So Mother Jones released an interesting piece on Governor Susana Martinez's (R. NM) that's worth a read:
http://www.motherjones.com/...
Internal campaign records and interviews with former aides suggest that she didn't dig too deeply into the details of her own proposals: "Aren't we the ONLY state in the US that provides a NM drivers license to illegal aliens?" she asked in a November 24, 2009, email. (At the time, seven other states had similar policies.)
In another email, in August 2009, she asked an aide, "What is podash? Or ashpod? WIPP?" Potash mining is a multibillion-dollar business in New Mexico, and WIPP refers to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the nuclear waste storage site for the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which has been a topic of statewide controversy for decades.
During an October 2010 campaign conference call, Martinez said she'd met a woman who worked for the state's Commission on the Status of Women, a panel created in 1973 to improve health, pay equity, and safety for women.
"What the hell is that?" she asked.
"I don't know what the fuck they do," replied her deputy campaign manager, Matt Kennicott.
"What the hell does a commission on women's cabinet do all day long?" Martinez asked.
"I think [deputy campaign operations director Matt] Stackpole wants to be the director of that so he can study more women," Kennicott said.
"Well, we have to do what we have to do," McCleskey chimed in, as Martinez burst out laughing. (As governor, she would line-item veto the commission's entire budget.)
Listening to recordings of Martinez talking with her aides is like watching an episode of HBO's Veep, with over-the-top backroom banter full of pique, self-regard, and vindictiveness. As Martinez and her campaign staff rewatched a recent televised debate, Martinez referred to Denish, her opponent, as "that little bitch." After Denish noted that the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce had given her an award, McCleskey snapped, "That's why we're not meeting with those fuckers."
In a September 2009 email mentioning one of Martinez's 2010 primary opponents, a former state representative named Janice Arnold-Jones, McCleskey wrote: "I FUCKING HATE THAT BITCH!" And in yet another debate prep meeting, Kennicott mocked the language skills of Ben Luján, a former state House speaker and a political icon to New Mexico Latinos: "Somebody told me he's absolutely eloquent in Spanish, but his English? He sounds like a retard." - Mother Jones, 4/16/14
Wow. She's a mean one. Of course Martinez was furious about the article and went after Mother Jones:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
Hours after it was published, Martinez circulated a fundraising email decrying the "D.C. Liberal media."
"We’ve come a long way since the days of Bill Richardson, but now liberals in Washington want to undo the progress we’ve made," Martinez said in the email. "In the absolute height of desperation, one of the most radically liberal publications in the country is now peddling false, personal attacks against me, using stolen audiotapes from our debate prep sessions four years ago.
"Their 'smoking gun'? I referred to Diane Denish using the B-word four years ago in a private conversation with close advisers," she continued. "I admit it — I've had to fund the cuss jar a few times in my life."
Desperate to repair its standing with Latino voters, the GOP has high hopes for Martinez. She delivered a well-received primetime speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention and was selected as one of Time's 100 most influential people in 2012. Karl Rove authored the glowing write-up for Time.
As such, conservatives view the article as an effort by a liberal publication to weaken one of their most promising leaders. - TPM, 4/16/14
Classy, huh? Of course what do you expect from the GOP's big Presidential bench:
http://www.salon.com/...
The result is, I think, a really enlightening peek into what this sort of administration actually sounds like on the inside. By “this sort of administration,” I mean one run by a bunch of petty assholes who play-act like politics in a Mamet-scripted masculinity contest. It’s easy to imagine that the governorship of George W. Bush wasn’t entirely dissimilar, with a checked-out executive and a powerful political operative running the show. Other recently released internal communications suggest a similar environment in New Jersey.
Probably a lot of state (and city and county) executive offices sound a lot like this, behind closed doors and in email chains. Not all of them, but probably most of the ones you suspect. And not just those darn Republicans. The only difference, in terms of the political culture, between the Susana Martinez administration and the Andrew Cuomo administration is that the Andrew Cuomo administration doesn’t have someone on staff sending reams of damaging internal communications to hostile members of the press. It may be that Cuomo doesn’t need to outsource the position of petty, vindictive, highly politicized vengeance-seeker to a top aide, as Martinez apparently has, but is being more hands-on in that particular position really a plus?
Susana Martinez seems like a bad governor, and she would be a bad president, for most of the same reasons that George W. Bush was a bad president, but she is just another exemplar of America’s long and proud tradition of elevating assholes to high positions because they seem like they get things done. - Salon, 4/16/14
Now knowing this, we'll have to see if the race will now tighten:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Martinez was elected Governor 53-47 in 2010, and we find her leading challenger Gary King 47-42. Martinez has a 52/40 approval rating, largely consistent with where we've found her since she took office. She overcomes the strong Democratic advantage in the state by winning independents almost 2:1 at 53/27, and getting 24% crossover support from Democrats.
Martinez has wider leads over all the rest of the Democrats in the race. It's 11 points over Lawrence Rael at 47/36, 14 points over Howie Morales and Linda Lopez at 48/34 and 50/36 respectively, and 16 points over Alan Webber at 48/32.
King starts out as the pretty strong favorite to be the Democratic nominee though. He leads the primary field by over 20 points, getting 34% right now to 15% for Morales, 13% for Lopez, 7% for Rael, and 5% for Webber. The race isn't over by any means- 27% of voters remain undecided- but it's a pretty substantial early advantage. - PPP, 3/25/14
Hopefully this gives Gary King (D. NM) plenty of ammunition now. If you would like to donate and get involved with King's campaign, you can do so here:
http://www.garykingforgovernor.com/