Blurred Distinctions
by John Weckerle
As the silly season progresses, and the attack ads grow more desperate, we find that perhaps not everybody is as the campaign ads suggest. For example, Congressman Martin Heinrich is portrayed as a tax-and-spend Pelosi devotee in recent ads for challenger John Barela. Yet according to this press release from Mr. Heinrich’s office, he has proposed to make the Bush tax cuts for the middle class permanent and let the cut for the top 2% (by income) expire, with the revenue to be used for deficit reduction. According to the same press release, “Rep. Heinrich cosponsored legislation that reestablished the statutory “pay-as-you-go” (PAYGO) requirements that helped turn deficits into surpluses during the 1990s under the Clinton Administration. He also cosponsored the SAFE Commission Act, which would help balance long-term spending and revenue for the nation, and the Reduce Unnecessary Spending Act, which would eliminate wasteful and unnecessary government spending.” This article in the New Mexico Independent indicates that at the same time that Mr. Barela has been touting his opposition to stimulus-type programs, he has been benefiting financially from exactly that sort of program. Now, we don’t fault Mr. Barela for taking advantage of these programs, but we do think it just a little disingenuous for him to attack his opponent as a “tax-and-spender” while both collecting from and promoting programs involving such spending at the State level. We also think he should answer the New Mexico Independent’s questions.
We’ve made it pretty clear that we don’t have much use for campaign ads as sources of information, and the examples above perhaps underscore that point. We acknowledge, with both resignation and disappointment, that most voters are probably going to be picking up a lot of their information from such ads and from sound bites presented by the media. For those looking for more information, there are other sources to consider.
Where incumbents are concerned, we have a slight advantage – rather than needing to rely on campaign statements, we can look at voting records. Mr. Heinrich’s record (from Project Vote Smart) does include some predictable information, but some readers might be a bit surprised at a few of the votes. Portrayed as a liberal, Mr. Heinrich voted for the Small Business Lending Fund and Tax Law Amendments. He also voted for Ending Moratorium on Deepwater Drilling Rigs that Meet Certain Safety Standards. He voted against Directing the President to Remove Armed Forces from Pakistan, and voted to prohibit a 2010-2011 Congressional pay increase. He voted to remove Charles Rangel as Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, and voted to prohibit Federal assistance to ACORN, a major conservative point. On gun issues, he voted to exempt guns from the estate of debtors; as summarized by Vote Smart: “Vote to pass a bill that authorizes a debtor in bankruptcy to exempt from the property of his or her estate the aggregate interest in a rifle, shotgun, pistol, or any combination thereof, provided that the value does not exceed $3,000.” He has consistently voted for science and technology funding, intelligence, homeland security, and defense appropriation – although admittedly there is probably some fat to be carved among those sectors. Apart from the voting, Mr. Heinrich has held quite a number of forums on subjects such as small business issues and economic development throughout his term.
Mr. Barela comes in at a disadvantage – specifically, not having a record that can be examined. In such cases, we look to the challenger’s campaign web site to see what proposals they are making. Unfortunately, the discussions of issues Mr. Barela’s web site are limited to what amount to values statements, with no real detail on how he proposes to pursue his agenda. We would make this observation: there is no time limit on the internet, and while campaign ads are necessarily brief, the information on the web site need not be – so let’s have some more detail. We also would like to see an “issues” section on Mr. Heinrich’s site; while we have the advantage of voting records on which to rely, most voters are probably not going to go to that amount of trouble.