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A group of black community leaders denounced Republican state treasurer candidate Demesia Padilla over what they called a "blatantly racist" campaign cartoon.

The cartoon depicts Padilla's opponent - Democrat James B. Lewis, who is black - as a puppet dancing on strings held by Gov. Bill Richardson. It was included in a recent mailing.

"The candidate for the Republican Party has played the race card," state Rep. Sheryl Williams-Stapleton, an Albuquerque Democrat, said during a Sunday news conference at Macedonia Baptist Church.

"This showed racism," she said. "Blatant racism."

She described the cartoon of Lewis as a caricature with "big eyes, big lips, on a string."

"This reminds us of the Jim Crow era," added the Rev. N.D. Smith.

Padilla stood her ground and said the brouhaha is being blown out of proportion.

"It's a political cartoon to demonstrate a political issue," she said Sunday. "It has nothing to do with race."

Padilla said the point of the cartoon is that Lewis lacks independence and would be beholden to Richardson in particular.

The mailing makes reference to a 2005 Tribune article in which Lewis expressed support for allowing the governor to appoint the state treasurer, which Padilla opposes.

"If he weren't a puppet, we wouldn't have put strings," Padilla said. "That's the point we're making. Is James Lewis supposed to be off limits simply because he's African-American?"

Williams-Stapleton said she believes the cartoon isn't aimed at making a policy point.

"I think she wants to make the point to the voters of New Mexico that her opponent is a black man running against a Hispanic woman," she said.

Williams-Stapleton is president of the Black Political Action Committee, which was joined at the news conference by members of the Minister's Alliance and two representatives of the NAACP.

Members backed off from their earlier call for Padilla to withdraw from the race, as the ballots are already printed. But Smith said that, while the state's black population may be small, the cartoon has galvanized the black community's determination to make its voice heard.

"We will do everything in our power to encourage people to vote against Ms. Padilla," he said.

Williams-Stapleton also criticized U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, an Albuquerque Republican, over recent comments about the Rev. Al Sharpton.

During a debate last month, Wilson asked her opponent on Nov. 7, Democrat Attorney General Patricia Madrid, why she planned to appear with Sharpton, who Wilson described as a "racist, anti-Semitic rabble-rouser."

Williams-Stapleton questioned why Wilson chose a debate at Congregation Albert, a Jewish Synagogue, to attack Sharpton.

"It was uncalled for and had nothing to do with the election," she said. "That was blatant racism."

Sharpton, a former Democratic presidential candidate and New York City community organizer, has faced persistent attacks over his role in tensions between blacks and Jews in New York during the 1990s.

Williams-Stapleton also announced BPAC's endorsements in the statewide races. Those endorsements include all Democrats except for incumbent Public Lands Commissioner Patrick Lyons, a Republican.