I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Though the Republican primary is just over a month away, former Republican Party chairman Allen Weh aired a TV ad attacking Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, a Democrat, for her use of the state’s jet.
Weh attacks Denish over an Albuquerque Journal report on the use of the state jet by Denish.
The ad claims that Denish “spent stimulus money to fly a jet to a parade.”
A graphic in the ad itself quotes an Albuquerque Journal article, saying, “$33,000 came from… federal stimulus bill.”
The flight itself cost $1,500, according to the Journal, and it wasn’t clear that the money came from the stimulus bill. Here is the relevant part of the article:
The state also spent nearly $1,500 to fly her to Gallup for a parade. The plane was on the ground less than three hours.
Denish, one of the state’s most active lieutenant governors, is the presumptive Democratic nominee in the 2010 elections to succeed Richardson.
Since the start of the administration in 2003, Denish’s office has been billed more than $170,000 for use of state planes. In paying that $170,000, nearly $33,000 came from a 2003 federal jobs stimulus bill, said her chief of staff, Joshua Rosen.
He said some of the federal funds were used to transport Denish to events on helping small business owners locate and access capital.
Allen Weh jokes at the end, “This is the way I’ll get myself to parades,” as the camera pans to a pickup truck.
Perhaps Weh is trying to evoke Scott Brown, the Republican Senator from Massachusetts, with the pickup truck imagery.
Weh wants to, however, avoid the controversy of Pat Lyons, the State Land Commissioner, who bought a pickup truck with campaign money rather than reimbursing himself per mile. Under political pressure, Lyons sold his 1999 Ford F-250 SuperCab.
Transcript of the Weh ad below:
WEH: People are hurting and jobs are scarce.
But the politicians don’t get it.
Our Lt. Governor spent ‘stimulus’ money to fly a jet… to a parade.
Jobs created… zero…
It’s business as usual in New Mexico.
As governor, I’ll run the state like a business… I’ll get rid of the jet… and bring fiscal sanity to Santa Fe.
And this is how I’ll get myself to parades.
NARRATOR: Honesty. Integrity. Allen Weh means business. Allen Weh for Governor.
