John Sapien
State Sen. John Sapien is apologizing for using state government e-mail to promote the charitable giving of his insurance agency.
“The use of the State email address to get the recent press release out regarding an ongoing program my business has committed to to help the needy of my community was an oversight and an error,” Sapien wrote in an e-mail to NMPolitics.net.
That came after I authored a column stating that Sapien’s use of government e-mail, an official Senate news release, and the time of the government staffer who drafted and sent out the news release to promote the generosity of his business wasn’t appropriate.
“I truly apologize for the oversight of where the press release was sent from as I agree with you, State provided email should not have been used in this situation,” Sapien wrote. “Thank you for pointing out this oversight I appreciate your involvement in the process.”
Here’s the rest of Sapien’s e-mail:
“I have been very diligent in my time as a Legislator to only use State provided resources for my Legislative work. Many times I will receive partisan emails on my Legislative email and I have requested the sender to refrain from sending non-legislative emails to the State provided email. I refrain from using State provided resources to benefit my business.
“The press release itself was to bring awareness to the public of the program we have developed which helped 200 families last year and will help 175 families this year. The money to support this program comes out of my personal pocket directly and is meant to purely benefit the community, and if you talk to peers in the industry, this type of philanthropy rarely generates future business.”