Susana Martinez
Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez easily won a straw poll taken following a candidate forum Thursday evening in Clovis.
Of 139 people who cast votes, Martinez had 42.4 percent, while Allen Weh had 18 percent, Doug Turner had 15.8 percent, Janice Arnold-Jones had 12.2 percent and Pete Domenici Jr. had 11.5 percent, according to the Clovis News-Journal.
Straw polls aren’t scientific and the results should not be interpreted as an indicator of what Republican voters in Clovis think of the candidates. But straw polls can be a test of organizational strength and, when they follow forums as this one did, might also be a measure of what those in attendance thought.
According to the newspaper, the candidates agreed on a lot of things during the forum, including ideas to sell the Rail Runner, reduce exempt positions and elect a Republican as the next governor.
“I’m sure you’re all here,” the newspaper quoted Turner as saying, “because you don’t support Diane Denish.”
Weh was the only candidate to send out a news release following Thursday’s forum. It stated that he received a “warm welcome, much encouragement from debate attendees in Clovis.”
“I intend to change the way we do business in Santa Fe and get this state’s economy back on track,” Weh said in the release. “At the end of it, state government will be smaller, leaner and more efficient. And when I’m done being your governor, I’m going home – the way our Founding Fathers intended it to be.”
The next forum for the Republican gubernatorial candidates will he held Saturday in Albuquerque from 6:30-9 p.m. at Smith-Brasher Auditorium on the Central New Mexico Community College campus. It’s being sponsored by the Albuquerque Tea Party.
The forum will be broadcast live on KIVA 1550-AM.