Zenzinger
Could Politifact be any more partisan? The ABC-linked local affiliate recently “debunked” an ad hitting Democratic state Senate candidate Rachel Zenzinger for voting herself a taxpayer-funded trip to China when she served as an Arvada city councilwoman. Politifact’s “debunking” is more like excuse-making for the wannabe state Senator.
Here’s how Politifact started the complaining:
“For the second straight election, a conservative group has attacked a Democratic Colorado state Senate candidate with the same claim: ‘Rachel Zenzinger voted to use tax dollars to take a taxpayer-funded junket to China.'”
Politifact takes issue with this statement because a) she never went to China and b) she later voted for a measure that prohibited taxpayer funds from being used on such trips.
First, a good vote later does not erase a bad vote cast earlier. This is especially true when the good vote was cast after a lengthy discussion and a definite “no” vote from most of Zenzinger’s colleagues. It’s also worth pointing out that Zenzinger asked for a taxpayer-funded trip after two straight years of budget cuts that resulted in staff reductions of approximately 25 throughout the city of Arvada.
Second, who cares if she did not go on the trip? Her intention was that taxpayers fund her trip to China. Only when her colleagues reined her in did she shift direction and let taxpayers off the hook. If past behavior predicts future behavior, Zenzinger could be an expensive politician to have in office.
Nonetheless, who’s fact checking the fact checkers? This Politifact piece is so absurd that we’d gladly pay to send its writers to China on an extended vacation.