and Iowa. Sloan worked for the Truth or Consequences Herald newspaper from 2006 to 2013; it closed December 2019. She returned to T or C in 2019 and founded the online newspaper, the Sierra County Sun, with Diana Tittle taking the helm as editor during the last year and a half of operation. The Sun closed December 2021, concurrent with Sloan retiring. SierraCountySun.org is still an open website, with hundreds of past articles still available. Sloan is now a board member of the not-for-profit organization, the Sierra County Public-Interest Journalism Project, which supported the Sun and is currently sponsoring the Sierra County Citizen, another free and open website. Sloan is volunteering as a citizen journalist, covering the T or C beat. She can be reached at kathleen.sloan@gmail.com or 575-297-4146.

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