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A committee that aired radio ads this summer bashing City Council members for delaying a tax cut proposed by Mayor Martin Chavez was bankrolled almost entirely by three Albuquerque men, two of whom have been prominent supporters of the mayor, newly filed records show.

At least one council member sees a link between the radio campaign and the mayor, though the city's chief administrative officer denies there is a connection.

Campaign records filed on July 13 with the City Clerk's Office show Steve Abraham, Jim McClintic, Michael McClintock and the companies JMS Construction and New Mexico Construction Concepts together donated $8,750 of the $10,895 in contributions to the Committee for Responsible Budgets.

Abraham confirmed on July 16 that he and McClintic are partners in both companies.

The two men and their companies have also been big contributors to the mayor. Together they have given $18,500 to Chavez's electoral campaigns since 2004, according to city records.

Radio ads criticizing City Councilors Brad Winter and Don Harris began airing shortly after the council voted May 21 to delay a 1/8-cent gross receipts tax cut by six months.

The councilors voted to use the revenue reaped by the delay — about $9 million — to help Bernalillo County operate the Metropolitan Detention Center.

The Committee for Responsible Budgets was created three days later, on May 24. Shortly after that, it bought radio ads critical of the council.

Chavez, who wanted to implement the tax relief by Jan. 1, eventually vetoed the council's six-month delay, but the council overrode his veto June 4.

Winter, who was a target of the ads, said on July 16 the campaign contribution records confirmed his suspicion that the committee was linked to Chavez.

"The mayor orchestrated this whole thing to try and get his budget in when he was having some trouble getting it pushed through," Winter said.

But Bruce Perlman, Chavez's chief administrative officer, said there is no relationship between the mayor and the committee.

"It's not really surprising that people who supported the mayor . . . continue to support his agenda," Perlman said. "They supported his agenda when he was elected, and I assume they still support it."

In a phone interview on July 16, Abraham said he is friends with Chavez, but he was unaware that he contributed to the Committee for Responsible Budgets. The City Clerk's Office reports that Abraham gave the committee $3,000.

Abraham said McClintic, his business partner, probably asked him to write a check.

"He might have told me what it was for, but I can't remember," Abraham said. "I give to a lot of different organizations and campaigners."

McClintic gave the committee $1,000. He did not return phone calls for comment on July 16.

The third major contributor to the radio ad campaign was Michael McClintock, provided $4,000.

McClintock could not be reached and it was unclear from the campaign records what business he is in or what relationship he has with Abraham and McClintic.

Roger Mickelson, a spokesman for the committee, would not say how many people are members of the group, but he said some of them had been Chavez supporters since at least 2005.

He said the committee formed in May used radio, telephone and mail to get its message across.

Most of the ads targeted Winter and Harris, the two most conservative members of the council.

Harris said it's striking that the committee was able to raise almost $11,000 in two months.

"It's obvious that this was not a grass-roots effort," he said. "Someone was able to go out and raise money quickly and use it on someone else's political machine."

Abraham has given about $6,000 to Chavez's campaigns since 2004. McClintic has contributed about $7,000 to Chavez's campaigns since 2005, according to campaign records.

Their companies, New Mexico Construction Concepts and JMS Construction, have given about $5,500 to the mayor's campaigns since 2004, campaign records show.

Mickelson said the radio ad campaign didn't go as planned.

"I was hoping to convince (Winter and Harris) in particular to reconsider their position on the deferral of the tax relief and that didn't happen," he said. "I guess it wasn't all that successful, but it got a lot of other people thinking about it."

The committee spent all but $2.30, Mickelson said. It has stopped campaigning, he said.

Mail Quick Inc., a direct-mail firm, gave the committee about $1,300, according to campaign finance reports. Positive Contacts, an auto-dial advertising company, gave $633.90. Mickelson himself contributed $200.