{"id":523479,"date":"2018-02-14T13:50:25","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T20:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=523479"},"modified":"2018-02-18T20:34:08","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T03:34:08","slug":"its-not-the-crime-its-the-coverup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/02\/its-not-the-crime-its-the-coverup\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s not the crime; it’s the cover-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:\u00a0<\/strong>By now most on Facebook in New Mexico have run across the name John Vasquez. He\u2019s a county commissioner in Do\u00f1a Ana County with a penchant for being rude to women<\/a>. But now we have something more<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Claudia

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Claudia Anderson<\/p><\/div>\n

Neomi Martinez-Parra is the vice chair of the statewide Democratic Party and she has leveled charges of sexual impropriety against Mr. Vasquez. She did so in a letter to the state chair<\/a>, which has now been made public.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not particularly surprising that this should come to light. Men who show a pattern of disrespect to women tend to go to far too often. That is not actually what has promoted me to write this.<\/p>\n

Somewhat buried in the news reports was one statement Ms. Martinez-Parra made about the state Democratic Party chair, Mr. Richard Ellenberg. I am quoting directly from the letter: \u201cFurthermore, you and I discussed these issues prior to Mr. Vasquez resigning from the DPNM Veteran Caucus Chair. I disagree with your proposal ‘something for something’, inferring that Mr. Vasquez would resign if I did not pursue a complaint against him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Martinez-Parra is far kinder than I. I don\u2019t see someone merely inferring here, but a direct quid pro quo, and one that in this day and age of #MeToo is as disrespectful as anything Mr. Vasquez has done.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ellenberg has offered little in the way of defense, calling it a \u201cmisunderstanding.\u201d No sir, you asked the lady to keep quiet at a time when women\u2019s voices are increasingly growing louder. There is little to misunderstand there.<\/p>\n

It is incumbent upon Mr. Ellenberg to do one of two things:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Apologize to not only Ms. Martinez-Parra, but to the women of the Democratic Party in this state. And let it be a full apology, not merely the same \u201cmisunderstanding\u201d excuse he has so far given to the press.<\/p>\n

\u2022 If that fails, then I call upon the State Central Committee to convene and consider the removal of the current chair. Due process should be given; nonetheless, the old ways of sweeping things under the rug simply will not work anymore. Let\u2019s have a full and transparent discussion of why we are here and how we can do better.<\/p>\n

This is an election year. What needs to be done must be done quickly so that the party can move forward.<\/p>\n

Claudia\u00a0Anderson of Farmington is a past Democratic Party county officer and member of the party\u2019s State Central Committee. She has been active in several political campaigns. Today she follows politics avidly as a concerned citizen. She has been proudly voting since 1972.\u00a0Agree with her opinion? Disagree? We welcome your views. Learn about submitting your own commentary\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The state Democratic Party chair asking a woman to keep a complaint of sexual impropriety quiet is as disrespectful as anything Mr. Vasquez has done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":87794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[135,115,3636,292],"class_list":["post-523479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-democratic-party","tag-dona-ana-county","tag-john-vasquez","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523479","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=523479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}