COMMENTARY: Susana Martinez has sometimes given us glimpses of the “bold change” she promised when she first ran for governor in 2010.
For example, she had staffers record and archive video of legislative meetings online when lawmakers refused to do it themselves. Martinez took cameras into the Roundhouse’s dark corners and gave New Mexicans greater access. Faced with the reality that it was happening anyway, lawmakers eventually agreed to archive recordings online themselves.
Heath Haussamen
I’ve known Martinez since she was first elected district attorney in Doña Ana County more than two decades ago. She was laser-focused in a courtroom. Life was black and white. She was asking juries to convict people who killed college students and children.
But governing is complicated. There’s often no clear bad guy. In the gray, Gov. Martinez has sometimes flailed.
Her battle with teachers and their unions has decimated educator morale. Her 2017 veto of higher education funding, in a game of chicken with lawmakers, harmed the state’s image and discouraged some kids from enrolling at New Mexico colleges and universities.
In their zeal, people who see the world as a fight between good and evil sometimes become the villain.
Martinez agreed to expand Medicaid, giving hundreds of thousands of New Mexicans health insurance, but she also decimated the state’s Medicaid-funded behavioral health system. The latter was the most harmful action by government against its people I’ve ever covered as a journalist.
I don’t think Martinez intended harm. A contractor told her administration in 2013 that 15 health providers had problems. Martinez acted to protect taxpayers.
But she overreacted. Martinez could have let the organizations continue providing services to tens of thousands of the most vulnerable New Mexicans while the attorney general investigated allegations of possible fraud. She instead froze their funding, throwing the system into chaos.
Many of the New Mexico organizations closed long before the attorney general cleared them all of wrongdoing. Most Arizona providers brought in to replace them later threw their hands up and left the state. People who depend on a stable safety net had their services disrupted or eliminated.
To this day, Martinez refuses to apologize – or even admit the truth. “We’re providing more behavioral health services in New Mexico than at any point in state history,” she said in her final State of the State Address on Tuesday.
I felt my face flush. I couldn’t believe a woman who fought so righteously for victims as a prosecutor uttered those words with a straight face.
Even if Martinez is technically correct, her statement is disingenuous. “More” doesn’t mean “better.” As an investigation by NMPolitics.net and other news organizations revealed last year, the behavioral health system is still struggling to recover from Martinez’s actions, still leaving people behind, still inadequate.
Martinez is passionate about helping people, especially victims. But as governor, her insular, proud belief in her ability to know what’s best for people has overshadowed that passion.
Martinez, who is in her final year in office, has scorched systems that needed nuanced reform. That attitude may work in a courtroom. But from our governor, it has hurt too many people.
Heath Haussamen is NMPolitics.net’s editor and publisher. Agree with his opinion? Disagree? We welcome your views. Learn about submitting your own commentary here.