{"id":22259,"date":"2010-10-08T08:23:13","date_gmt":"2010-10-08T14:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=22259"},"modified":"2010-10-11T08:48:24","modified_gmt":"2010-10-11T14:48:24","slug":"pearce-and-teague-aren%e2%80%99t-being-honest-about-pay-raises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/10\/pearce-and-teague-aren%e2%80%99t-being-honest-about-pay-raises\/","title":{"rendered":"Pearce, Teague aren\u2019t being honest about pay raises"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democratic 2nd Congressional District candidate Harry Teague<\/a> is attacking Republican opponent Steve Pearce<\/a> for taking $46,000 in pay raises during his six years in Congress. Pearce is accusing Teague of taking $38,000 in pay raises in his two years in Congress.<\/p>\n

Teague is spinning the facts with his claim by leaving out the context, so his attack is deceptive. Pearce is flat-out lying with his claim.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take these one at a time:<\/p>\n

Teague\u2019s claim<\/h3>\n

Teague\u2019s claim about Pearce was made in this TV ad<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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

Pearce, the ad\u2019s narrator claims, \u201chad no problem helping himself. Pearce took more than $46,000 in congressional pay raises.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number is accurate. The Teague campaign provided this chart to show the pay raises Congress implemented for its members while Pearce was there:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
FY<\/strong><\/td>\nPay<\/strong><\/td>\nIncrease<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2003<\/td>\n$154,700<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2004<\/td>\n$158,100<\/td>\n$3,400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2005<\/td>\n$162,100<\/td>\n$7,400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2006<\/td>\n$165,200<\/td>\n$10,500<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2007<\/td>\n$165,200<\/td>\n$10,500<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2008<\/td>\n$169,300<\/td>\n$14,600<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n$46,400<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

So Pearce Pearce\u2019s annual pay increased $14,600 between his first and last year in Congress, and cumulatively he took $46,400 in increased pay during those six years.<\/p>\n

But Teague\u2019s campaign claims Pearce \u201chad no problem\u201d taking the pay increases. That\u2019s a deceptive statement. Pearce opposed and voted against every congressional pay raise during his tenure, but most years he was in the minority and the raises happened anyway.
\n

\"\"

Steve Pearce, left, and Harry Teague (Photos by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Pearce\u2019s claim<\/h3>\n

Pearce, meanwhile, has claimed in media including a mailer<\/a> and a robocall<\/a> that Teague has taken $38,000 in pay raises during his two years in Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Congress, Teague decided to look after himself just like the other New Mexico politicians he is allied with by taking a $38,000 pay raise,\u201d the mailer states.<\/p>\n

Not true. Congressional pay hasn\u2019t increased while Teague has been in office. In fact, Teague put out a news release<\/a> the day he was sworn in stating that he had signed on as a co-sponsor to legislation that would eliminate the congressional pay raised scheduled to take effect this year. That legislation passed, and the raise was canceled.<\/p>\n

Teague said he would have donated his raise back to the U.S. treasury had it been approved.<\/p>\n

The Pearce campaign\u2019s math is based on Teague\u2019s math. Even though Teague didn\u2019t take office until 2009, the Pearce campaign used 2003 as the baseline salary and went from there to today. The Teague campaign used 2003 because that was the first year Pearce was in office.<\/p>\n

Teague\u2019s salary is about $19,000 per year higher than the congressional salary was in 2003. Multiply that by the two years Teague has been in Congress, and you get $38,000.<\/p>\n

Pearce campaign spokesman Jason Heffley said using the same math Teague used is fair because Teague\u2019s attack is deceptive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can\u2019t have it both ways. (Teague and Pearce) both opposed, or they both took,\u201d Heffley said. \u201cThey chose to attack for taking, so by Teague math, he took $38,000 in pay raises.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bottom line<\/h3>\n

Don\u2019t buy anyone\u2019s spin. Pearce opposed pay raises but they were passed anyway. Teague\u2019s statement that Pearce took \u201cmore than $46,000\u201d in pay raises is true, but it leaves out the context. Teague\u2019s claim that Pearce \u201chad no problem\u201d taking increased pay is false.<\/p>\n

Teague and the majority of his colleagues opposed pay raises, so there hasn\u2019t been an increase while Teague has been in Congress. Pearce\u2019s claim that Teague took \u201ca $38,000 pay raise\u201d simply isn\u2019t true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democratic congressional candidate Harry Teague is deceptively spinning the facts with his claim about Republican opponent Steve Pearce taking $46,000 in pay raises while in Congress. Pearce is flat-out lying when he claims that Teague took $38,000 in pay raises during his time in Congress.<\/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":[108,116],"class_list":["post-22259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22259","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=22259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}