{"id":20957,"date":"2010-08-27T09:16:59","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T15:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=20957"},"modified":"2010-08-27T13:52:44","modified_gmt":"2010-08-27T19:52:44","slug":"gop-accuses-denish-of-hypocrisy-on-vouchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/08\/gop-accuses-denish-of-hypocrisy-on-vouchers\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP accuses Denish of hypocrisy on vouchers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish (Photo by Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

Republicans are accusing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Diane Denish<\/a> of hypocrisy for attacking her opponent\u2019s support of vouchers because Denish used to sit on the board of a foundation that has financially supported vouchers.<\/p>\n

Denish is countering by saying foundations must abide by the intent of donors, and while she didn\u2019t always agree with her uncle, who started the foundation, she was \u201chonored to serve on the board and honor his intent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state Republican Party<\/a> put out a news release earlier this week claiming to expose Denish\u2019s \u201cvoucher hypocrisy.\u201d Denish served for several years on the board of the Daniels Fund<\/a> \u2013 a foundation started by her uncle Bill Daniels<\/a>, who died in 2000. She\u2019s no longer on the board.<\/p>\n

According to the state GOP, the Daniels Fund donated $100,000 to the Washington, D.C. school voucher program, and Daniels gave $250,000 to support a ballot initiative in Colorado that proposed giving tax credits to parents who send their children to private schools.<\/p>\n

In the gubernatorial race, Denish has hammered her opponent, Republican Susana Martinez<\/a>, for past statements in support of traditional voucher programs and for her current proposal, which includes vouchers for students with disabilities and tax credits for people who donate to scholarship programs.<\/p>\n

State GOP spokeswoman Janel Causey hammered Denish for what the GOP news release called \u201chypocrisy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is now clear is that Dishonest Diane will say and do anything to remain in power, lying about her record as well as Susana Martinez\u2019s,\u201d Causey said. \u201cAs Governor Bill Richardson\u2019s \u2018good, loyal soldier,\u2019 Denish has learned from the best when it comes to being dishonest and deceitful, and her role with the Daniels Fund is just the latest example.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denish said there\u2019s no dishonesty or deceit on her part. She said she is \u201cvery proud of the time I served on the Daniels Fund Board because we worked very hard to create educational opportunities in the four states it serves, including New Mexico. Much of the education work of the board centered on providing college scholarships to underprivileged \u2018diamonds in the rough\u2019 students.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cApparently Susana Martinez and the Republicans do not understand that when you serve on a foundation board, you must abide by the intent of the donor,\u201d Denish said. \u201cI was very close to my Uncle Bill, and though we didn’t always agree politically, I was honored to serve on the board and honor his intent. I have always been an opponent of school vouchers because vouchers drain money from public schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denish: Martinez\u2019s plan would take money from public schools<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>

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

Martinez\u2019s education plan includes vouchers for students with disabilities, but not for all other students. Instead, she\u2019s proposing tax credits for people who donate to organizations that provide scholarships for poor children who want to attend a different school. Martinez, like Denish, now pledges not to cut funding for public education.<\/p>\n

But Denish says it\u2019s simple: Vouchers take money away from public education, and tax credits take money from the general fund which is used to fund public education. Thus, Denish says, Martinez\u2019s plan will take money from public education.<\/p>\n

Denish said donations made by the Daniels Fund are different because they are \u201cprivate 501(c)3 dollars, not taxpayer funds or taxable dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore no money was ever drained from public schools as a result of donations made by the Daniels Fund,\u201d she said. \u201cBut a Martinez voucher or tax credit plan? That directly diverts tax dollars that would have gone into public schools out of the funding stream and directly to private schools. That is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

To back up the claim that Martinez\u2019s tax-credit plan would take money from public schools, the Denish campaign pointed to an Arizona Republic article<\/a> that found that a similar program in that state had diverted $379 million in tax revenue over and 11-year period to scholarships for students to attend private schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republicans are accusing Diane Denish of hypocrisy for attacking her opponent\u2019s support of vouchers because Denish used to sit on the board of a foundation that has financially supported vouchers. But Denish says foundations must abide by the intent of donors, and while she didn\u2019t always agree with her uncle, who started the foundation, she was \u201chonored to serve on the board and honor his intent.\u201d<\/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":[108,125,107],"class_list":["post-20957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-education","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20957","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=20957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}