It’s amazing the caliber of candidates we can now enjoy in the City of Albuquerque – now that taxpayers get to foot the campaign bills. Let’s take Council District Four for example where the incumbent, City Councilor Brad Winter, is enjoying a strong challenge from an opponent with an “impressive” record of academic achievement, Paulette De’Pascal (subscription):
City Council candidate Paulette de’Pascal claims she has a B.S. and an M.B.A., but she acknowledged Tuesday that she never took any classes for either degree.
The degrees de’Pascal listed as part of her education in a Journal questionnaire were obtained through Almeda University, an online university that gives clients credit for “life experience.”
De’Pascal listed other educational programs on the questionnaire but acknowledged she didn’t complete all of them.
Isn’t it just grand how we’re now allowing “qualified” candidates to run for office? You know, candidates who might otherwise have not been able to run because… well… because no one in their right mind would have given their campaign any significant level of funding support.
In attempt at fairness, I thought I’d see what Ms. De’Pascal had to say about this fiasco on her blog – oops, that didn’t last too long, did it?
Would someone please explain to me again how publicly funded elections are supposed to make politics more ethical? Matt???