{"id":20972,"date":"2010-08-27T13:52:36","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T19:52:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=20972"},"modified":"2010-08-30T07:17:12","modified_gmt":"2010-08-30T13:17:12","slug":"democratic-group%e2%80%99s-ad-unfairly-attacks-martinez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/08\/democratic-group%e2%80%99s-ad-unfairly-attacks-martinez\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic group\u2019s ad unfairly attacks Martinez"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Democratic Governors Association\u2019s new ad<\/a> accusing Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez<\/a> of wasting taxpayer money on \u201cspecial bonuses for insiders\u201d doesn\u2019t pass the smell test \u2013 and the DGA\u2019s own fact sheet<\/a> in support of its ad actually helps prove that the ad\u2019s attack is unfair.<\/p>\n

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

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

\u201cAnother political scandal. $350,000 of taxpayer money wasted on special bonuses for insiders,\u201d the ad\u2019s narrator states. \u201c\u2026 \u00a0Martinez, a local prosecutor, should have used the money to protect our borders. But newspapers caught her giving big bonuses to friends in her office \u2013 bonuses nearly three times higher than any other district.\u201d<\/p>\n

From fiscal years 2006 to 2009, Martinez gave employees $477,000 in \u201cout of cycle salary increases.\u201d About three-fourths of that money came from a federal program called the Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative, the Martinez campaign said in a statement. Martinez has said the money went to employees in her office \u2013 the vast majority of them prosecutors \u2013 because of the additional caseload and responsibility related to prosecuting border-related crime and based on performance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

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

The problem for the DGA? One of the articles it cites in its fact sheet in support of the ad, from The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a>, includes this:<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Ernesto Ortiz, director of the High Intensity Drug Traffic Area in New Mexico, said Tuesday that using Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative funds to give raises to prosecutors is legitimate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe funds, he said, are available to district attorneys in border states. Some district attorneys have used the funds for salaries, while others have used funds for such things as training and equipment, he said.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are other statements in the DGA\u2019s fact sheet that support using the funds to pay prosecutors for the increased workload related to prosecuting border-related crime. In one, New Mexico\u2019s U.S. senators \u2013 both Democrats \u2013 are quoted as arguing earlier this year, when the Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative program was cut, that the program needed to be restored because it reimburses \u201cstate, county, parish, tribal, and municipal governments for costs associated with the prosecution and pre\u2010trial detention of federally\u2010initiated criminal cases declined by local offices of the United States Attorneys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Drug trafficking in the Southwest region is a serious threat to our homeland security and the federal government must provide meaningful support so that we can prosecute these crimes and stem the flow of illegal drugs throughout the United States,\u201d the senators said, according to the DGA fact sheet.<\/p>\n

The DGA fact sheet also quotes a San Antonio Express-News article as stating earlier this year that \u201cLawmakers from Southwest border states pleaded with colleagues on a Senate appropriations panel\u2026 to restore $31 million to a program that reimburses local governments for prosecuting drug smuggling cases. The Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative has been a frequent target of budget cutters\u2026 Sen. John Cornyn, R\u2010Texas, said that decision \u2018puts our local law enforcement officials at a serious disadvantage in the war on drugs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that Martinez gave significantly larger out-of-cycle increases to employees in her office than other DAs around the state. But the DGA has provided no evidence to show that the size of the increases wasn\u2019t allowed.<\/p>\n

The evidence shows that such salary increases were one way prosecutors were allowed to use the funds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Democratic Governors Association\u2019s new ad accusing Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez of wasting taxpayer money on \u201cspecial bonuses for insiders\u201d doesn\u2019t pass the smell test \u2013 and the DGA\u2019s own fact sheet in support of its ad actually helps prove that the ad\u2019s attack is unfair.<\/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":[108,140,107],"class_list":["post-20972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20972","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=20972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}