Diane Denish
A day after the governor called for a ban on political candidates appearing in public service announcements paid for by the state, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish has asked the state Health Department to stop running one in which she appears.
The Santa Fe New Mexican’s Steve Terrell has the goods:
“Denish, as most readers of this blog are surely aware, is running for governor. Her chief of staff Josh Rosen said Denish had already pledged not to do any PSAs during an election year. He said she decided to stop the PSAs to avoid any confusion.
“A spokeswoman for the department said they have pulled the Denish ad. The department had planned to stop the PSAs in January anyway.
“A companion ad featuring Richardson will keep airing. Richardson, of course, isn’t running for anything next year.
“Political experts say 30-second spots are one of the best ways to build name recognition for a candidate — even if the candidate isn’t overtly saying ‘vote for me.’”
I sent an e-mail to two Denish staffers asking whether Denish sees a problem with appearing in PSAs while she’s a candidate. I’ll let you know if I get a response.
In the meantime, here’s the PSA in question:
Update, 4:30 p.m.
Denish Chief of Staff Joshua Rosen released this statement:
“Public Service Announcements are useful tools for disseminating important information to the public, such as how to protect your children from the H1N1 virus. But to avoid even the appearance of a conflict, the Lt. Governor had always planned to decline invitations to participate in these announcements during the upcoming election year.”
This article has been updated to include new information from Terrell’s posting.