{"id":23391,"date":"2010-11-11T11:16:06","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T18:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=23391"},"modified":"2010-11-17T09:33:34","modified_gmt":"2010-11-17T16:33:34","slug":"martinez-says-she%e2%80%99s-proud-to-be-part-of-changing-the-gop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/11\/martinez-says-she%e2%80%99s-proud-to-be-part-of-changing-the-gop\/","title":{"rendered":"Martinez says she\u2019s proud to be part of changing the GOP"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

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

In a new interview with CNN\u2019s John King, Gov.-elect Susana Martinez<\/a> said she\u2019s going to tell President Obama that Washington needs to reform the nation\u2019s immigration system. She also said she\u2019s proud as a Hispanic woman to be helping change the Republican Party.<\/p>\n

\u201cI welcome the role of making sure we\u2019re having conversations with other Latinos throughout the country, particularly in the way we did in New Mexico, talking about what\u2019s important to them \u2013 changing the economy in New Mexico, making sure we get our kids educated in the best possible way, and certainly cutting back on spending in state government,\u201d Martinez, the nation\u2019s first Hispanic woman to be elected governor, told King.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I am proud to be part of that conversation with New Mexicans and certainly changing the face of the Republican Party,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

You can watch the interview here<\/a> and read CNN\u2019s post about it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Martinez retold the story of why she switched parties \u2013 from Democrat to Republican \u2013 before she first ran for district attorney in 1996. She said her parents were Democrats and she grew up in a Democratic city, but after a conversation with two Republican friends, she realized her values were more in line with that party and switched.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the same person the way I was before. \u2026 I\u2019m the same conservative individual,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n

Martinez reiterated her usual talking points on immigration reform \u2013 the border must be secured first, she doesn\u2019t want a law like Arizona\u2019s in New Mexico, she wants to repeal the state law that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver\u2019s licenses. She also reiterated her usual stance on solving the state\u2019s budget problems with cuts, not tax increases.<\/p>\n

The president has said he wants to meet with the nation\u2019s new governors. Asked what she will say to Obama if she gets a chance to meet him, Martinez said she \u201cwill talk to him about the border issues and how they must\u2026 deal with it as the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n

King brought up Sarah Palin\u2019s endorsement of Martinez in the primary and asked whether Martinez would endorse Palin for president. Martinez said the decision on who becomes the next president should be made by \u201cthe people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe certainly energized Americans to listen, focus, pay attention to what elected officials are doing. I congratulate her for that,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a new interview with CNN\u2019s John King, Gov.-elect Susana Martinez said she\u2019s going to tell President Obama that Washington needs to reform the nation\u2019s immigration system. She also said she\u2019s proud as a Hispanic woman to be helping change the Republican Party.<\/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-23391","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\/23391","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=23391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23391\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}