Free Republic

The Legislature gave New Mexico Lt. Gov. Diane Denish $106,500 to hire personal security. D.A. Susan Martinez purchased her own gun and hasn’t asked taxpayers to pay for body guards. The two women, opposing each other in the race to be elected New Mexico’s next governor, have very different ideas on what they need for personal security, and what taxpayers should pay to make them feel safe. Susana Martinez has been the Dona Ana County District Attorney for 13 years. In that job she makes enemies of the kinds of people who create work for body guards. She and members...

Sarah Palin had a pretty good Super Tuesday. Three of the four candidates she endorsed won, bringing her record in tightly contested races to 8-3 overall this midterm election year. Earlier in the day, TIME asked Palin how she makes her endorsement decisions. "Oftentimes I'm looking at the candidate who shares the circumstances in which I've been: underfunded, up against the machine, no big endorsements, running a grassroots campaign with the help of volunteer friends and family," Palin told TIME. "When I see that, and can feel the momentum they can create with their passion in spite of greater challenges...

Nobody gets to pick and choose where they're born - but it pops up again and again in New Mexico politics. In fact, it's happening right now, in the race for governor. Eyewitness News politics reporter Stuart Dyson calls it "The Native Thing." "The native thing turns up when one candidate was born in New Mexico and the other one wasn't,"

Susana Martinez, a prosecutor from southern New Mexico, won the Republican nomination for governor and will face Democrat Diane Denish in a general election race deciding who becomes New Mexico's first woman governor.

In their final televised debate before Tuesday's primary election, candidates seeking the Republican nomination for governor agreed on top issues while emphasizing personal qualities they said make them the best bet for the job. Susana Martinez, Allen Weh, Doug Turner, Pete Domenici Jr. and Janice Arnold-Jones all agreed on the importance of better securing New Mexico's border with Mexico and ending the practice of granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Weh, an Albuquerque businessman and retired Marine Corps Reserve colonel who served in Vietnam, Somalia and Iraq, pointed to his leadership abilities. He said his military experience of 38 years,...

Susana Martinez now has a substantial lead over Allen Weh in the Republican race for governor in a Survey USA poll, and she's also beating Democrat Diane Denish in a match up for the general election. A sample of 464 likely to vote republicans shows Martinez beating Weh 43% to 33%. The rest of the candidates are far behind, in single digits, with almost no hope of catching up by primary election day next Tuesday. Pete Domenici Jr. has 8% in the poll, tied with Doug Turner, while Janice Arnold-Jones is last with 3% of the vote. The poll has...

The head of the Republican Party of New Mexico waded into primary election mudslinging between gubernatorial candidate front-runners Allen Weh and Susana Martinez on Sunday, condemning radio and TV ads by Weh in a move some called unprecedented. Chairman Harvey E. Yates Jr. called Weh ads attacking Martinez "misleading" and "inappropriate" while saying a Martinez ad attacking Weh was "reasonably supported." "Dishonesty in political advertising should not be tolerated in either party," Yates said in a news release. "I believe it to be quite unfortunate that one of the Republican gubernatorial candidates has issued ads which are so misleading. "I...

When Susana Martinez turned 18, she became a fully armed security guard, a job that can provide a look at the worst side of human behavior. Eighteen years later, she was elected top prosecutor for New Mexico's 3rd Judicial District based in Las Cruces, a job that guarantees quality face time with that behavior. And she has spent the last 13-plus years in that job ensuring that bad behavior meets serious consequences. And New Mexico is better for it. Circa 2010, as Republican voters go to the polls to select a nominee for governor in the wake of interminable state...

Allen Weh struck back Wednesday ... with a television ad accusing one of his competitors seeking the Republican nomination for governor, District Attorney Susana Martinez, of misspending taxpayer dollars. Martinez, of the 3rd Judicial District in Las Cruces, aired an ad Monday criticizing Weh for his stance on immigration, turning what had been a calm race into a shouting match. She said the attack was just Weh's campaign grasping at straws. "I think its a desperate attempt to discredit the hard work of my prosecution of cases and those in my office and a way to ... avoid the real...

Saturday, Governor Palin announced her support for Susana Martinez in the GOP primary race for New Mexico Governor. Heath Haussamen gives a little overview of the race: “Martinez is in a five-way Republican primary battle. Many analysts believe the race is down to Martinez and Allen Weh, who has been able to outspend Martinez nearly 3-1 because he’s pumped $1 million of his own money into his campaign. Martinez, however, has raised more money from individual donors than Weh or any other candidate in the race.” My mother lives in New Mexico and was very pleased when I talked to...

Allen Weh and Susana Martinez have surged far ahead of three other candidates in the race for the Republican nomination for governor with the June 1 primary election just around the corner, a Journal Poll found. Weh, a retired Marine Corps Reserve colonel and former state party chairman, and Martinez, a state district attorney from Las Cruces, were in a virtual tie as the survey of likely Republican voters wrapped up late last week. Trailing the leaders in the May 11-13 Journal Poll were Republican candidates Pete Domenici Jr., Doug Turner and Janice Arnold-Jones. "It appears that two of the...

The Republican candidates for governor are stepping up efforts in the final two weeks of campaigning. Sunday Doña Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez got the first big-celebrity endorsement of the campaign. Sarah Palin threw her support behind Martinez. "New Mexico, you have a winner here in somebody who is proudly pro-life, pro-second amendment, pro-family, pro-fiscal conservative, anti-tax, anti-big government; you are so fortunate to have this candidate," Palin told a crowd of about 450 Sunday morning at the Albuquerque Uptown Marriott. “They want something different, they want something different. They want something ethical they want something strong in their...

Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will be in Albuquerque Sunday May 16 to rally for GOP gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez, R-N.M.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez gained in stature at today’s Republican Party preprimary nominating convention. Allen Weh did what he needed to do. And Pete Domenici Jr. is down but not necessarily out. That’s how Albuquerque pollster Brian Sanderoff analyzed the results following today’s vote. Martinez won the support of 46.65 percent of delegates at the Republican convention. Weh finished second with 26.32 percent, followed by Janice Arnold-Jones at 13.16 percent and Doug Turner at 9.23 percent. Domenici finished last, with 4.61 percent of the vote. “The big surprise here is the margin of Susana Martinez’s victory,” Sanderoff said. “The...

District Attorney Susana Martinez of Las Cruces topped the Republican candidate field for governor Saturday at the state party's nominating convention in Albuquerque, winning the top ballot spot for the June 1 primary election. Former state party Chairman Allen Weh was the only other candidate of five Republican gubernatorial contenders to win the necessary 20 percent of the delegate vote for a convention nomination to the ballot. Martinez won nearly 47 percent of the vote. Weh received 26 percent. "It's a huge step, and (the vote) certainly says Republicans want to unite to take back New Mexico," Martinez said. ......