A group of Democrats backing Green Party Public Regulation Commission candidate Rick Lass is working to show its support with money.

Bernie Logue y Perea, a Santa Fe ward chairman, said he and others will launch the Democrats for Rick Lass Political Action Committee this month. He said Democrats have grown disenchanted with their party's PRC nominee, Jerome Block Jr., who won a six-way primary in June with 23 percent of the vote.

"I've had people come up to me saying, 'Hey Bernie, we're pissed off because we voted for Jerome thinking it was the dad, and not the kid. The kid's an idiot,' " Logue y Perea said this week — from Loma Linda, Calif., where he is recuperating from a kidney transplant — referring to Jerome Block Sr., who also served on the PRC. "When I saw Rick Lass was running, the thought of (Block Jr.) walking into a $90,000 a year job when he doesn't deserve it just infuriated me."

Lass said Tuesday he would welcome PAC support, although any money the committee raises legally wouldn't be his to spend.

The Block campaign sounded unconcerned about the support from within its party. "That's part of the democratic process," Block spokesman Jonathan Valdez said Tuesday. "You get to choose who you want to vote for, and we're OK with that."

Both candidates are receiving public financing for the general election, about $64,000.

Logue y Perea said PAC money will be used to advertise on behalf of Lass. "I know there's some really good Democrats who want to give to Rick Lass, but they don't want to give to the Green Party," he said.

Democrats had already been meeting in support of Lass, including at a meet-and-greet at the Ostería d'Assisi restaurant last month. Lass also has been attending Democratic events around the PRC's 3rd District, a Democrat-heavy area that includes Santa Fe, Rio Rancho and north-central and northeast New Mexico. There is no Republican nominee in the race.

"These people that wouldn't talk to me six years ago are coming out and supporting me," Lass said Tuesday. "That's why I believe I can win the election and that a third to half of the Democrats will vote for me."

Española Mayor Joe Maestas, who also ran in the PRC primary, said he has seen Lass pick up support in the crucial Española Valley area. "There's the voters, and then there's the party insiders, and sometimes they're not necessarily on the same page, but I think it's probably a mixed bag in terms of the party establishment," he said. "He is getting some support in the Democratic Party, particularly from the progressives."

Meanwhile, Lass said he still hopes to have a debate with Block, but Valdez reiterated Block still has no intention of doing that.

Block has been under fire since after the primary, when it was revealed he didn't tell the whole truth about his arrest record in interviews before Democrats went to the polls. He admitted to being arrested for drunken driving in 1998 and said he was found not guilty. It turned out the charge had been dropped because he wasn't prosecuted in a timely fashion. Block also never mentioned a later arrest and conviction for riding with a drunken driver.

Contact Doug Mattson at 986-3087 or dmattson@sfnewmexican.com.