by David Safier
In the comments section of a post about Huppenthal's hagiographic misrepresentation of Ben Franklin (translation: Huppenthal painted a rosier-than-deserved portrait of Ben and the slavery issue), Tom Prezelski asked a tangential but interesting question:
[H]as anybody publically asked Margaret Garcia Dugan why she has stopped using the name "Garcia?" All through the "Republicans Hate Latinos" Wars of 2006-2009, she seemed to want everyone to know her maiden name and the fact that she was a Mexican-American. Now that she is running for the Republican nomination, for Superintendent, this seems to be a lot less important. I think it might be interesting to hear her take on this.
The Weekly's Jim Nintzel responded:
Asked and answered in the pages of this week's TW, by Mari Herreras:
When asked why Dugan isn't campaigning with her full last name—Garcia-Dugan—Dugan says the decision came down to campaign signs: Her full name was too long.
"Most of the stuff on my (campaign) website has my full name," she says.
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/educating-arizona/Content?oid=2135802
Now, if you visit margaretdugan.com, you can check for yourself to see if it is true. I could find no references to Garcia anywhere on the page, but I only did a casual review. There may be some reference somewhere, but it's not on her bio page, in press releases or anywhere else I looked. Of course, I may also misunderstand the meaning of "most." Dr. Word, can you help me out?
Dr. Word will be more than happy to help out, Jim.
In a thorough search of Margaret Dugan's website:
- Dr. Word found the name "Dugan" used a total of 43 times on the site's 6 pages. (That number includes the "Dugan" on the Header and the "Paid for by the Margaret Dugan for . . .," both of which are repeated on each page.)
- Dr. Word found the name "Garcia" used once on the entire site. It's on the News page, in the story headline, "Superintendent Horne hires Margaret Garcia Dugan to head up ELL office to ensure proper implementation of Prop. 203."
Dr. Word's conclusion is that Ed Supe candidate Margaret Dugan has trouble distinguishing between reality and fantasy — that's the educational euphemism teachers sometimes use to tell parents, "Your kid lies all the time" — when it comes to the content of her website.
When Dugan told Mari Herreras at the Weekly, ""Most of the stuff on my (campaign) website has my full name," she was telling a fib.
Oh my, oh my, what will we tell the children?