{"id":4748,"date":"2009-07-17T20:52:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-18T02:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/07\/martinez-announcement-draws-bipartisan-crowd\/"},"modified":"2009-07-17T20:52:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-18T02:52:00","slug":"martinez-announcement-draws-bipartisan-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/07\/martinez-announcement-draws-bipartisan-crowd\/","title":{"rendered":"Martinez announcement draws bipartisan crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Republican DA pledges to end pay to play, says winning in 2010 \u2018is not going to be an easy task\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most noteworthy attendees at Do\u00f1a Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez\u2019s<\/a> news conference announcing her gubernatorial campaign this evening was County Commissioner Oscar V\u00e1squez Butler<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Martinez is a Republican, and Butler is a Democrat — one who has been publicly critical of the district attorney\u2019s office and others in law enforcement who are close to Martinez in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to eat,\u201d Butler said when first approached just before the start of Martinez\u2019s announcement at Roberto\u2019s restaurant in Las Cruces. Questioned further, he said he\u2019s not supporting Martinez, and added, \u201cI\u2019m just here to hear what she has to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

A moment later, Martinez walked in. She and Butler exchanged a handshake and a joke.<\/p>\n

The moment passed. Butler didn\u2019t stick around long. But he made an appearance.<\/p>\n

That anecdote is indicative of the relationship many Democrats in the county have with Martinez. She has won election four times — twice with almost 60 percent of the vote — in a heavily Democratic county.<\/p>\n

And Butler knows that.<\/p>\n

Democrat is \u2018excited to see her in the race\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Butler wasn\u2019t the only Democrat who showed up to see Martinez announce that she wants to become the first Las Crucen to be elected governor since Garrey Carruthers<\/a> did it in 1986.<\/p>\n

\u201cThough I fully support Diane (Denish)<\/a>, Susana has done a lot of good for Las Cruces and Do\u00f1a Ana County, and I\u2019m excited to see her in the race,\u201d said Michael Ray Huerta, another Democrat who attended Martinez\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

Huerta is a member of the Democratic Party\u2019s state central committee and worked on the campaign of U.S. Rep. Harry Teague<\/a>, D-N.M. last year. Like Butler, he said he attended Martinez\u2019s announcement \u201cto check her out and see what she had to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Democrat in attendance was Arturo Uribe, an activist from Mesquite who works with a non-partisan organization that organizes candidate forums during elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s exciting that we have someone like Susana Martinez running,\u201d Uribe said, adding that \u201ctoday is a historic day in Do\u00f1a Ana County\u201d and also saying he\u2019s not endorsing Martinez or anyone else.<\/p>\n

Martinez, 50, has been district attorney since beating then-incumbent Democrat Greg Valdez for the job in 1996. Martinez was a Democrat when she worked in Valdez\u2019s office in the early 1990s, but he fired her. She switched parties and successfully ran against him after suing for wrongful termination and winning a settlement of more than $100,000 from the state.<\/p>\n

That party switch and some of her prosecutions of public officials have made Martinez unpopular with many local leaders in the Democratic Party, but that hasn\u2019t stopped her from winning re-election three times in a Democratic stronghold of a county.<\/p>\n

A pledge to end pay to play<\/span><\/p>\n

Martinez gave a brief speech this evening in which she said public safety is her top priority but also talked about improving education, empowering small businesses and putting an end to pay to play in state government.<\/p>\n

She said she has learned from being a prosecutor the importance of treating all people equally, regardless of their financial status.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to treat everyone the same, regardless of who you gave money to or who you didn\u2019t give money to,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n

Of course, it wasn\u2019t only Democrats who attended the announcement. Most of the well over 150 people in attendance were Republicans.<\/p>\n

Among them was Aaron Henry Diaz, a Republican activist and blogger<\/a>. He said Martinez \u201cis something New Mexico needs at this time,\u201d saying the county was full of \u201ccorruption and patron, dirty politics\u201d when she took office and she has done a lot to clean it up.<\/p>\n

A tough road ahead<\/span><\/p>\n

In an interview following the event, Martinez said she isn\u2019t resigning from the district attorney job and doesn\u2019t plan to stop working while she campaigns. Though her staff will pick up much of the workload, Martinez described herself as a workaholic who is connected all the time — even in her vehicle — through technology, so she\u2019ll be able to travel the state campaigning while still working.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t just drive and I don\u2019t just sit in the car,\u201d she said. \u201cI work in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for her campaign, Martinez said she has interviewed some potential staffers but not yet hired any.<\/p>\n

Asked how she\u2019ll raise enough money to compete, Martinez said she has been introduced to several business owners in Albuquerque and around the state who often contribute to campaigns, so she believes she\u2019ll be able to raise money from those who can afford to give a lot. She was handed a check for $100 at tonight\u2019s announcement, which she said is indicative of her ability to raise lots of money through smaller donations from working-class people the way President Barack Obama did in 2008.<\/p>\n

Martinez acknowledged during her speech the tough road ahead of her.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not going to be an easy task,\u201d she said. \u201cI have a lot of money to raise and I have a lot of ground to cover.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez is the only declared Republican candidate for governor, but several other Republicans are also considering running.<\/p>\n

Former state GOP Chairman Allen Weh<\/a> and state Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones<\/a> have formed exploratory committees. Former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson<\/a> and Doug Turner<\/a>, CEO of the Albuquerque-based public relations firm DW Turner, say they are seriously considering running for the GOP nomination. All are Albuquerque residents.<\/p>\n

On the Democratic side, Lt. Gov. Denish is the only declared candidate, though Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez<\/a> says he\u2019s formed an exploratory committee.<\/p>\n

This article has been updated for clarity.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican DA pledges to end pay to play, says winning in 2010 \u2018is not going to be an easy task\u2019 One of the most noteworthy attendees at Do\u00f1a Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez\u2019s news conference announcing her gubernatorial campaign this evening was County Commissioner Oscar V\u00e1squez Butler. Martinez is a Republican, and Butler is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4748","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=4748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}