Say What?

 I have had to think a lot lately about the use of language and how it affects the public dialogue in reference to bigotry, hatred, and just mean spirit. Campaigns are brutal and in New Mexico, because of our demographics politics can be very divisive. That’s nothing new, but what I find interesting is the seven points that separated Linda Vanzi and Dennis Montoya. That’s it, seven points. Even after all that money she spent trying to taint his good name and with the Albuquerque Journal going after Mr. Montoya. What’s going on here?

Having been involved with Dennis Montoya’s campaign for the NM Court of Appeals Dist 2 in the June 1 primary, there were many things said by supporters from both sides that I just have to ask…Say What?

I had in fact started writing this blog when I overheard Judge LindaVanzi in campaign mode make a derogatory remark that I felt was inappropriate especially given the nature of the campaign and the obvious divisions we saw “on the ground”.

There were some really vile things said about Mr. Montoya on a number of blogs and other media sources. All the while, there had been nothing but positive campaigning from Dennis Montoya. I believe that is why so many people began to speculate that the apparent attacks on Mr. Montoya were racially motivated. I believe that is why so many people voted for Mr. Montoya.

We really don’t know why some people became so vicious. We do know that Judge Vanzi never denounced these statements and in fact continued an all out attack on Montoya, spending over $200,000 to remind people over and over that there were complaints filed against him by the disciplinary board chief counsel Victoria Ferrera, which ultimately the New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously rejected.

Nobody has brought forward any proof that Montoya or his campaign ran any sort of whisper campaign or did any negative campaigning at all. However, there had been remarks from Vanzi’s supporters that any decent person would try to take out of the dialogue but no one did, in fact people really seemed to want to perpetuate it. And the blog sites where the attack language was used never responded to the tone.

There was a distasteful “joke” made on a comment stream on Mr. Montoya’s facebook page stating that we should hire a hitman. Mr. Montoya responded immediately that it was not funny and we don’t even joke about things like that but still, someone called the police and Mr. Montoya’s campaign had to respond to the media. See the report here http://www.koat.com/news/23664660/detail.html

This was after a supporter of Judge Vanzi’s called for Mr. Montoya to be “drawn and quatered”. This weekend I was cleaning out my email box and came across a facebook notification that I was tagged in a comment stream. I had seen the comment earlier, during the campaign however now in retrospect it seemed particularly disturbing to me. Here is the email notification:

To: cincomar@aol.com Sent: 5/23/2010 5:52:03 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time Subj: Donald Schiff commented on MaryEllen Broderick’s status… Donald Schiff commented on MaryEllen Broderick’s status:

“@Michelle and Mary Ellen: I thought the linkage was not credible. I am disappointed that Michelle is working on a campaign for the most unethical scumbag ever to run for judge, though. Keeping crooks like D. Montoya out of office is a big reason why my neighbors elected me Ward Chair. I hope you’re actually being paid, because you can’t find it on his campaign filings… D. Montoya will serve on any court in NM over my dead body. Count on it.” Reply to this email to comment on this status. To see the comment thread, follow the link below: http://www.facebook.com/n/?profile.php&id=1417532907&v=wall&story_fbid=119401371433966&mid=263bcd1G291c563fG4a8998eG37&n_m=cincomar%40aol.com

Thanks, The Facebook Team

This is the same person who called for Dennis Montoya to be drawn and quartered. I don’t know how many people take Donald Shiff seriously but there were a lot of people feeding into the Rovian tactic of the Vanzi campaign along with Mr. Shiff. He was just the meanest and most consistent voice in opposition to Mr. Montoya. We didn’t call the police.

I guess that is why I have to ask…Say What?

There was another Hispanic candidate that made some rude and racist remarks in a “reply all” email to Dennis Montoya when he responded to an invitation that the Montoya campaign sent out. Again, inappropriate and Mr. Montoya acted immediately putting out a statement that he does not share this person’s views and that he took him off his email list. But the bloggers picked that story up, again painting it on Mr. Montoya.

Is it just that some people can make certain statements and get away with it and others will constantly be called out on it? Why didn’t anyone think that the really vicious statements shouldn’t go unchecked?

I have to ask…. Say What?

A Reality based Reality?

Is that what these Republicans want?  Why do they want President Obama to be an example of our anger?  I kind of like that he is handling this man made disaster with such a level of calm. I wish there was more he can do. Certainly he can’t stop the leak or solve the problem himself. 

I think they want a “throwdown”  type of reaction, perhaps a challenge with BP CEO to a cookoff or how about a round of wipeout?

Sorry people, there is nothing to cheer about and your reality tv based reality is not going to make anyone feel any better.

I am the first of my friends to like this

I hope I am not the only one that cares.  I got the news yesterday that Dennis Montoya’s court hearing before the New Mexico Supreme Court went as we had expected.  You can read the Albuquerque Journal story here. http://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro/03235224311newsmetro06-03-10.htm

I got online this morning and checked the blogs like I always do because it is usually the best way to see what people are looking at in the morning.  Then, of course I go on my trek for information about what is going on.  It’s how I start my day.

So, I had to go and look up the story about my friend, Dennis Montoya, since of course no one had put out the story.  I read the story, an Albuquerque Journal online article written by Deborah Baker and the little facebook icon was sitting there, waiting for me to like it, and it said, “You are the first of your friends to like this”.  Wow, come on friends! I want you to like this too!

Of course, that is the only place you will find the story because not a single New Mexico blogger “picked up the story” or made any mention of it.  I haven’t checked other news sources yet, I expect to be disappointed.  They all sure picked up the story each and every time that Deborah Baker and others at the Journal repeated the same story over and over again during the campaign.

I know there are those of us that really do check up on information put out from any source. There are however, so many people that seem to have trust that some of the blog sites put out fair and reliable information. There are always more sides to a story and there is always a follow up and conclusion or, perhaps an on-going saga.  I guess its all perspective and about the story they want to tell, not necessarily the truth.

Here is the Journal story, for those of you who can’t link to the article because you are barred from public information, simply because you don’t have an account.

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Court Rejects Suspension for Montoya

By Deborah Baker
Journal Staff Writer
          The state Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to suspend Dennis W. Montoya’s law license while the court’s disciplinary board weighs allegations of professional misconduct against him.
        The high court unanimously rejected the board’s request for immediate suspension, saying it hadn’t shown there would be a substantial probability of harm to the public if the Rio Rancho lawyer continued to represent clients.
        The court ruled after a hearing the day after Montoya lost the Democratic primary for a Court of Appeals seat to the incumbent, Judge Linda Vanzi.
        Vanzi had complained to the disciplinary board in 2008, when she was a state district judge, about Montoya’s handling of a case.
        The board filed charges in April alleging a pattern of misconduct related to that case. A hearing is pending.
        Since then, the board also announced it is investigating nine other misconduct complaints, including five stemming from federal court cases.
        “At the beginning of the political campaign, I had only one disciplinary complaint against me,” Montoya said after the hearing. He has suggested that the complaints were politically motivated.
        The board’s chief disciplinary counsel, Virginia Ferrara, told the court that neither Vanzi nor the election played any role in the board’s actions.
        Montoya’s lawyer, Charles Vigil, said in a document filed with the court that Montoya had been “publicly demonized” and that the suspension request had been made “amidst substantial media scrutiny and a political feeding frenzy.”

Orale Judge Vanzi, Homies Vote Too!

Well I guess I had to hear it for myself, and now that I have, I feel I must say something about it.  Yesterday I overheard Linda Vanzi make what I consider to be a derogatory and perhaps racist comment referring to some decent and proud people who are supporters of Mr. Dennis Montoya.

 

We were at the Rally in the Valley event in Albuquerque at the West Side Community Center­ http://www.bernco.gov/live/departments.asp?dept=2938  preparing to caravan over to a park for the rally. We had arranged for some cars from Thomas Schobey and Dreams and Fantasies Car Club, a local family oriented car club, Lowriders to accompany Mr. Montoya in the caravan.  I arrived early to advance the candidate and his entourage.

As Mr. Montoya and his wife Jean pulled into the parking lot in their truck and the three cars followed, all clearly marked with Dennis Montoya’s banners and signs I was walking over to meet them and tell them where to park in the lineup, as I passed Judge Linda Vanzi’s truck, she and her supporters were sitting in the back.

Then I saw her myself, I heard her.  She watched as Mr. Montoya and the Lowriders and some Brown Berets, two of them, my son and his friend, Alicia drove onto the lot.  I was not more than five feet when I saw her face as she watched the cars pull in and Linda Vanzi leaned over to her friend and said quite loudly, not even whisper “I thought he kept the homies at the office.”

What? She did not just say that…right here in Burque? In the south valley? At the Westside Community Center? In front of people who may have a personal or cultural connection to these people who are from the area? What did she mean by that?  Ok, I know it was a Democratic Party event and all they managed to do was gather the candidates and their friends and supporters and she wasn’t completely out of her comfort zone… but she was not alone, I was there, and I heard it, and I took offense to her use of the word in the context she used it.

Now, of course I can’t tell you exactly what she meant but I can tell you that Mr. Montoya has a rather large collection of Homies http://www.homies.tv/collecting.htm at his office and a lot of people would know that. Even if Judge Vanzi doesn’t, what did she mean by that? Was that some kind of “code” language? Isn’t that what they have accused Mr. Montoya of using? He has said that he felt certain attacks have been racially motivated and now they want to call him a bigot.

 Mr. Montoya, his campaign, nor I have ever said anything about Ms. Vanzi’s sexuality, ethnicity or anything else, oh wait, one person did and we immediately had him put out a public apology for making an insensitive remark. It was wrong, Mr. Montoya believed it was wrong too.

From the campaign, we have talked about Ms. Vanzi’s experience in life and work compared to his in the context that he is a better person to represent New Mexicans. Compare them side by side­­­­­­­­­­­­ for yourself http://www.denniswmontoya.com/

I really haven’t known Mr. Montoya for very long,  about 9 months now but I can tell you the more I learn about him and his family and his quest, the more I have grown to admire and respect him.   You can read more about him from my friend Elena Moreno here. http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwp.me%2FpWmPb-d&h=77538

This campaign has been rough, having to deal with so much hate and issues around racism, sexism and many forms of bigotry.  And that was coming from the side of Dennis Montoya’s opponent, a sitting Judge running for an open seat in which Mr. Montoya has every right to run for. 

I started with the campaign about the middle of February because my friend Santiago Juarez had joined and asked me to, he has known Mr. Montoya for over 20 years. I had just left another campaign that I dragged him into so I decided to do it. Really, with the idea that I would learn more about public financing. (That is a whole other issue I will not go into now).

At the first democratic party event that I worked with Mr. Montoya, a very good friend of mine walked up to me very angry and said “I am so disappointed in you, don’t you research people you work for?”  Well, yes I do and I had.  What I didn’t know was that there had been a whisper campaign started up and not by Mr. Montoya but others that wanted to make him look bad.  And it got worse after that.

Mr. Montoya explained the Utley case to me, it is a complicated case and rather confusing and is still being litigated, but shortly after we talked I got the malicious mailer as a State Central Committee member, just prior to the convention. Every member got it, the 13 page court document that was sent out without a return address, no indication of who sent it.  In fact, a couple of people said that we did it ourselves.  Dirty tricks, and it got worse after that.

I’m not going to go into every detail here as it has played out openly in the blogesphere and even in the media with news agencies being called out on anything the other side could use to their advantage, even calling the cops when someone made an inappropriate joke on Dennis’ facebook.  There have been many mean hateful and inappropriate things said about Mr. Montoya and rumor and innuendo written about myself and Mr. Juarez. But hey, it’s a campaign, I get it. I mean there is news and then there is news and the Vanzi campaign has managed to keep Dennis Montoya’s name out there in the news we do have to say that!

If you go to the New Mexico Secretary of State website you will see that Ms. Vanzi has raised and spent about $200 thousand dollars on her campaign, not for the seat of Court of Appeals Judge but an obvious campaign against Mr. Dennis Montoya. A newly formed PAC – Golden Rule Democrats was set up to put more fuel on the fire. Vanzi’s campaign has put out several mail pieces but they don’t tell anything about her.

The trial lawyers PAC even gave her $50,000.00! Judge Vanzi has not been putting that money into running a positive campaign in which she is putting her qualifications and experience out there but instead its been one of the ugliest campaigns with the most distasteful kind of hit mail pieces telling the same story over and over, just in different layout and design.  I certainly hope she feels proud as her campaign defines her.

The Albuquerque Journal has managed to tell the same story in huge spreads over and over too. A one sided story, see for yourself.

The disciplinary counsel has come up with complaints against Mr. Montoya that seem to me to be irregularities in the course of so many cases that he has worked over the years, some of those complaints many years have passed and, now he is so dangerous the Chief Counsel wants to suspend his license and take his livelihood? Remember, no complaints have been filed by clients of his.  Mr. Montoya will have his day in court June 3, these allegations have been under investigation so of course the campaign wasn’t going to respond but make up your own mind, and you can read for yourself his legal response here.  http://www.denniswmontoya.com/responseinopposition.pdf

 I am asking, now that there has been so much information put out there on this race, on this man who was brave enough as all candidates for office are, to try and fulfill his dream of sitting on the bench, representing New Mexicans with an understanding of what that means, please if you have not voted yet, get out there to the polls tomorrow and do it! Take your friends, your families…all your homies who don[t have a PAC with $50,000 and VOTE!

Please, look into all of the information you have available to you about this race and make up your own mind. Decide for yourself if maybe the powers that be may not want to relenquish that power. 

Look at the situation for what it is, a dirty vicious campaign funded by corporate interests who prefer the status quo as it may work in their favor.  I wanted to believe myself that it was just the nature of Judge Vanzi’s campaign, not Linda Vanzi but the people who were advising Linda Vanzi, but then I heard it myself from her lips and saw it in her eyes and all I have to say to that is  Orale Judge Vanzi! Homies Vote Too!

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!