Javier Gonzales
As Democratic Party chair, it is part of my job to hold the Republican Party and its leadership accountable. So no one will be surprised if I often take a critical view of our new Republican governor.
We all hope that our governor will be a thoughtful leader committed to getting our economy moving forward, but we must never forget that it is our duty to hold her accountable for her promises and to fight to ensure that the voices of New Mexico’s working families are heard by their government.
Unfortunately, recent events have led to legitimate questions about Governor Martinez’s focus and the direction she is taking our state. All the more reason I was bemused to read a Martinez backer defend her crisis leadership on this site and in the Albuquerque Journal.
A troubling pattern
In just the past few weeks alone, Gov. Martinez’s missteps are creating a troubling pattern that has become harder and harder for New Mexicans to ignore.
These include the following:
- She nominated an energy secretary who refused to follow basic Senate Rules Committee procedures related to background checks. No one would argue a governor needs appointees she can trust to carry out her agenda. While I respect his personal accomplishments, Harrison Schmitt’s views are too far outside of the mainstream for such an important position.
- Her failure to name one single New Mexican to her education-reform team is a second example. Either this is a PR blunder or Martinez truly believes there are no New Mexicans capable of instituting her education reform ideas. Not putting a single New Mexican on the team is a slap in the face to any New Mexicans who ever worked to improve our schools – parents, teachers and the hundreds of thousands of New Mexicans who are products of the system.
- Another example is when it was recently learned that she allowed industry lobbyists and lawyers to write a policy halting common-sense clean-water rules. Gov. Martinez ran for office promising to put an end to backroom deals. Now we’ve learned that one of her first official actions was just more politics as usual in Santa Fe.
- In addition, there have been legitimate questions raised about her handling of the recent natural gas crisis. If you look at the 2008 Ruidoso floods and the 2007 Curry and Quay county tornadoes, former Governor Richardson had FEMA doing an on-the-ground assessment three days after the events. It took Martinez seven days from the gas shut off to get FEMA on the ground.
- Finally, and probably most important, Martinez has put forward no plan to address New Mexico’s most pressing issue – job creation. Short of a few words about a rail project in the south, Martinez has said little if anything about jobs and her proposals to slash film incentives would actually harm job creation in the state. Meanwhile, Democrats have already released a plan that would create jobs through tax incentives that would bring manufacturing jobs to our state.
Holding the administration accountable
As the Democratic Party state chair, I am proud to lead the Democratic Party as we fight to hold the Republican administration accountable and stand up for New Mexico’s hard working families.
Rahm Emanuel is right. Crises are opportunities to do things we never thought we could do. Tough times and crises are supposed to bring out the best in our leaders. New Mexicans are starting to wonder just what kind of leadership they’re getting from their new governor.
Gonzales is chairman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico.