{"id":21461,"date":"2010-09-10T16:08:45","date_gmt":"2010-09-10T22:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=21461"},"modified":"2010-09-13T07:19:17","modified_gmt":"2010-09-13T13:19:17","slug":"unsubstantiated-attack-on-martinez-gains-traction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/09\/unsubstantiated-attack-on-martinez-gains-traction\/","title":{"rendered":"Unsubstantiated attack on Martinez gains traction"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

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

An anonymously created video that accuses Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez\u2019s<\/a> family of being involved in a Texas irrigation district that\u2019s been in legal battles with New Mexico over water is circulating widely in advance of a Sunday rally for Democrat Diane Denish<\/a> in Taos.<\/p>\n

The Martinez campaign says the claims in the video are \u201cpatently false.\u201d And though a newspaper ad that promotes the video states that it was \u201capproved by the committee to elect Diane Denish,\u201d the Denish campaign says it did not authorize the promotion of the video in the ad and is not pushing the video in any way.<\/p>\n

The video\u2019s anonymous, male narrator claims that Martinez\u2019s grandfather helped found the El Paso Irrigation District in Texas and states that Martinez and her father were stakeholders in the district. He then goes on to ask, because the El Paso district has been in lawsuits with New Mexico \u201cfor decades\u201d over water, \u201cCan we really trust a Texan to protect New Mexico\u2019s water?\u201d<\/p>\n

No evidence has been presented publicly to back up the video\u2019s allegations that Martinez and her family have been involved in the water district. The woman who paid for the newspaper ad promoting the video says she has no proof to back up its claims and doesn\u2019t know whether they are true.<\/p>\n

But the allegations are being talked about and may be causing some who might have supported Martinez to think twice. NMPolitics.net confirmed with a handful of sources throughout North-Central New Mexico that they were aware of the video. A couple said they believe it\u2019s causing doubt among some who were leaning toward voting for Martinez.<\/p>\n

The video comes in the context of recent polling that shows Martinez leading in the governor\u2019s race and having significant support among Hispanics. Many Hispanic Democrats from around the state \u2013 and particularly in North-Central New Mexico \u2013 are openly supporting Martinez.<\/p>\n

How the video spread<\/h3>\n

The video was put on YouTube<\/a> by an anonymous user named \u201cNMWaterGuardian.\u201d It was sent by e-mail to Trudy Healy, a Denish supporter in Taos who, along with her husband Ed, is organizing Sunday\u2019s rally for Denish.<\/p>\n

In an interview, Trudy Healy said she supports Denish because the lieutenant governor helped get her appointed to the New Mexico Water Trust Board<\/a> and she knows, through interactions with Denish, that Denish will protect New Mexico\u2019s water. Healy\u2019s ad in last week\u2019s print edition of the Taos News<\/a> states that Sunday\u2019s rally is a \u201cstatewide movement\u201d of \u201cpeople who love the land and the water\u201d and support Denish.<\/p>\n

Healy comes from a land grant family, and she and her husband have donated to a number of water programs around the state.<\/p>\n

Healy said she knew about the massive donations<\/a> Martinez has received from a Texas developer, and she wondered what the developer wanted in return. And Healy was having difficulty getting people to sign up to be co-hosts of Sunday\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

She said she was wondering \u201chow to get the Spanish away from the name Martinez\u201d and \u201cconvince my people in the north\u201d that Martinez \u201cis not one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Healy saw the YouTube video and was struck by its claim about Martinez\u2019s grandfather. Her own familial ties to the land and water made her believe that, if it\u2019s true that Martinez\u2019s grandfather helped found the Texas water district, Martinez is \u201cgoing to do everything she can to uphold that stake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Healy shared the video with another Denish supporter who has family members in Taos supporting Martinez. Soon thereafter, she said, she started getting lots of calls from people wanting to co-host the Denish event. Then Healy put a link to the video in the newspaper ad promoting the event \u2013 the ad the Healys paid for that said it was authorized by the Denish campaign.<\/p>\n

Since that ad ran, the list of co-hosts of the event has grown from about 600 to almost 1,000, and they\u2019re from all over the state.<\/p>\n

The anonymous video was even promoted on the popular left-leaning blog Democracy for New Mexico<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018A disgusting and malicious falsehood\u2019<\/h3>\n

Martinez Campaign Manager Ryan Cangiolosi said the claims made in the video are false.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we draw closer to Election Day, no one doubts desperation will set in, but it is appalling that Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish\u2019s campaign stooped so low by approving a newspaper ad that promotes a video containing patently false claims about Susana\u2019s deceased grandfather and her elderly father, who cannot defend himself,\u201d Cangiolosi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call on Diane Denish to repudiate the extremist video, admit that the statements are false, and immediately apologize to the Martinez family for authorizing the circulation of such a disgusting and malicious falsehood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Denish campaign spokesman Chris Cervini was quick to distance the campaign from the video when asked to back up its claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not see or authorize the ad before it appeared,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was something that was put out by a strong Denish supporter who was acting on her own. Our campaign had no role in the production of the video and has not been actively circulating it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not promoting the video at all,\u201d Cervini said.<\/p>\n

Healy confirmed she had her son, who designed the ad, include a statement about it being authorized by the Denish campaign without getting the campaign\u2019s permission to link to the video. She and her husband paid for the newspaper ad.<\/p>\n

Healy can\u2019t back up claims in video<\/h3>\n

Healy said she doesn\u2019t know whether the claims in the video are true and has no evidence to back it up, even though she made the decision to promote the video in a newspaper ad.<\/p>\n

Healy said she has a suspicion about who might have created the video, but she hasn\u2019t confirmed it and doesn\u2019t want to name the man unless she is certain she\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

Martinez was born and raised in El Paso. She went to law school in Oklahoma before moving to Las Cruces in 1986, and she has lived in Las Cruces ever since. Martinez said in a statement provided to NMPolitics.net that her parents grew up in El Paso. She said that, \u201cas far as I know,\u201d her father\u2019s parents grew up in El Paso, and said her mother\u2019s parents also grew up in Texas.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t prove they were involved in the water district. Martinez\u2019s campaign said it\u2019s simple: They were not involved.<\/p>\n

Healy said her bottom line is that Martinez hasn\u2019t been talking about water issues. She said she and others are concerned about the donations from Texas and the allegations in the video, and they want to hear directly from Martinez about the video and water policy issues. She said people from all over the state have called her to say they\u2019re supporting Denish after seeing the video on the Internet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our way to bring (Martinez) out,\u201d Healy said. \u201cWe want her to say that she is not going to give one more acre foot to Texas. We want her to go on record.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Healy conceded that, even if Martinez says that, \u201cwe are not going to believe her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA vote for Susana is an acre foot for Texas, and that\u2019s how I feel,\u201d Healy said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An anonymously created video that accuses Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez\u2019s family of being involved in a Texas irrigation district that\u2019s been in legal battles with New Mexico over water is circulating widely in advance of a Sunday rally for Democrat Diane Denish in Taos. But Martinez says the claims in the video are false, and the Denish campaign is distancing itself from the video.<\/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-21461","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\/21461","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=21461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}