Slade Mead calls Superintendent Horne on question of ethics

Some of you may have been following the recent tempest-in-a-teacup that occurred when activist Dolores Huerta expressed an intemperate comment regarding Republicans hating Latinos. The comment was wrong and ill-advised, surely. A censure should have been sufficient. But some Republicans seem to be reeling so much from this incident that they may be making some intemperate statements of their own.

Take Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, for example.

On April 14, Superintendent Horne put out a press release (.pdf) refuting Huerta's comments. Fair enough, and good for him. But in doing so, he made the following statement:

“It is important that the students in the Tucson schools hear both sides. I hereby offer to them as a speaker, Margaret Garcia Dugan, Deputy Superintendent of Schools, the number two person in the Department of Education. She can speak to the students about why she is proud to be a Latina and why she is proud to be a Republican.”

But, as Slade Mead astutely noted today in an email I received from his campaign, this raises a little question of a potential ethical breach on the part of the good Mr. Horne. In his letter to Superintendent Horne, Mead noted that he was "intrigued" by the wording of the press release:

In the last paragraph you offer Margaret Dugan as a speaker to comment on her being a proud Latina and proud Republican. Is Margaret Dugan being offered to speak as a state employee? If so, why is she being asked to comment on her political party?

If, on the other hand, you are offering her to speak on her free time, how can you do that from a state paid for press release?

Ahh...there's the rub. Mr. Horne, your thoughts on why this questionable use of an Arizona Department of Education press release?