Is Sen. Candelaria playing victim and hypocrite?
By Dan Klein
--Senator Jacob Candelaria is more interested in playing the victim than addressing any issues.
--At a time when crime, especially violent crime, is gripping Albuquerque, to know that Senator Jacob Candelaria is going to do more to protect HIMSELF and other politicians makes me want to retch.
State Rep. Jacob “I am a senator!” Candelaria is now playing the victim to the fullest extent, and he's sounding like a damn big hypocrite as well. He's telling different news outlets different stories about the aftermath of the alleged phone message threat he received over the weekend. And, of course, he never once tells the media that he threatened the State Police officers who showed up at his home to try to investigate the alleged threatening phone call. In other words, he threatened the officers who were trying to help him.
Here's an interview at www.out.com where where “I'll call the governor on you” Candelaria laments:
To date, Candelaria has received little help from his fellow lawmakers. When he reached out to Governor Michelle Grisham for extra security, her office said they didn’t have the budget for the expense and the case was closed as far as they were concerned. According to him, a fellow legislator subsequently also warned Candelaria it was in his “best interest” to drop his criticism of the governor.
“The major intent of the responses I’ve received is to cover the butt of the governor and the failures early in the investigation,” he says.
But in today’s Albuquerque Journal he has this to say:
He thanked legislative colleagues from across the political spectrum, including Senate President Mary Kay Papen and Democratic majority leader Peter Wirth, for their outspoken support.
So, which one is it? Watching the video and reading his two conflicting statements I think Senator Jacob Candelaria is more interested in playing the victim than addressing any issues. And now he says he is going to use his position in the legislature (he is a senator, you know), to institute police reforms to protect (wait for it), ELECTED OFFICIALS!!!!!
This is about as tone-deaf as it gets. At a time when crime, especially violent crime, is gripping Albuquerque, to know that Senator Jacob Candelaria (who represents the west side of Albuquerque, where Jackie Vigil was murdered) is going to do more to protect HIMSELF makes me want to retch. Where was he when Victoria Martens needed protection from the years of abuse she was enduring? Where was Senator Jacob Candelaria when Brandi Garcia was brutally murdered during a domestic violence incident earlier this year? Don’t children and domestic violence victims deserve to be protected as thoroughly as our elected leaders?
But rest assured, Senator Jacob "Don't forget that I AM a senator!" Candelaria is getting the special treatment he wants. As the Journal reported,
“The openly gay legislator says that an adequate security plan is now in place to protect him and his husband, with support from members of the Albuquerque and State Police departments.”
Abused children and battered domestic violence victims would relish having a security plan in place that protects them from their offenders. But they aren’t Senator Jacob Candelaria, so they don’t get special treatment. For Candelaria it’s all about him, all the time.
