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What a delicious little pickle we have here.

On Tuesday, The Tribune reported that those annoying — and ultimately ineffective — radio ads blasting City Councilors Don Harris and Brad Winter on their stance to delay Mayor Martin Chavez's tax-relief plan was funded by a group of "supporters."

To the tune of just under $11,000, raised in something like a few weeks.

As these things go, it wasn't quite to the level of the infamous Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, but neither was it the innocent cheerleading these supporters would have us believe.

The mayor's people say he had nothing to do with it. We'll take him at his word on that.

One of the contributors to the ironically named Committee for Responsible Budgets, Steve Abraham, says he doesn't remember writing a check to his business partner, Jim McClintic, for the cause.

If so, that's a business relationship with too loose a grip on the bank book.

Another contributor, Michael McClintock, isn't saying.

People like these are a politician's dream. I've met more than a few like this, who get some odd thrill writing checks endlessly for people they get behind. It's the system. Fair enough.

But these types of personalities are also vulnerable. As much as they like being first on the "go-to" list, they can put pen to checkbook a little too quickly.

My sense of the situation is this is not a case of a Tinkers-to-Evers-to-Chance double play started from the Mayor's Office, but more a Bill Buckner-like mishandled grounder that, once bobbled, became much bigger than it ought to have.

I could be dead wrong, but I'm hoping not.

Abraham and McClintic are partners in the construction businesses JMS Construction and New Mexico Construction Concepts. Business in their industry is good right now. Very good in fact, so there are a few sheckles to spend. In the last few years,they and their companies have given Chavez's campaign more than $18,000.

But here's my question. Why this issue? Why taxes?

Perhaps it's as simple as three chaps possibly approaching the upper tax bracket who would surely welcome that 1/8-cent gross receipts tax cut. No argument. If and when I get to that point in my life I'd probably want some relief too.

But the tax break was coming anyway. Just six months later than the mayor wanted.

"Forget about the Friday night movie, honey. That 1/8-cent cut we were counting on isn't coming just yet."

So we have a group of people so enraged they form this committee and corral all the pieces it takes like hiring a copywriter and voice-over talent, renting a studio, paying an audio engineer and the like. After all that, there's the contracting with an auto-dialer, a bulk mailing company and a radio buy.

All this over a six-month wait for an 1/8-cent tax relief?

To the tune of $11,000?

Sorry, lads. Does not compute. Not even close.

The second I heard the first radio ad, I smelled a rat. In the world of political messaging, it was truly a waste of time because the ad said essentially nothing.

If the goal was simply to support the mayor's agenda, then come right out and say it. But the important part is to not even refer to anyone on the City Council. Not even in passing. People would get it and not a soul today would have a clue who was behind them.

Now that the ads, which resulted in nada, have run their course was writing those checks worth it? I hope they feel good about it, because these guys got punked.

If in fact they took marching orders, here they are now, holding an empty bag.

In hindsight, they should have let sleeping dogs lie, because one starts to get the sense that Winter, especially, has had just about enough. Having a friend in City Hall is surely good. Having a few not-so-friendly foes in council chambers is not good.

This campaign was an embarrassment. And the aftermath proving even more so.