Follow the Money: Block Cries 'Big PAC' While His Own PAC Pays His Own Company

ALAMOGORDO — In the race for House District 51, the two candidates are running very different campaigns.

Independent Grace Nagamine is talking about issues: power bills, veterans, seniors, CYFD reform.

Incumbent Rep. John Block is talking about Grace Nagamine's past — and about a mysterious "deep-pocketed, far-left PAC" he says is backing her.

There's just one problem with Block's story. He won't name the PAC. And the campaign finance records tell a very different story about who in this race is actually backed by big money.

In a fundraising email signed "John Block, NM House District 51, Republican, Otero County," Block writes: "I have an opponent this November backed by a deep-pocketed, far-left PAC that wants to elect Democrats up and down the ticket. Right now, that PAC has over $300,000..." The email asks supporters for $35 to $250 to help him hit a $9,500 goal.

No PAC is named. Nagamine's campaign filings back her up: as of her latest report, she has taken no PAC money — no direct contributions, no in-kind support. The only PAC dollars anywhere near her are the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter's political action committee paying for its own endorsement of her on Aug. 29. An endorsement is not a donation, and it is not $300,000.

Full disclosure: one outside group has spent money for Nagamine — a grassroots volunteer organization based in Tularosa, which has put roughly $2,000 into independent expenditures supporting her in October after the most recent disclosure period

In a statement, a representative pushed back on Block's email directly: the group has raised about $218,000 this year across all of its various campaigns since November of 2025, but "the only money we have going against him is what the CFIS report" details — roughly $2,000 in the District 51 race of inkind contributions for targeted marketing. And on the position Block's email ascribes to the mystery PAC: "We do not believe in abortion up to birth! That is insane! He is such a liar!" Two thousand dollars from local volunteers, and a direct denial from the only group spending a dime for her. That is the entirety of the "powerful PAC" operation behind Grace Nagamine.

Now follow the money on Block's side.

Piñon PAC is, for all practical purposes, Block's PAC. Its registration with the Secretary of State lists its address as 1111 Tenth St. #402, Alamogordo — the same address as Block's own Piñon Post LLC — and its treasurer is John Block. Its WinRed page solicits donations under his name: "Please join me in becoming a founding member… — John Block."

This year, according to Transparency USA's compilation of state filings, Piñon PAC paid Piñon Post LLC $4,673.80 — two payments of $2,336.90, on April 15 and June 4 — with no purpose disclosed

Money went from the PAC Block controls to the company Block owns. The PAC also took $2,000 from Block himself — check #1047, dated Jan. 10, 2025 — on top of $1,000 from his "John for New Mexico" campaign committee in Sept. 2024 and $5,500 from the committee in March 2024. It also reimbursed Block $148.55 for stamps and paid him $800 by check in April 2025. At the end of June, the PAC sat on about $31,600. The Secretary of State has been sent a note questioning the legitimacy of the payments to his blog which does no local advertising only ads via Google ads. 

John Block controlled, Piñon PAC has another benefactor: Our Values PAC, which sent $2,000 in February 2025 — the PAC's own filing lists Piñon PAC's payee address as 1111 Tenth St. #402, Alamogordo: Block's address. Our Values PAC is not a small local committee — its Secretary of State filings show it sitting on more than $355,000, after raising over $282,000 in late 2025. Its treasurer is listed as Anissa Tinnin of Albuquerque, a former executive director of the Republican Party of New Mexico, and the committee was originally registered in 2020 as the "Make New Mexico Great" political action committee. Her mother is Blocks state paid administrative aid. This is the sophisticated big-PAC money in the District 51 race — and it flows to Block's operation, not Nagamine's.

Piñon PAC's donor list reads like a House Republican caucus roster. Itemized records show contributions from fellow GOP legislators — Terrazas, Vincent, Mason, Zamora, Pettigrew, Reeb, Chatfield, Henry, Brown and Martinez — plus $4,500 from Rep. Stefani Lord in 2024

This is not a groundswell of Otero County constituents. It is Santa Fe politicians funding Santa Fe politicians.

And that money is being spent. Block's side has now put two costly mailers into District 51 mailboxes: his campaign's glossy postcard taking credit for millions in state spending — including money in bills he voted against — and Piñon PAC's hit piece on Nagamine's two-decade-old record.

District-wide mail is one of the most expensive things a legislative campaign can buy: design, printing, and postage to voters across the district, twice over. Piñon PAC's own filings show $1,370.10 paid to Greetings Etc Inc. for a "Mailer" in May 2026 — and in the 2024 cycle the PAC paid mail house North Rim International $7,355.69 for three mailers. (Public reports only run through June 2026, so the October hit piece's printing bill isn't in the data yet.) 

Blocks campaign is a big-money operation — funded by oil companies, corporations, allied PACs, and a $355,000 war chest — even as Block's fundraising emails ask grassroots supporters for $35 apiece to fight a phantom "deep-pocketed" PAC supposedly backing his opponent.

It is Piñon PAC that mailed District 51 voters the flyer dredging up Nagamine's 2005–2008 criminal record and calling her "too dangerous to be state representative" — an attack she had already defused two months earlier by disclosing the record herself in her August memoir, The Grace Nagamine Story given away to 100s of supporters and sold on Amazon. 

And what about Block's own campaign donors?

According to Money Trail NM's aggregation of state filings, the biggest checks to "John for New Mexico" this year came from oil and corporations: Permian Resources ($5,000), Devon Energy ($2,500), Presbyterian Health Plan ($1,000), Comcast ($500), Anheuser-Busch ($500) — plus PAC money from the Realtors and the optometrists. Individual local donors? Six of them, all under $100, the largest $93.69. In 2024, his top donor was Chevron at $11,700.

So the candidate Block, warning voters about a "deep-pocketed PAC" is himself funded by oil companies, corporations, and PACs — while asking grassroots supporters for $35 apiece.

The candidate he accuses has no PAC money behind her at all just inkind support that will appear in the next filing.

Meanwhile, Nagamine keeps talking about issues.

Her platform — published at graceforhd51.org with draft legislation attached — covers veterans and Holloman families, seniors and caregivers, CYFD reform, homelessness and mental health, small business, and roads and water.

Since August she has published step-by-step instructions for filing PNM billing complaints with the PRC and attorney general.

Block, who voted twice against the low-income utility rate bill (HB 91) and sponsored the failed 2026 tax on renewable generation (HB 113) which the state confirmed would have further raised PNM rates, skipped the issues and went personal instead.

Voters appear to have noticed. Learning of  the Piñon PAC mailer and before it landed, Nagamine posted an Oct. 13 video and commenters defended her as someone rebuilding her life; and one voter texted her campaign asking for 10–20 yard signs after receiving "that super crappy ad."

Block asked voters to follow the money. They did. It led back to him, and the big money politicians and corporate interests and sophisticated PACs that back him. We followed the money indeed as should the voters. 

Sources

• Block fundraising email, "They are out for blood...": https://mailchi.mp/johnfornm.com/2025-legislature-week-12779050

• Piñon PAC registration, NM Secretary of State, Form A filed April 8, 2024

• Piñon PAC payments via Transparency USA, as reported by 2nd Life Media, Oct. 14, 2026: https://2ndlifemediaalamogordo.town.news/g/alamogordo-nm/n/393260/block…

• Piñon PAC on Money Trail NM: https://moneytrailnm.com/committees/pinon-pac-kf81x/

• Our Values PAC on Money Trail NM: https://moneytrailnm.com/committees/our-values-pac-gsMNs/

• Piñon PAC and Our Values PAC itemized records cross-checked via Money Trail NM on Oct. 15, 2026 (136 contribution and 42 expenditure records for Piñon PAC; 247 expenditure records for Our Values PAC; data current through June 27, 2026 filings)

• Our Values PAC website: https://www.ourvaluespac.com/

• Our Values PAC registration and First General Report, NM Secretary of State (Form A, filed 9/8/2026)

• John for New Mexico 2026 donors via Money Trail NM: http://moneytrailnm.com/candidates/john-block-hoMlQ/

• Grace Nagamine for HD 51: https://graceforhd51.org/

• Blue CD2 New Mexico (ShareNM nonprofit profile): https://sharenm.org/organization/print/blue-cd2-new-mexico/blue-cd2-new…

• Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter endorsement, Aug. 29, 2026: https://2ndlifemediaalamogordo.town.news/g/alamogordo-nm/n/392830/sierr…

• "Independent Filings Reshape Otero County's November Ballot," June 25, 2026: https://2ndlifemediaalamogordo.town.news/g/alamogordo-nm/n/379813/indep…

• Block campaign mailer fact-check, Oct. 3, 2026: https://2ndlifemediaalamogordo.town.news/g/alamogordo-nm/n/392217/factc…

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