{"id":19888,"date":"2010-07-26T08:05:14","date_gmt":"2010-07-26T14:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=19888"},"modified":"2010-07-26T14:00:13","modified_gmt":"2010-07-26T20:00:13","slug":"martinez%e2%80%99s-new-ad-is-factual-but-there%e2%80%99s-more-to-the-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/07\/martinez%e2%80%99s-new-ad-is-factual-but-there%e2%80%99s-more-to-the-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Martinez\u2019s new ad is factual, but there\u2019s more to the story"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Susana Martinez<\/p><\/div>\n

Susana Martinez\u2019s<\/a> new ad in the governor\u2019s race claims that Diane Denish<\/a> spent federal stimulus funds \u201con\u201d and \u201cpreparing\u201d campaign Christmas cards. That\u2019s apparently accurate, though there is more to the story.<\/p>\n

The Republican gubernatorial candidate unveiled her new ad<\/a> Friday. In it, she referred to job losses and accused \u201cRichardson\/Denish\u201d of wasting millions, specifically highlighting use of the state jet by Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> and Lt. Gov. Diane Denish<\/a> \u2013 her Democratic opponent in the governor\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

Then the point I\u2019m fact-checking:<\/p>\n

\u201cDenish even spent federal stimulus funds on campaign Christmas cards,\u201d the ad\u2019s narrator states. The words on the screen at the time state that Denish spent \u201cstimulus funds preparing Christmas cards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the ad:<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Denish\u2019s office paid for \u2018work on Christmas card\u2019<\/h3>\n

I looked into the situation<\/a> surrounding the Christmas cards in November, when New Mexico Watchdog published a report about Denish\u2019s spending of federal stimulus funds. An invoice has one contractor, Laura Cowdrey, billing Denish\u2019s office for \u201cwork on Christmas card.\u201d At the time, Denish Chief of Staff Joshua Rosen provided\u00a0an invoice<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Rosen initially said, \u201cbased on staff recollection,\u201d that the invoice in question referred to work that had to do with \u201ca 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the invoice says \u201cwork on Christmas card,\u201d not \u201cwork on holiday open house.\u201d Rosen later confirmed<\/a> that there was only one Christmas card in 2004, and said if Cowdrey did any work on it, \u201cwe believe she was simply proofreading it in her role as the lieutenant governor\u2019s public information officer.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the invoice for the work done in November 2004, Cowdrey billed Denish\u2019s office a few hours at $23.50 per hour for work on the card. Denish\u2019s government office also paid Cowdrey for other political work \u2013 including work on political news releases \u2013 but Denish\u2019s campaign reimbursed her office<\/a> for work on the news releases after I discovered it last year.<\/p>\n

Martinez\u2019s ad is not \u2018highly misleading\u2019<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

So, Martinez\u2019s ad claims that Denish spent federal stimulus funds \u201con\u201d and \u201cpreparing\u201d campaign Christmas cards. That\u2019s a fair claim. The word \u201con\u201d is so broad that it could cover pretty much any activity related to producing the cards. And the word \u201cpreparing\u201d would certainly cover proofreading.<\/p>\n

To say they were \u201ccampaign Christmas cards\u201d is also accurate. Rosen has said the cards were paid for primarily by the campaign. Denish\u2019s campaign reiterated that in a news release sent out Friday in response to Martinez\u2019s new ad.<\/p>\n

The statement about the Christmas cards in Martinez\u2019s ad certainly doesn\u2019t provide context or tell the whole story, but it\u2019s apparently accurate.<\/p>\n

The rest of the story is that Denish\u2019s office spent only a small amount of federal stimulus money on the cards \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

Despite calls from some Republicans \u2013 but not Martinez \u2013 for investigations into the situation by law enforcement, this isn\u2019t something that\u2019s likely to be prosecuted. In fact, it\u2019s noteworthy that Martinez, herself a prosecutor, hasn\u2019t called for an investigation.<\/p>\n

Martinez did say last year that the situation was \u201cdeeply disturbing\u201d and that there were \u201cquestions that must be answered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bottom line: Denish\u2019s response is to call the ad\u2019s claim about the Christmas cards \u201chighly misleading.\u201d However, it\u2019s not highly misleading. The ad may not tell the whole story, but its claim \u2013 that Denish spent federal stimulus money \u201con\u201d and \u201cpreparing\u201d campaign Christmas cards \u2013 is apparently true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Susana Martinez\u2019s new ad in the governor\u2019s race claims that Diane Denish spent federal stimulus funds \u201con\u201d and \u201cpreparing\u201d campaign Christmas cards. That\u2019s apparently factual, though there is more to the story.<\/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-19888","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\/19888","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=19888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}