Name That Party: No Media Report Acknowledges That Embezzling Santa Fe, N.M. Sheriff Is a Democrat

July 22nd, 2011 4:22 PM

It doesn't get more obvious than this.

Former Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano, who pleaded guilty Wednesday to five felony counts, is a Democrat.

What follows are the results of three searches demonstrating that every media outlet which can be found by Google News which has tracked the story in the past 30 days has failed to note Solano's party affiliation.

First a Google News search on Solano's full name (sorted by date, with duplicates) yields 90 results (the first page says "about 96," but it's really 90):

GregSolanoNoPartySearch072211

A Google News search on ["Greg Solano" Democrat] (typed exactly as indicated between brackets) comes up empty:

GregSolanoDemocratSearch072211

The same goes for a search on ["Greg Solano" Democratic]:

GregSolanoDemocraticSearch072211

Any questions?

Here is a brief description from a recent Associated Press story of Mr. Solano's escapades:

Former Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano pleaded guilty Wednesday to five counts of felony fraud.

Solano resigned in November and admitted he embezzled and then sold county-owned items like office equipment and bullet-proof vests on eBay.

He was arrested in January and charged with 251 counts of embezzlement and one count of fraud.

It seems more than a little doubtful that press coverage of a Republican sheriff sentenced for serious crimes of this nature would be able to completely avoid having his or her party identified by any press outlet.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.