Stories tagged with “Susana Martinez”

New Mexico’s Republican Governor Pledges To Approve Gun Regulations

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Feb 11, 2013 at 8:35 pm

Gov. Susana Martinez (R-NM)

New Mexico’s Republican Governor, Susana Martinez, said on Monday night that she would be willing to sign proposed legislation aimed at closing the so-called “gun show loophole.”

“I think I could support it if it stays the way it is, that has, number one, keeping the guns out of the hands who people who don’t have any business having guns,” she told a local New Mexico blog.

Currently, private sales of firearms do not require a background check. This allows criminals to easily obtain a gun undetected through avenues like Craigslist, pawn shops, or even gun shows. Eighty percent of guns used in crimes are likely privately purchased.

A bill that would close the existing background check loophole in New Mexico has already passed through committee. The state’s full House of Representatives is expected to take up the measure on Wednesday.

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Health

Second Republican Governor Agrees To Expand Medicaid Under Obamacare

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Jan 9, 2013 at 5:30 pm

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R)

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) today announced that she will agree to expand Medicaid to extend coverage to additional low-income residents of her state, following a provision set forth in Obamacare.

Martinez is only the second Republican governor to join Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) and agree to the Medicaid expansion. Other Republican governors have refused to expand the program, essentially acknowledging that they would rather allow low-income people in their state to go uninsured than to follow the law of their Democratic president.

The AP estimates that the expansion will help cover roughly 170,000 people in New Mexico:

Republican Gov. Susana Martinez says New Mexico will follow provisions of a federal health care law to expand the state’s Medicaid program to potentially provide medical services to 170,000 low-income adults.[...]
Martinez made the announcement Wednesday during a speech in Albuquerque.

About a fourth of New Mexico’s population currently receives health care through Medicaid, but the program mostly covers uninsured children in low-income families along with the disabled and some extremely low-income adults.

The expansion in 2014 will make adults eligible with incomes of about $26,000 for a family of three or $15,400 for an individual.

New Mexico has among the highest rates of uninsured in the country. The Medicaid expansion seeks to remedy this problem by permitting those within 133 percent of the federal poverty line to join the program, helping aide those who earn too much to qualify, but not enough to afford coverage.

The state also moved to set up its health insurance exchange earlier this month.

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Health

New Mexico Gov. Requires Women Seeking Childcare Assistance To Prove They Were ‘Forcibly Raped’

By Tara Culp-Ressler on Sep 20, 2012 at 2:06 pm

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R)

After Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) asserted his belief that “legitimate rape” doesn’t often lead to pregnancy, Republican lawmakers were quick to attempt to configure his radical stance on women’s health as an outlier in their party. However, increasing numbers of GOP politicians’ language about the nature of sexual assault actually echoes Akin’s — including New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R), whose state’s policies use language that effectively narrows the definition of rape.

Not only did Martinez refer to “forcible rape” in an announcement instating April as New Mexico’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month — as if some kinds of sexual assault need to be qualified as more or less “legitimate” than others — but, as RH Reality Check reports, the term also appears in the state’s proposed changes to its official applications for childcare assistance. If the proposed changes take effect, women in New Mexico will be required to prove that their sexual assault qualified as “forcible rape” if they are seeking childcare assistance for a child that resulted from rape:

If adopted, this policy will have numerous implications. It establishes in state law a narrow definition of rape that can and will be applied in other areas of law and policy. It puts a heavy burden on women who have been raped and are now struggling economically to support a child or children to prove the manner in which they were raped and to meet a test set up by the state to exclude many women in need of childcare assistance who would otherwise qualify.

It would force women who have left violent domestic partnerships, who were date-raped, who were impregnated as a result of incest, or through other “non-forcible” but nonetheless equally violent and denigrating means of sexual violation to first re-engage with their abusers to seek child support, putting control of their lives back into the hands of someone by whom they were violated in the most profound sense of the term.

Martinez’s problematic move to narrow the definition of sexual assault is not unique to her state. Last year, vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan partnered with Akin to co-sponsor a bill that introduced the concept of “forcible rape” in one of its earlier drafts. The “forcible rape” language was eventually removed from that bill after widespread public outcry, but that hasn’t stopped the concept from permeating the Republican Party.

Women’s health advocates in New Mexico are fighting back against the proposed changes to the childcare assistance applications. Strong Families, a coalition that works to advance the rights of women and immigrants, released a statement expressing their disappointment in Martinez’s “attempt to qualify differing levels of rape,” calling the move “especially egregious” in light of the fact that Martinez was a prominent speaker at last month’s Republican National Convention. A hearing on the issue is scheduled for October 1st.

Update

RH Reality Check has received confirmation from New Mexico’s Children, Youth, and Families Department that Martinez has requested the removal of the “forcible rape” language from the state’s childcare assistance applications. A statement from department explained, “The Governor feels the language is redundant and unnecessary, and she does not support its usage.”

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Politics

10 Republicans Who Have Spoken Out Against Mitt Romney’s Remarks On The 47%

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Sep 19, 2012 at 1:21 pm

Mitt Romney is facing huge backlash from the leaked video that captured him saying 47 percent of people in the United States believe they are “victims” and that they will never vote for him. Republicans, particularly those in tight elections this year, and conservative pundits are criticizing Romney for the comments, disassociating themselves from his message. Here are 10 Republicans who have disavowed Romney in the last few days:

1. Susana Martinez (R-NM)

The governor of New Mexico knows her state won’t be won through a hard-right campaign strategy, which is likely why she’s disavowing Romney’s write-off of 47 percent of the country. Martinez said of Romney’s comments that “New Mexico has many people who are living at the poverty level and their votes count just as much as anyone else.” Where her policy is concerned, though, Martinez isn’t quite as compassionate to the working poor or those who need government assistance. She has cut food stamps, and insinuated Democrats believe welfare is a “way of life.”

2. Scott Brown (R-MA)

Brown’s campaign for re-election with Elizabeth Warren has been one of the most closely-watched, and hotly contested, in the country. Losing any voters over the comments of his party’s standard-bearer might cost him the race. So Brown ditched Romney in a statement Tuesday, saying, “That’s not the way I view the world.”

3. Linda McMahon (R-CT)

Like Romney, McMahon is extremely wealthy and has been accused of being out-of-touch. In her largely Democratic state of Connecticut, that narrative won’t get her elected, so she’s decided to chastize Romney for his 47 percent comments, saying, simply, “I disagree with Governor Romney’s insinuation that 47% of Americans believe they are victims who must depend on the government for their care.” McMahon might say she disagrees, but she’s previously said that “Forty-seven percent of the people today don’t pay any taxes.”

4. Dean Heller (R-NV)

Senator Heller told POLITICO that doesn’t “view the world the same way” as Mitt Romney when it comes to the 47 percent dividing line. “Every vote in Nevada counts,” he said. “Every vote. And as a United States senator, my job is represent every one of those votes, whether they voted for me or against me.”

5. Ovide Lamontagne (R-NH)

Lamontagne, the gubernatorial candidate from New Hampshire, said in response to Romney’s comments, “There’s no 47 percent in New Hampshire as far as I’m concerned.”

6. Mark Meadows (R-NC)

In a statement similar to Lamontagne’s, the North Carolina Congressional candidate Mark Meadows said, “I’m concerned about all 750,000 people… I am here to represent the people of this district,” jokingly adding, “It might come as a surprise, but Mitt Romney didn’t call me before he made those comments and ask for my advice.”

7. Bill Kristol

Kristol’s column about the leaked Romney video were perhaps the most damning. He titled his piece, “A Note on Romney’s Arrogant and Stupid Remarks” and went on to say that Mitt Romney “seems to have contempt not just for the Democrats who oppose him, but for tens of millions who intend to vote for him.”

8. Peggy Noonan

Noonan spoke out in a blog post that offered a harsh indictment of the Romney campaign telling them to “snap out of it.” “It’s time to admit the Romney campaign is an incompetent one,” she writes, “It’s not big, it’s not brave, it’s not thoughtfully tackling great issues. It’s always been too small for the moment.”

9. David Brooks

Brooks said that Romney’s comments “[suggest] that he really doesn’t know much about the country he inhabits… doesn’t know much about the culture of America,” “doesn’t know much about the political culture,” “knows nothing about ambition and motivation,” and that his interpretation of how the country works “is a country-club fantasy.”

10. Mark McKinnon

McKinnon, who worked for both former Pres. George Bush and presidential candidate John McCain, expressed his disappointment with Romney in an article for The Daily Beast Wednesday, writing “Well, the release of the Romney tape was a moment that certainly revealed something about him. But not what I was hoping for…. How can anyone support a candidate with this kind of a vision of the country? Isn’t a divided America under Obama what folks on the right rail against?”

Update

Republican Senate candidate Linda Lingle (HI) also distanced herself from Romney’s comments:

“I am not a rubber stamp for the national party and I am not responsible for the statements of Mitt Romney,” Lingle said. “With that said, I do not agree with his characterization of all individuals who are receiving government assistance, as I know many of them are driven, hard-working individuals who are actively working to better the situation of their ohana. It is not fair to place these individuals into any one category.”

Update

Ohio governor and top Romney surrogate John Kasich:

“We have all misspoken. Do I necessarily agree with him, no, but, I have done it, the president has done it,” Kasich said, according to WOIO-19 TV. On Tuesday, Kasich told The Dispatch he hadn’t seen the footage of Romney’s comments at a private fundraiser nor had he studied Romney’s response to the outcry over what he originally said.

Update

George Allen, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, also distanced himself from the remarks during a debate with challenger Tim Kaine. Allen said that people “don’t see themselves as victims.”

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NEWS FLASH

New Mexico Governor Breaks With Romney Over 47 Percent Remark | New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) — who Mitt Romney quoted in a speech on Monday — has joined a growing number of Republicans in backing away from the former Massachusetts governor’s claim that 47 percent of Americans are dependent on government and won’t vote for Republicans anyway. Asked if she was offended by the remarks, “Martinez said New Mexico has many people who are living at the poverty level and their votes count just as much as anyone else.”

By Igor Volsky on Sep 18, 2012 at 6:03 pm

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Election

Potential VP Choice Slams Romney’s Immigration Policy: ‘Self-Deport? What The Heck Does That Mean?

By Alex Seitz-Wald on May 14, 2012 at 5:25 pm

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R)
Presumed GOP nominee Mitt Romney has mentioned New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) as a potential vice presidential pick, and some conservatives think she’d help him win Hispanic voters, but even she is skeptical of Romney’s immigration policy.

In an interview with the Daily Beast’s Andrew Romano, Martinez acknowledged the problem. “I have no doubt Hispanics have been alienated during this campaign,” she said. Indeed, one recent poll found a startling 68 point gap between Romney and President Obama among Hispanics. “But now there’s an opportunity for Gov. Romney to have a sincere conversation about what we can do and why,” she added.

Part of that may be softening his immigration stance, which was among the harshest in the GOP primary. Romney said his immigration policy would be to make life so miserable for undocumented immigrants that they would choose to “self-deport.” But Martinez balked at this. “‘Self-deport?’ What the heck does that mean?” Martinez “snap[ped] at Romano.

Martinez also called for he GOP to “outflank the president–on the left–by proposing its own comprehensive plan” — something that is highly unlikely for Romney to support considering that he’s vowed to veto the DREAM Act and his immigration adviser, the controversial activist behind Arizona’s anti-immigration law, said his candidate will not support any legislation that opens a path to citizenship for immigrants.

But perhaps Romney-Martinez 2012 is not meant to be anyway, as Martinez has repeatedly said she’s not interested in being vice president and Romney is supposedly looking for an “incredibly boring white guy” — criteria which excludes Martinez at least twice over.

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NEWS FLASH

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez: My Gay Hair Stylist ‘Talked Too Much’ | New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) said she would be happy to take her “shoulder length bob” to a new stylist, after Antonio Darden publicly refused to cut her hair in protest of her opposition to marriage equality. “First of all, if reporters would ask me the first question, which would be ‘Is he my hair stylist?’ The answer is no,” Martinez told reporters after a meeting with the White House. “He did my hair three times when I first moved to Santa Fe. But frankly he talked too much … I just went, ‘You know, I go here to relax.” Darden told local news reporters that Martinez shouldn’t return to his hair salon until she respects the right of gay and lesbian people to marry.

Related Posts

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez Loses Her Hair Stylist Over Gay Marriage Opposition

By Igor Volsky on Feb 28, 2012 at 12:04 pm

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LGBT

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez Loses Her Hair Stylist Over Gay Marriage Opposition

By Igor Volsky on Feb 22, 2012 at 9:00 am

An openly-gay hair stylist in New Mexico is protesting Gov. Susana Martinez’s (R) opposition to same-sex marriage by refusing to style her hair unless she changes her position on the issue. KOB Eyewitness News 4 reports that Antonio Darden, “a popular stylist who runs Antonio’s Hair Studio in Santa Fe, said he cut Martinez’ hair three times” but is now refusing to see his famous client:

“The governor’s aides called not too long ago, wanting another appointment to come in,” Darden said. “Because of her stances and her views on this I told her aides no. They called the next day, asking if I’d changed my mind about taking the governor in and I said no again.”

The governor has said she believes marriage should be between a man and a woman, and that does not cut it with Darden.

“I think it’s just equality, dignity for everyone,” the popular hair stylist said. “I think everybody should be allowed the right to be together. My partner and I have been together for 15 years.”

Watch a local news news segment on the story:

During her gubernatorial campaign Martinez answered “no” when asked whether she’d sign a domestic-partnership bill, adding “I don’t think it is necessary. It is not a law I would sign.” She was recently praised by LGBT equality advocates, however, for appointing Doug Howe, a gay man, to the Public Regulation Commission over the opposition of some social conservatives in the state.

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Justice

Anti-Immigrant New Mexico Governor Reveals Her Grandparents Were Undocumented Immigrants

By Marie Diamond on Sep 9, 2011 at 9:40 am

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R)
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) has long been known for her vitriolic rhetoric against undocumented immigrants. Just this week, she slammed presidential contender Rick Perry (R-TX) for once supporting the DREAM Act and comprehensive immigration reform. “It is not comprehensive reform to put people who are here illegally, who violated the law, and put them in front of the line for those folks who have been waiting and doing all the right things to come to the United States,” she said.

But on Wednesday, Martinez surprised many when she admitted that her own grandparents were among those “people…who violated the law” when they came to the U.S. as undocumented immigrants:

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez has acknowledged her paternal grandparents came to the U.S. illegally, amid national attention and protests over her ongoing efforts to bar illegal immigrants from getting driver’s licenses.

“I know they arrived without documents, especially my father’s father,” the Republican said Wednesday in an interview in Spanish with KLUZ-TV, the Albuquerque Univision affiliate. [...]
Martinez has made headlines recently for her push to repeal a state law that lets illegal immigrants get a New Mexico driver’s license. She has added the issue to the agenda for a special session on redistricting that opened Tuesday.

This is the first time Martinez has definitively answered questions about her grandparents’ immigration status, and admitted that she would not be in this country — let alone be a governor — if they had not entered the U.S. without papers. At a rally yesterday against Martinez’s effort to repeal the driver’s license law, protesters held placards that read, “Dear Susana. Do you know your history? Did you forget your roots?”

Martinez’s office was quick to preemptively denounce anyone who would “personally attack the governor” for this revelation. But given her hard-line stance and willingness to separate other families who are undocumented, many activists hope she will keep her own roots in mind when issues like the DREAM Act come up.

This week, Martinez reiterated, “I don’t support piecemeal legislation such as the DREAM Act.” However, Martinez should know better than anyone that we don’t control our parents’ or grandparents’ actions, and shouldn’t be punished for them.

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Climate Progress

Governors Races: Losing The Western Climate Initiative

By Brad Johnson on Oct 18, 2010 at 5:15 pm

This is the last of a four-part Wonk Room series examining the implications for climate and clean energy policy of the 2010 gubernatorial races. Read Part One, on heartland states, Part Two, on Tea Party candidates, Part Three, on Northeast races, or view the full governor-race compilation.

The Western Climate Initiative — a regional cap-and-trade compact between California, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Montana and four Canadian provinces — was established in 2007 and scheduled to go into effect in 2012. There are governors’ races in all the states except Montana and Washington. Republican governors in Arizona and Utah — who are cruising to re-election this fall — have already worked to scuttle their involvement. California’s contribution, the legislation known as AB 32, is under threat both from the Proposition 23 ballot initiative and from Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman. The future of the compact rides on the governors’ races this November in California, New Mexico, and Oregon:

ARIZONA: Terry Goddard v. Jan Brewer
CALIFORNIA: Jerry Brown v. Meg Whitman
NEW MEXICO: Diane Denish v. Susana Martinez
OREGON: John Kitzhaber v. Chris Dudley
UTAH: Peter Corroon v. Gary Herbert

ARIZONA: Terry Goddard v. Jan Brewer

538 forecast: 4 percent Democratic pickup

Jan Brewer, who assumed the governorship when Democrat Janet Napolitano was chosen as Secreatary of Health and Human Services, officially recognizes the threat of global warming pollution but has pulled Arizona out of any effort to cap its pollution. In her executive order in February 2010 that announced Arizona would not participate in the Western Climate Initiative’s regional cap-and-trade program, Brewer admitted:

Arizona is a growing state whose greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been projected to rise, based on historical trends, as Arizona will experience population and economic growth in the future. [Executive Order 2010-06, 2/2/10]

The executive order also ordered the state to “review its adoption of the California Clean Cars Program, in light of national vehicle standards coming into place.” However, Brewer still wants the state to participate in the regional compact to “have a seat at the table” on climate issues.

Brewer promotes the state’s 15 percent-by-2025 renewable standard, and supports “adding more nuclear power to Arizona’s energy supply.”

Brewer’s opponent, Democratic Attorney General Terry Goddard, is much more concerned about the threat global warming poses to Arizona. Responding to the Supreme Court’s decision compelling the EPA to act on global warming pollution and the 2007 IPPC climate report, Goddard wrote that “it is abundantly clear that if more steps are not taken soon to respond to global climate change, Arizona will be among the places paying the biggest price.” In 2009, Goddard defended “the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to grant states the right to regulate global warming pollution from automobiles.”

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