Janice Arnold-Jones (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
If Diane Denish doesn’t like being a victim of negative political attacks, she should stop attacking others, Republican gubernatorial candidate Janice Arnold-Jones says.
Denish, the likely Democratic nominee for governor, has been constantly under attack from the state Republican Party and two of Arnold-Jones’ opponents in the GOP primary – Susana Martinez and Allen Weh. Denish has often cited the attacks in fundraising letters to motivate people to donate to her campaign.
This weekend, prominent Democrat Fred Harris authored an opinion piece published in the Albuquerque Journal in which he wrote that there should be “honor in the political process” and complained that, “from the Republican candidates for governor, we’ve seen very little of that.”
The commentary prompted another fundraising letter from Denish that decried the negative attacks. In the letter, Denish also attacked the Republican gubernatorial candidates, saying they have no ideas to help the state.
“Sen. Harris takes the Republican candidates for Governor to the woodshed for running campaigns based solely on negativity, completely void of any new ideas to help New Mexico families,” the letter from Denish’s campaign states. “… Sen. Harris hit the nail on the head, and that’s why we need your help.”
“Since the Republicans don’t have ideas of their own, we expect those attacks on all of Diane’s ideas to continue,” the letter states.
The problem? Arnold-Jones hasn’t attacked Denish. The fourth GOP gubernatorial candidate, Doug Turner, has also done little or no negative attacking of Denish.
So Denish’s newest fundraising letter prompted an answer from Arnold-Jones.
“Responding to such blather is normally not my style,” Arnold-Jones said in a news release and fundraising e-mail. “But, if the Lt. Governor wants clean campaigning, she should lead by example. This is certainly not the way.”
“The Lt. Governor’s position on ethics seems to be talking a good game but operating with that old malice and recklessness,” Arnold-Jones said. “I know that ethical leadership starts at the top. To lead us from the moral crisis in state government, I am on record as the first gubernatorial candidate that will pursue recurring, mandatory ethics training for all public employees, from the top down, and other policies that will transform state government into a public trust.”
“In my campaign, I will continue to lead by example,” Arnold-Jones said.
The Denish campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.