{"id":19041,"date":"2010-07-01T15:50:28","date_gmt":"2010-07-01T21:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=19041"},"modified":"2010-07-01T17:34:59","modified_gmt":"2010-07-01T23:34:59","slug":"martinez-calls-e-mail-%e2%80%98deeply-offensive%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/07\/martinez-calls-e-mail-%e2%80%98deeply-offensive%e2%80%99\/","title":{"rendered":"Martinez calls e-mail \u2018deeply offensive\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Susana Martinez<\/p><\/div>\n

Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez<\/a> says an e-mail a prosecutor in her office forwarded that joked about killing a Mexican and an Arab is \u201cdeeply offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her first direct comments on the situation, Martinez, Do\u00f1a Ana County\u2019s district attorney, called Assistant District Attorney Lisa Kuykendall\u2019s forwarding of the e-mail \u201cinappropriate and in violation of my office\u2019s policy, and I take this matter very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez has been hammered by Democrats for not commenting directly on the situation. Until now, she has instead let staffers in her district attorney office and on her campaign comment.<\/p>\n

Martinez\u2019s campaign sent her statement today in response to news that another state employee, who forwarded the e-mail to Kuykendall, had also been disciplined<\/a> by her boss.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Martinez\u2019s full statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cI immediately reprimanded a member of my staff upon viewing the deeply offensive email she forwarded. Her actions were inappropriate and in violation of my office\u2019s policy, and I take this matter very seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, some have seen fit to play politics with this deeply unfortunate incident and my opponent, who was noticeably silent when hundreds of state employees in a department within her cabinet engaged in inappropriate and disturbing behavior on state computers such as accessing pornography. These individuals not only weren\u2019t admonished, in many cases, they were never reprimanded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe voters will make a judgment on who to support based on my record of prosecuting those who have run afoul of our laws and my plans to revive our state\u2019s economy and end the corruption running rampant in Santa Fe. Diane Denish will be judged on her record and her personal and dishonest attacks against me will be seen for what they are. New Mexicans are ready for bold change and understand I am the candidate who will deliver it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Want details on the situation involving pornography to which Martinez referred? I wrote about it Wednesday. Click here<\/a> to read about it.<\/p>\n

As for the e-mail Kuykendall forwarded, it starts with a Mexican man, an Arab man and a New Mexican girl in a bar drinking beer (nonalcoholic for the Arab because he\u2019s a Muslim). Both men shoot their glasses with guns. The Mexican explains that glasses are cheap in Mexico and the Arab says there\u2019s so much sand to make glass where he\u2019s from that he, like the Mexican, never has to drink from the same glass twice.<\/p>\n

Then the girl shoots the Mexican and Arab and says, \u201cIn New Mexico, we have so many illegal aliens we don\u2019t have to drink with the same ones twice.\u201d The e-mail ends with the line, \u201cGod bless New Mexico and that particular New Mexican girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Update, 5:35 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

From state Democratic Party Chairman Javier Gonzales:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s unfortunate that it took three days for\u00a0Susana Martinez\u00a0to condemn this racist and violent email. Martinez\u2019s failure to address this issue from day one speaks volumes about her willingness, or lack thereof, to speak up for what\u2019s right. Condemning racism should not be a difficult thing for a public official to do and Susana Martinez should have immediately sent a clear message that racism isn\u2019t funny or acceptable.\u00a0If Martinez wants New Mexicans to believe she\u2019s now sincere in her criticism of this racist email, she\u2019ll terminate the prosecutor who thought it was funny and appropriate to use taxpayer money to send the so-called \u2018joke\u2019 around the District Attorney\u2019s office. When it comes to racism, a mere slap on the wrist is simply unacceptable.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED: In her first direct comments on the situation, Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez says an e-mail a prosecutor in her office forwarded that joked about killing a Mexican and an Arab is \u201cdeeply offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,140,143,107],"class_list":["post-19041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-race-and-ethnicity","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19041\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}