{"id":18453,"date":"2010-06-10T14:22:36","date_gmt":"2010-06-10T20:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=18453"},"modified":"2010-06-11T06:18:08","modified_gmt":"2010-06-11T12:18:08","slug":"analyzing-martinez%e2%80%99s-ad-both-candidates-spin-the-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/06\/analyzing-martinez%e2%80%99s-ad-both-candidates-spin-the-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyzing Martinez\u2019s ad: Both candidates spin facts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Susana Martinez (left, courtesy photo) and Diane Denish (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Call it a spinfest.<\/p>\n

Susana Martinez\u2019s<\/a> new TV ad<\/a> attacking Diane Denish<\/a> in the governor\u2019s race is misleading because it exaggerates Denish\u2019s authority over the state\u2019s Children, Youth and Families Department<\/a>. But that\u2019s at least in part because Denish has overstated her role in CYFD affairs in the past.<\/p>\n

First the facts. Denish, a Democrat, and her office have no authority of CYFD, its policies, or its administration. Denish, in her role as lieutenant governor, heads the New Mexico Children\u2019s Cabinet<\/a>, which brings together various state agencies that work with children, including CYFD, to encourage communication and coordination and to report to the governor and Legislature on children\u2019s issues.<\/p>\n

Denish\u2019s spin<\/h3>\n

In that context, Denish\u2019s office put out a news release<\/a> in 2006, as the governor was seeking a new cabinet secretary for CYFD. It stated that Denish planned to review \u201cpolicies, structure and personnel in an effort to both create a smooth transition for outgoing Secretary Mary Dale Bolson\u2019s replacement and to consider retooling the department to make it more responsive to the needs of New Mexico\u2019s children and families.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI intend to review everything, from budget to structure to the management team in an attempt to ensure New Mexicans are getting the best service from this key department,\u201d Denish said in that news release.<\/p>\n

\u201cDenish will meet today with key cabinet secretaries who interact regularly with CYFD to create a transition structure for the as-yet unnamed incoming CYFD secretary. She will also go over the department\u2019s budget and management structure,\u201d the release stated. \u201cOn Wednesday, Denish will meet with some CYFD staff to get input from them on how the department can be aligned to better meet the challenges of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Denish announced that she was playing a key role not just in helping find a new cabinet secretary but also in reviewing \u201ceverything\u201d with the goal of considering \u201cretooling the department to make it more responsive to the needs of New Mexico\u2019s children and families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did that really happen? Here\u2019s what the Denish campaign said on Wednesday:<\/p>\n

\u201cDenish undertook a review of CYFD in 2006, but the effort was primarily undertaken to identify a new cabinet secretary and appropriate leadership personnel for the department in the wake of the resignation of the prior secretary and members of her leadership team.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As I just pointed out, that\u2019s only half of what Denish\u2019s 2006 news release said was behind the review.<\/p>\n

Martinez\u2019s spin<\/h3>\n

So, armed with the spin from Denish\u2019s 2006 news release, Martinez, a Republican, took the spin to a whole new level in her new ad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cA department in Denish\u2019s cabinet gave sanctuary to criminal illegals like child molester Juan Gonzalez,\u201d the ad\u2019s announcer states. \u201cDenish promised to review their policies.\u00a0But the sanctuary policy stayed.\u00a0So did Juan Gonzalez.\u00a0And he just attacked another child. Now Denish claims she knew nothing, after promising to review everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ad implies that \u201cDenish\u2019s cabinet\u201d \u2013 the Children\u2019s Cabinet \u2013 somehow has authority over CYFD, which isn\u2019t true. And it makes the leap that if Denish had ended the policy in 2006 \u2013 which she didn\u2019t have authority to do in the first place \u2013 Gonzalez might have been deported and not been in the United States to rape a girl last month.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s quite a leap.<\/p>\n

Denish now says she wasn\u2019t aware of the policy and, had she become aware of it in 2006, would have opposed it.<\/p>\n

Neither gives us the \u2018full story\u2019<\/h3>\n

I found this quote from Martinez about her new ad interesting:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is that Denish wants to take credit for anything deemed positive that took place during the Richardson\/Denish Administration, while conveniently ducking responsibility and ignoring the abundance of glaring problems. New Mexicans deserve the full story and we certainly deserve better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first part of that statement might have some truth in it, in that Denish did overstate her involvement in reviewing and reforming CYFD. On the flip side, Martinez certainly hasn\u2019t done anything to give us the \u201cfull story\u201d in this ad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Susana Martinez\u2019s new TV ad attacking Diane Denish in the governor\u2019s race is misleading because it exaggerates Denish\u2019s authority over the state\u2019s Children, Youth and Families Department. But that\u2019s at least in part because Denish has overstated her role in CYFD affairs in the past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,107],"class_list":["post-18453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}