Heath Haussamen
Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings apparently doesn’t understand that using government resources to campaign is never appropriate.
Using government resources to campaign is never appropriate.
Using government resources to campaign is never appropriate.
Using government resources to campaign is never appropriate.
You might get annoyed at having to read that statement three times, but I’m not repeating it for you. I’m repeating it for Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, who had a staffer in his government office, which is funded by your money, send out his 2012 re-election campaign announcement on Monday.
Jennings, a Roswell Democrat, has served in the Senate since 1979, but he somehow still doesn’t get it. It’s not OK to use public money to promote your campaign. Ever.
Ever. Ever. Ever.
The e-mail came from the staffer’s @nmlegis.gov address, and was signed at the end this way:
Senator Timothy Z. Jennings
Office of the President Pro Tem
Room 105, State Capitol Building
Santa Fe, NM 87501
Phone: 986-4733
Fax: 986-4409
Government staffer. Government e-mail address. Government office. Government phone number. Government fax number. There’s no question that Jennings used public money to promote his political career.
A slippery slope the Legislature shouldn’t tolerate
I’ve had to write this column many times (here, here, here and here are examples), and I get more annoyed each time. What will it take for public officials to learn that it’s not OK to use government resources to campaign?
This is a slippery slope that, at the bottom, ends up with government employees using their public positions to push people to illegally vote to keep their bosses in office.
Yes, that’s a bit of a leap. But seriously, using public money to campaign is never OK, whether it’s for something small like sending out a news release or something that, in practicality, is much more serious. Even the little violations contribute to a culture that tolerates more serious abuses of taxpayer money.
It might help if lawmakers approved the creation of an independent ethics commission designed to educate them and other state officials on how to act ethically and punish violators. Short of that, it might help if the Legislature’s Ethics Committee got off its butt and did something, like formally telling Jennings that what he did isn’t OK.
Oh wait, that’s right. Jennings is a member of that committee. See the problem?
Jennings should be ashamed of himself. And the Legislature should quit tolerating such abuses.