{"id":19451,"date":"2010-07-14T06:27:13","date_gmt":"2010-07-14T12:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=19451"},"modified":"2010-07-15T07:58:01","modified_gmt":"2010-07-15T13:58:01","slug":"martinez%e2%80%99s-plans-and-positions-need-more-substance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/07\/martinez%e2%80%99s-plans-and-positions-need-more-substance\/","title":{"rendered":"Martinez\u2019s plans and positions need more substance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

This is the second of two columns examining problems both gubernatorial candidates face. You can read the first column, about Democrat Diane Denish, <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it: Diane Denish<\/a> is killing Susana Martinez<\/a> when it comes to releasing substantive policy positions and detailed plans about what she wants to accomplish as governor.<\/p>\n

Denish has released plans for\u00a0ethics reform<\/a>,\u00a0helping small businesses<\/a>, workforce development<\/a> and\u00a0government reform<\/a>. The closest Martinez has come to issuing a similarly substantive plan came in a fairly detailed guest column<\/a> on this site about growing jobs. She has recently released less-detailed statements about eliminating waste<\/a> and making New Mexico competitive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While both candidates have done some dodging of reporters\u2019 questions<\/a>, as far as I can tell, Martinez has done it more. She failed to answer at least two policy questions asked by journalists that Denish did answer, about a situation involving\u00a0Helena Chemical Company\u2019s facility<\/a> in Mesquite and the Public Regulation Commission\u2019s authority over\u00a0insurance rate hikes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for this to change.<\/p>\n

Martinez has been on fire since her popularity began to spike a few weeks before the primary. Denish tried to halt that surge with a barrage of negative attack ads in June. It doesn\u2019t appear to have worked. Polling has been done since then, and both campaigns are still operating as if the race is neck-and-neck at best, and maybe even leaning in Martinez\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

Martinez is a candidate many find exciting. She\u2019s Hispanic. She\u2019s a woman. She doesn\u2019t fit the mold. She talks about change and has successfully crafted an image as an outsider in a throw-the-bums-out year. She talks about taking down bad guys \u2013 and as a prosecutor she\u2019s actually done it.<\/p>\n

But Martinez\u2019s honeymoon with New Mexico voters won\u2019t carry her through the Nov. 2 election. She\u2019s going to have to go into more detail about her plans and her stances on issues. Voters are paying attention this election cycle. Superficial slogans and statements won\u2019t cut it.<\/p>\n

Martinez must show she\u2019s not an ideologue<\/h3>\n

Martinez is running to the right of the New Mexico electorate. Political analyst Jose Garcia said in early June<\/a> that Martinez doesn\u2019t have to follow the conventional wisdom for Republican candidates and move to the center because her ethnicity and law-enforcement background will attract Hispanic voters. He also predicted, correctly, that the unprecedented dynamics in this race would force Denish to move to the center.<\/p>\n

I have heard from many moderate Democratic and independent voters that they\u2019re interested in Martinez\u2019s candidacy. That\u2019s critical, because she can\u2019t win without those voters.<\/p>\n

Many of those people have told me they don\u2019t know where Martinez stands on most issues. They do know about her far-right stance on immigration \u2013 and it makes them nervous.<\/p>\n

Those are many of the voters still up for grabs: moderate Democrats and independents who are more closely aligned with Denish\u2019s center-left philosophy but are tired of business as usual in Santa Fe and suspect that Martinez will more aggressively try to change things.<\/p>\n

To win them over, Martinez is going to have to take detailed stances on the most important issues to voters \u2013 the economy, education and health care \u2013 in addition to other issues like ethics reform. She doesn\u2019t have to move to the left. But she has to show that she understands the complexities of issues and has tangible plans to accomplish her goals.<\/p>\n

Martinez has to show that, while she may be more conservative than most New Mexico governors in modern history, she\u2019s not an ideologue. Displaying intelligence and substance on the issues would go a long way toward proving that she\u2019s not Sarah Palin<\/a>. Showing that she understands the complexities of issues would create the potential for compromise that will be critical to working with the Legislature and accomplishing anything.<\/p>\n

Haussamen bio<\/a> \u2502\u00a0Commentary archives<\/a> \u2502\u00a0Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many moderate Democrats and independents are interested in Republican Susana Martinez\u2019s candidacy for governor. To win them over, she\u2019s going to have to display intelligence and substance on the issues. She has to show that she\u2019s not an ideologue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[108,107],"class_list":["post-19451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-2010-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19451","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=19451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}