{"id":714,"date":"2006-10-13T08:26:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-13T14:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/racism-allegations-fly-in-treasurers-race\/"},"modified":"2006-10-13T08:26:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-13T14:26:00","slug":"racism-allegations-fly-in-treasurers-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/racism-allegations-fly-in-treasurers-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Racism allegations fly in treasurer’s race"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We had to know that, in such a dirty election season in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, skin color would become an issue at some point. <\/p>\n

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

Republican state treasurer candidate Demesia Padilla sent out a mailer this week that includes a caricature of her opponent, Democrat James B. Lewis, who is Black, smiling and dangling from puppet strings being pulled by Gov. Bill Richardson. The ad includes a quote from Lewis, published in the Albuquerque Tribune<\/a> in 2005, stating that he thinks the treasurer should probably be appointed by the governor.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>The governor\u2019s ethics task force has proposed making the position appointed, rather than elected.<\/p>\n

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

Lewis told the Albuquerque Journal<\/a> this about the flier:<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt\u2019s borderline \u2026 (it) almost seemed racist. It\u2019s just bad they\u2019re going to the bottom of the barrel,\u201d he told the Journal. \u201c\u2026 This image here reminds me of somebody hanging somebody, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> re-election campaign chairman Dave Contarino called the caricature \u201cracially tinged\u201d and \u201ctrash politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

State Republican Party Executive Director Marta Kramer said political caricatures are \u201ca time honored tradition.\u201d Padilla said hers isn\u2019t racist.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt\u2019s a cartoon. I just don\u2019t see it as racial,\u201d she told the Journal.<\/p>\n

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

I\u2019m not going to comment on whether the mailer is racist, other than to ask a couple of questions: If it showed Ben Lujan holding the strings of Anglo House members, would it be racist? If it showed Jesse Jackson holding the strings of Bill Clinton, would it be racist?<\/p>\n

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

Don\u2019t other Democrats get accused of being puppets of Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> all the time? Why is this different?<\/p>\n

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

The Lewis comment cited by Padilla, according to the Journal, appeared four months before he announced he would seek election. He told the Journal Thursday that he thinks the position should remain an elected one, but said he would accept a decision by voters to make it an appointed position.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> has given Lewis\u2019 campaign $10,000, but Lewis told the Journal he won\u2019t be the governor\u2019s puppet.<\/p>\n

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

The words printed on Padilla\u2019s mailer provide some context for the caricature. She claims support from Republicans, Democrats, and independents, and flier includes quotes from Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M.; Democrats for Demesia; and Independent Voters of New Mexico, a bipartisan political action committee committed to ending one-party domination on the state and federal level. The group has endorsed Padilla because of Democratic domination of state government, but, because of Republican control on a federal level, has endorsed Democrat Patricia Madrid\u2019s bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M.<\/p>\n

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

The Journal\u2019s article is accompanied by a poll. You can visit the Journal\u2019s home page<\/a> to view the caricature and vote on whether you find it objectionable.<\/p>\n

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

Polls show Lewis up more than 10 points on Padilla with more than 20 percent of voters undecided. Padilla claims a poll by her campaign shows that, when a method of \u201cunbiased\u201d educating of those being polled is employed, the race is a tie. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had to know that, in such a dirty election season in New Mexico, skin color would become an issue at some point. Republican state treasurer candidate Demesia Padilla sent out a mailer this week that includes a caricature of her opponent, Democrat James B. Lewis, who is Black, smiling and dangling from puppet strings […]<\/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-714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714","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=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}