Unfair to Jennings
Ruidoso News
Posted: 12/11/2008 10:48:51 PM MSTTo the editor:
Former DPNM chair John Wertheim has criticized Democrat Tim Jennings, current president pro-tem of the New Mexico Senate, for recording a robocall and radio spot critical of what Sandy Buffett of the CVNM Action Fund calls a "persuasion phone ID program" conducted by her organization on behalf of newly elected state senator Steve Fischmann (SD 37).
Senator Mary Kay Papen was also mentioned disparagingly by Wertheim because he claims she forwarded Jennings' robocall via email to voters in that district. (Papen denies this.) The "phone program" told respondents who said they were undecided that Fischmann's opponent, incumbent Republican senator Leonard Rawson, had used some of his 2003 capital outlay funds to pave a road that was not in his district, implying that his only reason for doing so was to increase the value of his own business. To quote the Las Cruces Sun-News, "The funding went to pave a street that wasn't in his district but that passes by commercial property he owns."
I am adding my voice to Mr. Grooms (Ruidoso News, 12/5/08) in defense of Senator Jennings. Rawson served in the Senate from 1987 to 2008. Is this the only thing he did in 20 years that he could be smeared with? I have been doing some research on this project - the appropriation was for $127,097 and the street is 14th Street, which runs north-south for two blocks, from Pichaco to Hadley on the west side of Las Cruces. This street is in Senator Papen's district (SD38). Who would know better than she that this was an innocuous use of capital outlay funds? She never protested the appropriation.
How much has the average senator had to distribute each year over the last 20 years? It was $4 million this year, but that was a record high. Still it must add up in the range of 20-30 million dollars since 1987, when Rawson took office.
In his attack on Jennings, published both in the DFNM blog and the Haussamen blog, Wertheim's most offensive comment was, "Fearful of losing his president pro tem job to the cadre of new progressive senators coming into the Legislature, Jennings recorded a robocall and radio spot on behalf of Republican Senator Leonard Rawson ..."
I object strongly to Wertheim's claim that Jennings acted out of self interest. Wertheim recognized in his preceding paragraph that Jennings takes "principled stances," but made no allowances for the possibility that the senator was voicing his disapproval of the slant of the "phone program" rather than endorsing Rawson.
Jennings said in the message, "While Senator Rawson and I are from different parties and can disagree politically, I must take a stand against the incorrect character assassinations that are being lodged against Senator Rawson. The accusations against him are unproved and unfair" (from the Roswell Daily Record, 12-1-08).
While I think Senator-elect Fischmann will be a distinct improvement over Rawson, I, too, disapprove of the action taken by the CVNM. Senator Jennings is a conservative Democrat and he and his brother Tom, who is chair of the Chaves County Democrats, run a business that involves leasing land for oil drilling. But in 2006, even though he knew that I am opposed to drilling in the Otero Mesa, he endorsed my candidacy for state representative in HD 59, and in 2008 he donated to my campaign. He also contributes generously to the Chaves County Democrats.
One commenter on the DFNM blog (Wertheim's article originally appeared there on 11/15/08), in response to my reply to Wertheim in the same blog, pointed out that Jennings did not support the last two Democrats to run for HD 58. There's some Chaves county history that probably explains that, involving Pauline Ponce, the Democrat who held the seat from 2000-04 (when she lost to Candy Spence Ezzell), and the lack of support for her reelection from the 2006 and 2008 Democratic candidates (one of whom actually ran for the seat in 2004 as a Libertarian).
I do dislike seeing Democrats fighting among themselves, and Wertheim's attack has been presented at least three times that I know of, twice in blogs and also in a speech he made at the DPNM SCC meeting on 11/15. This is not a positive way to spread the progressive message.
[Note added January 21, 2009: Senator Jennings has been re-elected President Pro-Tem 23 to 19.]
Ellen Wedum
Democratic candidate NM HD 59 (2006 and 2008)
Cloudcroft