By Tracy Dingmann
The blogosphere and traditional media have been all atwitter today about a report posted by the New Mexico Watchdog website that supposedly shows how Lt. Gov. Diane Denish improperly spent $225,000 of federal stimulus money back in 2003 and 2004.
From the report, here’s the money quote (or “nut graf,” for all you journalism folks):
Lt. Governor Diane Denish used $225,000 in federal funds to pay for a driver to shuttle her to meetings and press events, a contractor to take Christmas pictures and write Christmas cards, a lawyer to make hotel reservations, opinion polling and public relations services. The money was given to her for “various projects” by Governor Bill Richardson. The money came from unallocated federal fiscal stimulus funds transferred to the New Mexico treasury under the 2003 Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act.
Report author and New Mexico Watchdog editor Jim Scarantino says he based the report on his inspection of public records.
But today, several of the findings in the report are being refuted by an unlikely source – the Albuquerque Journal.
I say unlikely, because first of all, the Journal usually completely ignores blogs and bloggers – unless, come to think of it, the blogger uncovers something that makes a prominent Democrat look really bad.
I also say unlikely because the report in question was done by the self-styled anti-big-government, anti-tax, anti-regulation Rio Grande Foundation (RGF). Regular readers of the Journal know RGF has a BFF relationship with the “libertarian-oriented think tank,” as it dutifully calls the Albuquerque based group in its story today. As New Mexico Independent commentator Arthur Alpert noted last week, the Journal’s editorial page runs so many Rio Grande Foundation columnists and quotes so many of their economists, it “reads like a Rio Grande Foundation newsletter.”
A little history here. RGF was founded in 2000 by former Republican State Representative and Attorney General Hal Stratton, who stepped down as the organization’s head when he was nominated by President Bush to become chairman of that bastion of federal regulatory power, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. However, RGF really came into prominence when, John Dendahl, who also served as state GOP chairman from 1994-2003, took over as the think tank’s president. During Dendahl’s RGF years, his syndicated columns in the Journal served as a convenient run-up to his own Republican Party candidacy for governor in 2006 against Bill Richardson.
Finally, the Journal’s lukewarm response to the report seemed unlikely because, until recently, Scarantino himself was one of the Journal’s featured columnists. Word is that he quit that gig to devote his energies to RGF’s new investigative website.
So what does the Journal’s story actually say about Scarantino’s report? The paper, who unlike Scarantino, actually spoke to Denish’s office about the allegations in the report, says:
Denish provided documents showing that the Christmas card printing costs were paid for with funding from her political campaign fund, the Committee to Elect Diane Denish, not the stimulus money. (Emphasis mine.)
Hmm. The Journal continues:
However, the records do not appear to contradict Scarantino’s finding that a Lieutenant Governor’s Office employee was paid with federal money for part of 8 hours of work on the cards. (Emphasis mine.)
Oh wow! Part of 8 hours of work! That’s a staggering sum. Now I understand the fuss.
Regarding Scarantino’s claim about Denish using federal funds to pay for “opinion polling,” the paper says that Denish’s office has not disputed that.
But, the Journal notes:
However, the poll appears to be a detailed, scientific tool for addressing children’s issues in New Mexico, which has been one of Denish’s central projects as lieutenant governor. The poll was conducted by Research and Polling Inc. of Albuquerque in 2003, and findings were compiled in a more than 100-page report to be used to create state policy. It was commissioned by the Children’s Cabinet, created by Richardson and headed by Denish.
So, in its initial story about Scarantino’s report, the Journal takes the thunder out of some of the most outrageous-sounding allegations. I wonder what a little more investigating will do to the rest of the claims.
In a interview that will air Friday on KNME’s “In Focus,” Denish herself called Scarantino’s allegations “a patently false lie.”
But don’t expect this lukewarm reception to stop Denish’s opponents from seizing upon Scarantino’s report.
Late in the story, the Journal notes that Republican gubernatorial candidates Allen Weh and Susanna Martinez immediately pounced on the report and are calling for formal investigations into the matter.
(Editor’s Note: I know I said I would have a post about the Journal’s website readership today. But then this came up! I’ll have that post tomorrow. Blogger’s perogative!)
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