{"id":376,"date":"2006-07-17T11:22:00","date_gmt":"2006-07-17T17:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/07\/following-dendahls-dwi-comments-neither-campaign-addressing-the-real-problem\/"},"modified":"2006-07-17T11:22:00","modified_gmt":"2006-07-17T17:22:00","slug":"following-dendahls-dwi-comments-neither-campaign-addressing-the-real-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/07\/following-dendahls-dwi-comments-neither-campaign-addressing-the-real-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Following Dendahl’s DWI comments, neither campaign addressing the real problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There\u2019s a controversy brewing over Republican gubernatorial candidate John Dendahl\u2019s statements last week about Hispanics and American Indians and drunken driving. <\/p>\n

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

Dendahl essentially said that a disproportionate number of people with \u201cSpanish last names\u201d are repeat offenders. He then blamed the legislature, saying it wouldn\u2019t enact legislation to deal with the problem because, \u201cGee, that would be racist.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Dendahl made the comments Wednesday on an Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> talk show.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Dave Contarino, Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s re-election chairman, responded by saying Dendahl \u201chas a history of sticking his foot into his mouth by making insensitive comments and alienating whole classes of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Dendahl later said his point is that the legislature needs to enact tougher DWI laws because Hispanics and American Indians have a disproportionately high number of DWIs.<\/p>\n

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

According to the statistics Dendahl cited, in 2003, 54 percent of caught drunken drivers were Hispanic and 20 percent were American Indian.<\/p>\n

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

Some 24 percent were Anglo.<\/p>\n

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

Following Dendahl\u2019s explanation, Contarino took another shot, according to the Albuquerque Tribune<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cAll legislators, including Republicans, should be offended by Dendahl\u2019s careless comments, which minimize their hard work on DWI laws that have moved New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> forward and made our streets safer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

Dendahl\u2019s comments were flat-out wrong in one respect. The legislature and governor have enacted tougher laws against drunken driving and increased enforcement since 2003, helping cut the rate of DWI deaths on New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s roads. Dendahl\u2019s comments appear to be careless and poorly researched.<\/p>\n

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

However, they weren\u2019t racist. Dendahl stated a fact: In this state, Hispanics and American Indians are arrested for and convicted of DWI at a rate disproportionate to their percentage of the state\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

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

Contarino didn\u2019t dispute this, because he can\u2019t. It\u2019s a fact. He simply hinted that Dendahl is a racist for saying it out loud.<\/p>\n

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

What neither campaign did, to the discredit of both, is address why those population groups have a disproportionate number of DWIs. They simply stated that tougher enforcement is the answer.<\/p>\n

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

Tougher enforcement is necessary, but it\u2019s only a Band-Aid.<\/p>\n

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

The reasons for the disproportionate rates are complex, but have a lot to do with socioeconomic conditions such as poverty, a lack of infrastructure and poor education. Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> can tout tougher DWI laws, and Dendahl can say we need more, but neither addressed the root of the problem in comments they chose to make last week about this topic.<\/p>\n

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

In New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, socioeconomic conditions are generally worse for Hispanics and American Indians than for Anglos. More Hispanics and American Indians are caught drinking and driving.<\/p>\n

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

So legislators and the governor can pass tougher laws and appear in the media proclaiming that they\u2019re cracking down, but that doesn\u2019t address the root of the problem. Neither the Dendahl or Richardson campaigns indicated last week that they understand this.<\/p>\n

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

I think the Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> campaign does understand, but was too busy taking cheap shots and Dendahl to communicate that.<\/p>\n

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

As for Dendahl: Nobody ever said he wasn\u2019t a loose cannon. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a controversy brewing over Republican gubernatorial candidate John Dendahl\u2019s statements last week about Hispanics and American Indians and drunken driving. Dendahl essentially said that a disproportionate number of people with \u201cSpanish last names\u201d are repeat offenders. He then blamed the legislature, saying it wouldn\u2019t enact legislation to deal with the problem because, \u201cGee, that […]<\/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-376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376","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=376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}