Heath Haussamen
I rarely respond to anything political blogger Joe Monahan has to say, so when he wrote about me on Thursday, I was tempted to ignore it completely. Monahan reports rumors and frequently gets his facts wrong, and I realized long ago that he was not to be taken seriously.
Then I started getting phone calls, texts and e-mails from people who were taking what Monahan wrote about me seriously. And I realized that perhaps one reason people take him seriously is because people like me don’t call him out.
So here’s the truth about the rumor Monahan spread about me, and the truth about Monahan.
Monahan was writing on Thursday about dueling polls released by the Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez and Democratic candidate Diane Denish. In writing about Martinez’s poll, he posted this:
“The poll was released through Las Cruces political reporter Heath Haussamen whose own financial prospects could improve if Susana wins. He’s getting prominent mentions in political circles as a possible communications director for a ‘Governor Martinez.’”
It won’t be surprising to people who pay attention to such things to learn that Monahan doesn’t have his facts straight. The poll wasn’t released “through” me. It was released on Wednesday to Chris Cillizza, a reporter for the Washington Post whose blog post about it went up at 4 a.m. New Mexico time on Thursday. I wasn’t sent the poll until after that.
On to more important matters…
Not interested in a job from Martinez
Shortly after Monahan posted his blog, I received an e-mail from a Democratic insider asking if I could assure him that “discussions like this are not under way.”
The answer: Such discussions are not underway, have not taken place, and will not take place. I am not a “possible communications director” for Martinez if she wins the governor’s race. There’s not enough money in the world to get me to work for Martinez or Denish.
I was last approached about a government public relations job by someone in the Richardson administration in 2007, before I was blacklisted by the Governor’s Office. The job would have paid much more than this site makes. I told that person something that is still true now: Thanks, but no thanks. I have no interest in government public relations and I have no interest in moving to Santa Fe. End of story.
I’m not looking for a government job. I like working for myself.
To be as clear as I can be: I have not been approached about a job by Martinez or anyone tied to Martinez and I have not approached Martinez or anyone tied to Martinez about a job. I’m not seeking such a job and would not take one if offered it, no matter how much the job pays (and the governor’s communications director makes quite a bit of money).
That’s exactly what I would have told Monahan… if he had bothered to ask.
But of course, checking facts isn’t what Monahan does. He prints rumors and dares people to call him out when he’s wrong – because by getting people to call him out, he gets them to pay attention to him. It’s about making himself feel more important than he is.
Monahan is a blogger and PR professional
Monahan’s posting put in people’s heads the idea that I would compromise this site’s integrity by trying to secure a job in a potential governor’s administration while also reporting on the governor’s race. That’s offensive because it’s something I would never do.
But it’s exactly the sort of thing Monahan has done over the years.
Monahan recently disclosed that he “did some professional PR work” for Secretary of State Mary Herrera’s office in 2008. Blogger M.G. Bralley wrote on his own site that Monahan’s disclosure came after he told Monahan “what I had learned about his work for the SoS’s office and asked if he wanted to make a comment.”
Bralley quoted Monahan as saying that he’s made the disclosure before. I don’t know if that’s true or not. I’ve been unable to find it. Regardless, it doesn’t appear that Monahan has ever told us how much he was paid to work for Herrera’s office.
Even more problematic is the evidence that Monahan blogs about politicians while he’s working for them without disclosing it. If you check out documents I obtained from the City of Albuquerque through a records request (here and here), you’ll find that Monahan did contract work for former Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez’s administration in 2004 and 2005 – while he was blogging about Chavez’s 2005 re-election bid.
The documents indicate that the city paid Monahan $21,875 over those two years to do public relations work related to the city Environmental Health Department’s “air aware” campaign “to reduce air pollution from mobile sources in an effort to improve air quality and keep Bernalillo County out of ozone nonattainment.”
Where was the disclosure of that? I couldn’t find mention of it. In fact, on June 20, 2005, it was left out of a “full disclosure” Monahan posted on his site related to the mayoral race:
“Here’s some ‘full disclosure’ for you as we blog the 05’ mayor’s race. I consulted the 93’ Mayor’s race with R Cargo, Baca in 97’ and the 01’ battle for Mayor Marty. I covered the first one in 74’ for KUNM-FM. In 81’ I was working in Washington, D.C. In 85’ I covered for then KGGM-TV, now KRQE-TV. In 89’ I was working for the city in PR. In 05’ I’m blogging. Since 1989 I have anchored and produced live Election Night coverage for every major state and city election for KANW 89.1 FM in ABQ. We’ll do it again this year with top NM lobbyist Scottt Scanland and my other experts on Oct. 4.”
What did he say he was doing in 2005? “Blogging.” No mention of the PR contract with Chavez’s administration.
Monahan also posted this on April 18, 2005:
“My main biz is public relations and consulting. I disclose that at the top of the blog. I seldom blog about an issue or cause that I am working on because often it is not connected to politics, but if I do I disclose my interest. … I believe my readers need to know when I am professionally involved in something and making comments or predictions about it so they can weigh that.”
I’m not for sale
Monahan works for politicians – or at least the agencies they run – while he’s blogging about them. I do not. I have worked to set up a system that discloses to you how this site is funded. You can view the list of NMPolitics.net’s financial contributors here. Most of the rest of this site’s funding comes through advertising (you can see who advertises by looking at their ads on the site). A small percentage of funding comes through syndication of this site’s articles for services like LexisNexis and sales of photo reprint rights.
I also post ethical guidelines for my site and disclose potential conflicts here.
I recently gave up a more lucrative job at The New Mexico Independent to try to make this site financially viable because I believe in this site. I have no intention of compromising this site’s journalistic integrity for money. I’m not for sale.