{"id":3273,"date":"2008-05-23T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-23T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/05\/shendo-shows-hes-not-ready-to-be-a-congressman\/"},"modified":"2008-05-23T13:30:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-23T19:30:00","slug":"shendo-shows-hes-not-ready-to-be-a-congressman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/05\/shendo-shows-hes-not-ready-to-be-a-congressman\/","title":{"rendered":"Shendo shows he’s not ready to be a congressman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Earlier this week at a forum in Farmington<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, 3rd Congressional District Democratic candidate Benny Shendo Jr.<\/a> set fire to the race by publicly accusing primary opponent Ben R. Luj\u00e1n<\/a> of being gay. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Shendo did it in the context of hinting that, because he\u2019s hid his sexuality to appease his parents, Luj\u00e1n is someone who won\u2019t stand up for New Mexicans.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cYou say that you stand up for the people of New Mexico,\u201d Shendo said, according to video posted on YouTube<\/a>, \u201cand I want to know how you can stand up for the people of New Mexico if you can\u2019t stand up to your mom and dad about your lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Luj\u00e1n stumbled through a response and said he wasn\u2019t sure what Shendo was talking about. Luj\u00e1n, like the rest of us who are involved in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>\u2019s political system, has probably heard the rumor that he\u2019s gay. But no evidence has been presented publicly and Luj\u00e1n says it isn\u2019t true, so it\u2019s nothing more than a rumor.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In response to outrage over his assault on Luj\u00e1n, Shendo later issued a statement to explain it<\/a>. In it he said the belief that Luj\u00e1n is gay is widespread. He said many have told him that \u201cthere may be a level of public deception going on in the way that Ben Ray and his parents have handled this matter by so actively promoting publicly that he has a girlfriend.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Shendo said the question he was trying to raise wasn\u2019t whether Luj\u00e1n is gay but whether Luj\u00e1n has \u201cthe courage to stand up on the difficult issues that face us as a society.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That may have been his intent, but what Shendo\u2019s accusation did was reveal that he\u2019s not ready to be northern New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s representative in the U.S. House. Shendo is publicly spreading rumor that may be damaging to another person for his own gain and without providing any evidence to back it up. That\u2019s unacceptable conduct from someone who thinks he\u2019s qualified to be a congressman.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

If Shendo was presenting evidence that Luj\u00e1n was gay, we could discuss whether sexual orientation is relevant in a congressional race. Even more interesting would be the fact that Luj\u00e1n would have hidden his homosexuality, and we could have a conversation about what that says about Luj\u00e1n\u2019s character.<\/p>\n

But this is only a rumor. Were it not for Shendo\u2019s outrageous attack, there would be no discussion about it in the media. The story isn\u2019t Luj\u00e1n\u2019s sexual orientation. It\u2019s Shendo\u2019s words.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Rumor mongering<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\n

\n

As a journalist, it would be irresponsible and unprofessional for me to promote rumors I hear about politicians without providing evidence that they are or may be true. Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> is swarming with stories about sexual encounters, alcohol and drugs and other nasty allegations. I\u2019m sure some of them are true, and others \u2013 even some that are widely believed \u2013 are false. Part of my job is to sort through rumors and report on those allegations that are backed up by evidence.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

As a congressman, Shendo would have a similar responsibility to be professional and use facts and evidence to argue issues on their merits. Because of his attack, it\u2019s fair to assume that, as a member of the U.S. House, Shendo might instead use rumors about his opponents to try to discredit their arguments, as he tried to discredit Luj\u00e1n\u2019s candidacy at the Farmington<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> forum.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\n

Such conduct causes substantive debate on issues to degrade into name-calling. We need less, not more, of that in Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Shendo\u2019s attack is unprofessional. It\u2019s immature. Most important, it isn\u2019t in the best interest of the citizens of the 3rd District. Instead, it appears to be about the political future of a congressional candidate who is desperate because he is about to lose the race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week at a forum in Farmington, 3rd Congressional District Democratic candidate Benny Shendo Jr. set fire to the race by publicly accusing primary opponent Ben R. Luj\u00e1n of being gay. Shendo did it in the context of hinting that, because he\u2019s hid his sexuality to appease his parents, Luj\u00e1n is someone who won\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3273","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=3273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}