Heath Haussamen
Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano stepped into a firestorm today when his office sent out a news release and a message on Twitter announcing his endorsement of his undersheriff to replace him in next year’s election.
The news release was sent by an employee of Solano’s office from her government e-mail account. It listed Solano and his undersheriff — Robert Garcia — as contacts and included their government phone numbers and e-mail addresses. The release contained official letterhead from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department.
And the tweet was sent using the sheriff’s department official account.
“You’re using taxpayer $ for political activity,” Santa Fe Reporter Editor Julia Goldberg tweeted after the endorsement went out over Twitter.
“…seems inappropriate if not illegal,” SFR’s Dave Maass tweeted.
I joined the conversation, as did the New Mexico Independent’s Marjorie Childress.
Solano, also a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, has been defending his actions.
“I am endorsing him as the sheriff. I am an elected official. it is different than a reg gov. employee,” he tweeted. He later said he understood the concerns being expressed.
Check it out, but you’ll first need to follow @GregSolano on twitter.
A black-and-white situation
And now, on to my point: I’ve written this before about the governor, an Albuquerque city councilor and the Clovis mayor: Don’t use government resources to campaign. It’s not appropriate.
In acting in his official capacity, Solano was essentially issuing an endorsement on behalf of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department, not on behalf of himself. And government agencies aren’t to tell voters who voters should pick to run those agencies.
This is a simple, clear-cut, black-and-white situation.
To his credit, Solano was the first candidate for lieutenant governor to unveil an ethics-reform plan, and he’s been challenging the other candidates to follow suit. Good for him. And to his credit, he’s been very willing to discuss this endorsement situation in full view of the public on Twitter. Some would have instead gone into hiding.
But realizing that it’s not appropriate to use government employees, e-mail accounts and resources to campaign is basic stuff. Come on…