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Attack on Grisham solidifies my support for her
Former Lt. Gov. Diane Denish (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
It is unbelievable to me that Eric Griego and his buddies would attack the health-care record of someone whose record is one of commitment to improving the health of every New Mexican.
The gloves have come off for Eric Griego in the recent CD-1 Democratic primary with Friday’s distribution of a negative mailer on Michelle Lujan Grisham from “Progress Kick” – an out-of-state Super PAC that happens to be a close ally of candidate Eric Griego.
Super PACs are a fact of life today, but that doesn’t mean that candidates and their allies don’t have to be held accountable to tell the truth.
The signal that Eric is sending to voters is that he is willing to win at all costs. Some people might say that’s “politics as usual,” but I believe voters still expect leaders to be truthful.
The “Progress Kick” mailer misrepresents Michelle’s record while she served as the secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health. His attacks are not true. It is unbelievable to me that Griego and his buddies would attack the health-care record of someone whose record is one of commitment to improving the health of every New Mexican.
I’ve watched both Eric Griego and Michelle Lujan Grisham work, and here is the difference: Whereas Eric has only been able to get one piece of legislation (out of 51) signed into law, Michelle has a long record of accomplishments of protecting our seniors, children and families. As lieutenant governor, I worked closely with Michelle when she was secretary of health and watched her change minds and hearts about legislation.
We need women’s voices in the U.S. Congress
Michelle understands that the “don’t compromise, stand your ground” attitude espoused by Eric Griego will not help get things done in Congress. In fact, that is what is happening now, and look at the results.
Michelle is equally committed to implementing the much-needed reforms in Congress that are necessary to ensure equality for women. Equality for women is much more than just saying birth control should be made available and that women should get equal pay. Equality means finding real solutions to the child-care crisis, finding ways for women to be successful in the job market, or for working women to have the option to stay at home to raise their children.
I have no doubt Michelle will take that same commitment and tenacity to Congress. If she tells you she’s going to get something done, she will do it.
Now, more than ever, we need women’s voices in the U.S. Congress. It is so important to making sure that the rights of our families – not just women- are preserved.
This recent attack by her opponent only solidifies my commitment to vote for Michelle Lujan Grisham for Congress.
Diane D. Denish was lieutenant governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2010 and has endorsed Grisham in this race.
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Isn’t the MC Campaign… I mean Ken505, the same person who put up that bogus political blog comparing Griego & Keller? How funny is “Ken505″ always coming with attacks only on Griego. When you’re that one sided in all of your comments “Ken505″, it’s obvious to everyone who reads these comments that you’re associated with a specific candidate. Most everyone here sees pro’s and con’s with each candidate (except for the super conservative people who see only cons with all the Dem candidates). But you for one continue to show your true colors as tied to only one candidate, and I joked earlier about being part of the MC campaign, but something tells me it’s not much of a joke, as much as it is probably reality.
Back to the point of my original post regarding this article. I believe Diane Denish continues to tarnish what little reputation she may have had with the Democrats of this state by putting out this blog post, and with the email message sent out by the Grisham campaign. I’m sure it’s tough to lose the power you once had, and wish you were still relevant, but those best remembered as good public servants are those who stay behind the scenes once their time in the limelight has passed them by. Ms. Denish, don’t continue to ruin your reputation by calling out a fellow Dem for doing what you’ve done so many times yourself during your political career! Continue to support Ms. Grisham, that’s fine, but do so with positive messages about her achievements, not by playing the heavy against other Dems. Now you’re acting like Susana Martinez in her bid to elect Angie Spears. Just sad…
Griego wants to live by his own set of rules
ALEC
Griego’s Public Position
Eric Griego is an outspoken opponent of corporate donations and ALEC.
Griego’s Private Position.
Altria, GlaxoSmithKline, and Union Pacific are all major players in ALEC and donated to Griego.
Clean Election
Griego’s Expectations for Other Politicians
Eric Griego made cleaning up elections a center piece of this campaign. Senate Memorial 3 opposed Citizens United and called on Congress to send a Constitutional Amendment to the states to overturn the
Eric’s Expectations for Himself
Griego is benefiting from a Super PAC that is launching a negative attack against his opponent. The Progressive Kick has spent at least $20,275 in support of Griego.
Fighting for Working Families
New Mexico Voices for Children
Griego was the Executive Director who earned almost a six figure salary. During his time there, he fought to increase resources dedicated to poor children.
The Severance Package
He took a $24,000 severance package that was not part of his contract. The poverty level for a family of four is $23,050. He did not need to work for the money meant for poor children.
There is also a campaign component associated with the $24,000 windfall. Was the payout a campaign contribution? The FEC took a look at that question. Listen to the FEC.
Following the Rules
The Bankers
Eric Griego produced commercial where he said,” I won’t stop until Wall Street bankers who broke the law go to jail.”
Griego
He has had 11 warrants because he believes the rules we must live by do not apply to him.
More at the link
http://griegovskeller.blogspot.com/2012/05/blog-post.html
I have lost what respect I once had for Diane Denish. Unless she has some evidence that Eric Griego coordinated with this Super PAC, she is simply making baseless accusations in an attempt to smear a dedicated public servant—one, I might add, that is polling higher with women voters than Michelle Lujan Grisham. That must be a bit embarrassing for a candidate who has clearly courted that demographic!
qofdisks says:”I would like to see a real answer from Grisham defending her Democratic cred.” Indeed, time for her to put up or shut up.
The “signal” that I received from the Griego campaign regarding Grisham is that she is a Blue Dog Democrat that will vote with the Republicans and continuously work to water down Democratically sponsored bills to appease the far right all the while claiming to be a “moderate”.
Grisham should prove that she will stand up for Democratic ideals because she is running as a Democrat.
I have no doubt that Griego and Chavez are Democrats. That the candidate will stand with the Democrats in the House of Representatives is a minimum qualification for a candidate running as a Democratic representative.
Just saying, “The signal that Eric is sending to voters is that he is willing to win at all costs.” is not only an untrue meaningless knee-jerk reaction, it is a worthless. I would like to see a real answer from Grisham defending her Democratic cred.
Ms. Grisham is against Super PAC’s? I don’t think so. Women Vote! just spent $10,794.51 on ‘Mailhouse’ supporting Michelle Grisham on 5/23/2012
http://projects.wsj.com/super-pacs/#/2012/expenditures/786409/SE-6189
Hypocrisy rules!
I just read about Griego’s criminal past:
http://dailycaller.com/2012/05/23/no-one-above-the-law-nm-congressional-candidate-has-long-record-of-lawbreaking/
Reminds me of a law breaking criminal career politician in Santa Fe who is always running for office and losing. I wish Denish had used this criteria as reasoning for her endorsement of Grisham instead of making it sexist. Come to think of it the career criminal politician in Santa Fe is sexist as well, typically attacking gays and lesbians in Courts of law while constantly engaged in other various court clogging/ taxpayer expense events.
Is there a criminal background in Grisham’s past?
I still endorse media reporting the full facts in regard to politicians’ criminal and white collar crime histories, anything less leaves voters in the dark and criminals left to their devices if elected.
For New Mexicans, http://www.nmcourts.com is an excellent reference/starting point.
Carolyn asks Laura to call on Griego to stand against Super PACs. I suspect Carolyn is referring to me.
We already know Eric Griego’s position on Super PACs —– he made that crystal clear at the only televised debate last week where he said it was priority #1 to get $$ out of politics and pass a constitutional amendment to undo the harm created by Citizens United.
If you want Griego to stand against Super PACs —- vote for him.
EW-aif rehashes the same criticism that Michelle Lujan-Grisham and Marty Chavez have raised —— that Eric Griego must be an ineffective legislator because of the bills he has introduced but not been able to get passed. Anyone involved in the lawmaking process knows that many of Griego’s bills were killed by those very same blue-dog Democrats who are supporting Michelle and Marty. Shame on them. Lets look at the real culprits in the legislative logjam. And lets not forget the damaging bills that were killed because of Eric Griego’s leadership in the Senate working with other progressive legislators.
Voters have a clear choice here.
I am truly disappointed that Diane Denish is playing mean-girl. I hope that the public will see the clear manipulation going on here – this is nothing more than character assassination in the name of campaign tactics. This is not a spontaneous rant. Her opinion piece is a carefully calculated messaging tactic that smacks of the very negativity she slings at Eric Griego. I am saddened that Diane would stoop so low – smearing mud on others splashes back and frankly, it just doesn’t look good on her. I guess Michelle Lujan Grisham’s campaign has decided “to win at all costs.”
Diane Denish fully understands what it is like to be attacked with unlimited amounts of money. The Tea Party Republican who financed the Swift Boat adds against Kerry donated over a million dollars to Martinez. The money was used to distort Denish’s record.
Laura, If Griego really cares about cleaning up campaigns and overturning Citizens United, he should take a strong stand against the paid campaign being waged by the Super PAC. If he does not denounce the Swift Boating of a fellow progressive, he only cares about himself.
Please Laura, join me in calling on Greigo to take a stand against this kind of tactic. Even Romeny publicly denounced a Super PAC.
Hemingway, I agree that Ms. Grisham has her own history of issues, and I doubt Ms. Denish’s endorsement will carry much weight.
But to cite David Harris’s comments about Ms. Grisham is laughable and beyond belief given Harris’ own history of scandal and controversy at UNM. His propensity to survive even to this day at UNM is astounding after years of faculty charges of mismanagement and no-confidence votes, favoritism, and cronyism. (Oh yes, and a history of continued tuition increases to support a bloated and overpaid administration at UNM.)
One of the best actions by Gov. Martinez was firing Harris from the State Investment Council. He should be fired from UNM admin as well.
http://www.sic.state.nm.us/PDF%20files/SIC%202-22-2011%20MINUTES%20FINAL.pdf
I just checked Griego’s legislative record, and Denish is correct. Only ONE of Griego’s bills was chaptered, in all the sessions from 2009 to the present. That was SB 318, in 2009, and the Senate Finance Committee had to make 4 amendments before passing it on. He did get about 7 Senate Memorials signed, and wow! 1 Senate Joint Memorial, which means it passed the House too. I find this even more disturbing than his being in cahoots with a SuperPAC.
I counted about 70 total pieces of legislation presented, not 51, if you include the memorials etc. That’s a lot of wasted paper, not to mention time and energy of other legislators sitting in committee. So Griego may have all the liberal credentials, but if he is this ineffective in a local setting, one among 112 legislators, he will be a nonentity as one among 435 US representatives and 100 US senators.
Ms. Grisham serves as President and co-founder of the Delta Consulting Group, a small business that oversees New Mexico’s Health Insurance Pool and helps to provide access to health insurance coverage to New Mexico residents who have been denied health insurance. How did this Company get selected.? It is also her biggest campaign contributor to date.
Here is her campaign contribution list:
http://votesmart.org/candidate/campaign-finance/102404/michelle-lujan-grisham
Ms. Grisham has the support of Super PAC “Women Vote!” – interesting group
http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/outside-spending/candidate/grisham-michelle-lujan/H8NM01257/
http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/outside-spending/committee/women-vote/C00473918/
Here are donors to this Super PAC
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cmte=C00473918&cycle=2012
Former controversial Health Secretary Michelle Lujan Grisham has been described as a “loose cannon” by the UNM President David Harris. In another article she is said to have “a bizarre micromanagement and manipulative style of leadership that is very destructive to the health of the public and the morale of the department.” You judge for yourself her performance. Here are articles on her:
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/464485nm05-31-06.htm
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro/29113618metro06-29-08.htm
http://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/editorials/545370opinion03-11-07.htm
Ms. Denish acts like Ms. Grisham was a saint! The best assessment of her performance as Health Secretary is substandard at best. You will realize she is not a team member after you read these articles on her. So Ms. Denish don’t exaggerate Ms. Grisham’s so-called accomplishments.
What is ironic is Eric has introduced Legislation to end Super PAC’s influence, and now that one is fighting on his side he is not saying a word about how these attacks. If he was a true leader he would stand up and call on his PAC friends to end their attacks. Eric talks out of both sides of his mouth.
If Eric wins, the flaming liberals (also know as progressives) will get exactly what they deserve, a republican win in 2014 when Martin or the President are not on the ballot to carry his liberal water.
Hey Denish, there is a reason you lost. You just amplified it.
I intend upon encouraging people to vote for Eric Griego now….because of your tirade and attack on men.
Thank God Governor Martinez won, there are enough raging haters running the streets as it is…and furthermore Denish – you have zero political power.
Poor Grisham.
I respect Diane Denish enormously. And I am convinced that New Mexico would be on a much better path if Diane had won the Governor’s race. But I must respectfully disagree with her piece above.
Ironically, Ms. Denish slams Eric for a piece of third party campaign literature that Eric and his staff have absolutely no control over. Isn’t this an example of the SuperPAC problem created by the infamous Citizens United decision from the Supreme Court? This is ironic because Eric Griego was the ONLY candidate in the CD-1 race who said during the recent debate that he would make it a priority to get $$ out of politics and push for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision.
This week I released my very first YouTube video —– women speaking to women about their support for Eric Griego. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiAHWOL8sow&feature=share
I hope people will watch it —– think about the three candidates and remember that all Democrats are not created equal.
Well said ZB, and remember those primary attack ads on Jerry Sandel during her Lt. Guv run too.
This is great, so Griego was the first to defy the party bosses and elites and point out differences between himself and his competition, and now Di is returning it tit for tat. Maybe this won’t be a boring and tepid primary after all. Go to it ladies and gentlemen, tell us something we don’t already know about your opponents.
I believe the Super PAC is Progressive Kick – see its expenditures:
http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/outside-spending/committee/progressive-kick-independent-expenditures/C00492595/
Lawrence and Suzanne Hess, of Lehbros Limited real estate firm in San Diego provides the money:
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/news-ticker/2012/may/16/lawrence-and-suzanne-hess-give-294000-in-political/
Why is the Hess family interested in New Mexico??????????????????
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not entirely sold on Griego, but I’m even less sold on Chavez and Grisham. What’s worse is reading this article from of all people Diane Denish! Diane’s comment about “willing to win at all costs” and “some would call it politics as usual.” Really? There’s another quote that needs to be used here, “the pot calling the kettle black.” Didn’t Diane and her national people do the very same thing in sending out attack mailers about Susana Martinez during Diane’s unsuccessful and somewhat embarrassing loss for Governor? I’m disappointed in what Diane’s role has become in the Democratic Party of NM. She’s now like one of those parents who is trying to live vicariously through their children. You’re not running for anything during this election cycle Ms. Denish, so why are you attacking other Democrats. I don’t see you attacking Martin Heinrich, even though you’re supporting Hector Balderas. Why is that? Is it because you know Martin will probably win handily, and you don’t want to get too far over on his bad side?
You lost your major election ma’am, let these candidates run their own elections.