Susana Martinez
Susana Martinez’s new ad in the governor’s race claims that Diane Denish spent federal stimulus funds “on” and “preparing” campaign Christmas cards. That’s apparently accurate, though there is more to the story.
The Republican gubernatorial candidate unveiled her new ad Friday. In it, she referred to job losses and accused “Richardson/Denish” of wasting millions, specifically highlighting use of the state jet by Gov. Bill Richardson and Lt. Gov. Diane Denish – her Democratic opponent in the governor’s race.
Then the point I’m fact-checking:
“Denish even spent federal stimulus funds on campaign Christmas cards,” the ad’s narrator states. The words on the screen at the time state that Denish spent “stimulus funds preparing Christmas cards.”
Here’s the ad:
Denish’s office paid for ‘work on Christmas card’
I looked into the situation surrounding the Christmas cards in November, when New Mexico Watchdog published a report about Denish’s spending of federal stimulus funds. An invoice has one contractor, Laura Cowdrey, billing Denish’s office for “work on Christmas card.” At the time, Denish Chief of Staff Joshua Rosen provided an invoice that shows most expenses related to the 2004 Christmas card were paid for by the campaign – $3,666.90 for copying and printing the card.
Rosen initially said, “based on staff recollection,” that the invoice in question referred to work that had to do with “a 2004 Holiday Open House that the Office of the Lt. Governor held for members of the public, including homeless children from La Comunidad De Los Ninos in Santa Fe, not a personal or political event for the Lt. Governor, herself.”
But the invoice says “work on Christmas card,” not “work on holiday open house.” Rosen later confirmed that there was only one Christmas card in 2004, and said if Cowdrey did any work on it, “we believe she was simply proofreading it in her role as the lieutenant governor’s public information officer.”
According to the invoice for the work done in November 2004, Cowdrey billed Denish’s office a few hours at $23.50 per hour for work on the card. Denish’s government office also paid Cowdrey for other political work – including work on political news releases – but Denish’s campaign reimbursed her office for work on the news releases after I discovered it last year.
Martinez’s ad is not ‘highly misleading’
So, Martinez’s ad claims that Denish spent federal stimulus funds “on” and “preparing” campaign Christmas cards. That’s a fair claim. The word “on” is so broad that it could cover pretty much any activity related to producing the cards. And the word “preparing” would certainly cover proofreading.
To say they were “campaign Christmas cards” is also accurate. Rosen has said the cards were paid for primarily by the campaign. Denish’s campaign reiterated that in a news release sent out Friday in response to Martinez’s new ad.
The statement about the Christmas cards in Martinez’s ad certainly doesn’t provide context or tell the whole story, but it’s apparently accurate.
The rest of the story is that Denish’s office spent only a small amount of federal stimulus money on the cards – perhaps a couple hundred dollars. The bulk of the work to produce and distribute the cards was paid for by the campaign, not federal stimulus dollars.
Despite calls from some Republicans – but not Martinez – for investigations into the situation by law enforcement, this isn’t something that’s likely to be prosecuted. In fact, it’s noteworthy that Martinez, herself a prosecutor, hasn’t called for an investigation.
Martinez did say last year that the situation was “deeply disturbing” and that there were “questions that must be answered.”
Bottom line: Denish’s response is to call the ad’s claim about the Christmas cards “highly misleading.” However, it’s not highly misleading. The ad may not tell the whole story, but its claim – that Denish spent federal stimulus money “on” and “preparing” campaign Christmas cards – is apparently true.