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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Spotlight On: Allen Stenger


Allen Stenger’s rule of thumb is that “statements by politicians about numbers are always wrong.”

That’s not always the case, of course, but he gave us a good example: A recent mailer from New Mexico’s Republican Party claimed that “New Mexico workers have a jobs problem.” But the flier refers to the national unemployment rate, which has been worse than New Mexico’s.

“I’m active in the Alamogordo Chamber of Commerce, so I knew that a mailer claiming New Mexico workers have a job problem because the unemployment rate was above 8% had to be wrong,” Stenger wrote in an email.

Stenger, 60, who lives in Alamogordo, N.M., sent two mailers from the state’s Republican Party to Spin Detectors. We found several claims, most of which attacked Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Martin Heinrich, to be false or misleading.

Trained as a mathematician, Stenger is retired after a career in software development. He told us he supports Heinrich in this race. But he wrote: “I am a political independent and centrist and I am equally skeptical toward all political parties.”

Stenger is an individual donor to FactCheck.org.

— Ben Finley

Our “Spotlight” feature is designed to give credit to those who help us hold politicians and political groups accountable. So, watch this spot. If you send us campaign materials that contain false or misleading information and we write about them, then we may write about you — with your permission, of course.

Click here for more information on how to be a Spin Detector. Thanks. And good luck!