Susana Martinez (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
When the Albuquerque Journal first reported in August that Doña Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez’s office had purchased more than $60,000 in office supplies from a company owned by one of her top deputies, Martinez said she would do it again.
Martinez, now the GOP nominee for governor, was quoted by the Journal as saying she would do the same thing as governor, as long as the deal saved money and “so long as there was transparency in that transaction.”
Two months later, following a number of headlines about the deal and repeated attacks from Democrats, Martinez has changed her mind.
In a weekend profile in The Santa Fe New Mexican, Martinez was quoted as saying that, looking back, she might have handled the situation differently because of the appearance created by the deal with her employee’s business.
Here’s what The New Mexican quoted Martinez as saying:
“Instead of just analytically studying the issue and seeing that I didn’t do anything illegal or anything wrong — but the second part of that analysis needs to include (asking) how would that look? And so, certainly, after doing it now, looking back (it) would be something I wouldn’t have done.”