Cathryn Creno

The Republic | azcentral.com

John Huppenthal has used the names %22Falcon9%22 and %22Thucydides%22 on conservative blogs.

Huppenthal is running for re-election.

%22I sincerely regret if my comments have offended anyone%2C%22 Huppenthal said.

He likened welfare recipients to "lazy pigs."

He blamed the Great Depression on Franklin D. Roosevelt and said FDR's economic policies gave rise to Hitler.

He said Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was responsible for feeding 16 million African-Americans into abortion mills.

He is state schools Superintendent John Huppenthal, and he admitted Wednesday that he made those comments, along with hundreds of more mundane musings, in anonymous posts on political blogs.

The comments, under various pseudonyms including Falcon9 and Thucydides, have been appearing since 2011.

Writers for the Democratic Blog for Arizona have been suggesting for several months that all signs pointed to Huppenthal as the author. Huppenthal remained silent on the accusation until Wednesday, when he spoke exclusively to The Arizona Republic.

"I love talking about public policy, and I have a passion for engaging in debate," Huppenthal said on Wednesday. "I probably have 300,000 words out on the Internet, and 100 of them are getting me in trouble. When all of your missteps are there all together for people to see, it's not a pretty picture."

In an earlier statement released to The Republic, Huppenthal apologized, saying, "I sincerely regret if my comments have offended anyone."

While the inflammatory comments may pose an image issue for Huppenthal, who is seeking re-election, government-accountability experts say they also pose an ethical problem because elected officials should state their opinions publicly.

"There is a conflict of interest if an elected official is trying to skew the conversation in a way that supports their views," said Fred Solop, Northern Arizona University's political-science department chairman. "It's a violation of the public trust, and (Huppenthal) needs to be held accountable."

Todd Gitlin, an ethics specialist and chairman of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, said the issue is a simple one.

"Public officials should not post anonymously," he said. "They're elected to be accountable. They can't be held accountable if they hide behind pseudonyms."

However, one Valley political consultant said anonymous communications aren't new — or problematic.

"American history is littered with people writing anonymous pamphlets," said Doug Cole of Highground Public Affairs Consultants.

Blog comments

In his statement, Huppenthal said he participated in the blogs anonymously "because I felt that any other (approach) would limit a free and open exchange." The websites include posts on issues including education, the economy, health care and immigration.

Huppenthal said he sleeps very little and spends the wee hours reading scientific and academic research, then sharing his thoughts online from his own computer. He said Wednesday that his online handles came from the name of a rocket and an ancient historian.

Under the monikers, Huppenthal joined discussions and shared views on issues including abortion, the economy, education and child protection. Some examples:

• "There is no aspect of (Child Protective Services) nationwide which protects children. No correlation between spending on CPS and child safety," Thucydides posted in January on Blog for Arizona. "The only factors which provide safety for children are employment of parents and good schools on the positive side and welfare enrollment on the negative side."

• "It was Darwin, not Hitler, who named the Germans the master race," Thucydides posted in September 2013 on the blog Seeing Red AZ. "It was Darwin who expressed approval of eliminating both Jews and Africans. Hitler worked to eliminate the Jews. Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood was given the job of eliminating African-Americans. Hitler fed 6 million Jews into the ovens. Sanger has fed 16 million African-Americans into the abortion mills."

• "We now know that (Franklin D. Roosevelt) was almost completely responsible for the great depression," Falcon9 posted in 2013 on Blog for Arizona. "Only in liberal mythology did FDR 'save' the nation. ... Worse yet, Roosevelt's disastrous economic policies drug down the whole world and directly led to the rise of a no-name hack named Adolph Hitler who was going nowhere until Germany's economy went into the tank."

• "Obama is rewarding the lazy pigs with food stamps (44 million people), air-conditioning, free health care, flat-screen TV's (typical of "poor" families)." (Editor's note: Parentheses included in posting.)

Huppenthal said his posts are meant to correct "a lot of really bad ideas" on political blogs, not to insult. He said his reference to "lazy pigs" refers to a phrase in a nursery fable.

In "the Little Red Hen ... in which a fat lazy pig refuses to help the little red hen sow her seeds," he said. "I have never been insensitive to issues around poverty and have fought for public policy that provides opportunities for jobs for all our citizens who want to work and support for those who are vulnerable."

Huppenthal said his comparison of Sanger to the Nazis has been taken out of context. Sanger "was at the heart of a eugenics movement, clearly reflected in her writings. In hindsight, I do regret my choice of certain inflammatory words, but I will never apologize for being a pro-life policy maker, or someone who believes in improving conditions for all people," he said in the statement.

Political fallout

Huppenthal said he does not think the controversy will hurt his re-election chances.

"In eight of my 12 elections, I have had to walk through fire," he said. "I don't get into this to get along."

He has served as Arizona's top education leader since 2011.Conservatives have criticized him for his support of the Arizona College and Career Ready Standards, based on the Common Core. Liberals have criticized his support of charter schools and private-school vouchers.

Jaime Molera of the Molera-Alvarez consulting firm and Robbie Sherwood of Progress Now Arizona say few candidates and officials go online anonymously.

However, Huppenthal said the Internet has made anonymous comments prevalent.

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