More on the Huppenthal video

by David Safier

One thing is clear. In the video created by high school journalism students, Ed Supe candidate John Huppenthal looks like a very dim bulb. Give him a question outside of his comfort zone, and he gets a blank look on his face and reveals a blank space in his gray matter.

But other things aren't as clear.

First, someone who used the handle "Mandy" posted a comment pointing me to a News 12 piece that was supposed to show that the Huppenthal video was an edited, Democratic hit piece. In fact, the Hupp interview was presented just as it aired in the original piece, with added commentary at the beginning and end — and, as you'll see, the commentary is probably inaccurate. Someone else left a comment saying "Mandy" is actually Jason Rose, who, according to the commenter, does PR work for Huppenthal. If that's true, Rose should admit who he is. After all, if what he says is worth saying, it's just as worth saying from his mouth as from "Mandy's."

Second, a Capitol Times Yellow Sheet piece gives credence to the idea that Huppenthal did return after he walked out of the room in the interview, and that his vote wasn't as deplorable as it was presented.

I don't have a Capitol Times subscription, so I'm taking the Yellow Sheet report from Sonoran Alliance. I'm going on faith that SA quoted the piece accurately.

YELLOW SHEET REPORT
Arizona Capitol Times
6/15/2010

High School Journalist ‘Upset’ At How Video Being Used

The student journalist who interviewed State Senator John Huppenthal about vocational education funding in a video that is now making the rounds told our reporter this morning the edited version that was posted by Democratic Diva blogger Donna Gratehouse does not accurately portray what happened in his meeting with the senator.  Huppenthal did leave, Keith Wagner said, but he didn’t disappear and abandon the interview, as the video posted on Gratehouse’s blog purports. (Huppenthal defeated the Dem blogger in the 2006 election for LD20 Senate.)

Wagner said the senator returned with more information on education funding. “He did come back and he was very polite,” he said. Wagner also said he was irked that some are using the video, which was a class project, to score political points. “I am a little upset that the focus of that has been changed to ‘high-schooler interviewing a state senator and kind of catching him off guard,’” Wagner said.

As for the legislation Wagner asked Huppenthal about – he described it in the story only as a bill that cut $550 million from K-12 and decreased the career and technical education funds from $11 million to about $57,000 – the student said he was referring to H2028 (Laws 2009, Chapter 5), which lawmakers approved May 13 last year.

However, the student seems to have misunderstood what the bill did, as it didn’t cut $550 million from K-12 and didn’t wipe out funding for vocational programs. The bill, which was part of a two-bill package that closed a $650 million deficit in FY09, did three things: roll over $100 million in university funding; roll over $300 million in K-12 funding; and cut $250 million from K-12, but backfill the cuts with an equal amount of federal stimulus money. Additionally, budget documents from JLBC show the career and technical education funding levels are unchanged from FY09 at about $11.5 million.

I post the Yellow Sheet piece without knowing all the details, but the Capitol Times tends to be a reliable source. If all this is true, Hupp doesn't look as bad as he appears in the video. The deer-in-the-headlights thing is still there, but it sounds like he returned to the interview with more information, and his vote may not have been a serious cut, which is how it was portrayed in the piece. I'll even go so far as to say, it's possible some of Hupp's confusion in the interview was due to his being presented with information that was inaccurate.

I'm posting all this in the interest of getting the facts out there. The Capitol Times piece adds more to the mix, and, as I've said before, I don't necessarily have to be 100% fair or balanced on El Blog, but I do try to be accurate.