Free Republic

New Mexico's legislative Democrats are busy dialing up controversy over Republican Gov. Susana Martinez' use of robocalls to voters in her effort to get an up-or-down vote on issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Lawmakers should try dialing up Illinois, Georgia, Florida or New York instead. In recent months people have been charged with bringing over immigrants who are living in those states, which do not provide driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, to New Mexico. Or they could take an extra step and punch in a foreign area code to call Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Poland or Russia....

Governor Martinez's political team is getting congratulations for winning an award for producing the best statewide TV spot in 2010 in the USA. The ad from Lincoln Strategy Group was called "Convicted" and showed Martinez destroying the credibility of an attack ad from Dem Guv nominee Diane Denish. The ad was produced by consultant Jay McCleskey who recently announced plans to open his own consulting firm. The Reed awards were handed out by Campaign and Elections Magazine in D.C.

It seems the state of New Mexico is taking after its neighboring state. New Mexico governor Susana Martinez said Monday that New Mexico is no longer an illegal immigrant sanctuary state, issuing an order to officially reverse the state’s status. Ms. Martinez ordered the reversal of the state’s “sanctuary status,” which prohibited law enforcement from asking criminal suspects about their citizenship. The move aligns the state with Arizona, which passed a law mandating officials inquire about an individual’s immigration status. A number of immigrant-rights group protested the move, saying it will allow for discriminatory practices. The move makes New Mexico...

Former Gov. Bill Richardson signed a contract with a child care workers union on his last day in office that the new administration says could cost taxpayers a half-million dollars. The contract covers an estimated 2,600 child care workers under contract with the state Children, Youth and Families Department to provide home care for the children of low-income parents. It sets up an arbitration and grievance process for child care providers who take state payments and establishes a system in which dues are deducted from paychecks and sent directly to their union. Martinez's staff contends the contract will require CYFD...

Like fellow Republican governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina, New Mexico's new governor, Susana Martinez, is her state's first female chief executive. She is also the nation's first Latina governor, as Haley is the first woman governor in the United States of Indian descent.But Martinez is not new to public service, having been a prosecutor for nearly a quarter-century. Her full biography is here. Her husband, Chuck Franco, has also had a long career in law enforcement. See the couple's photo below greeting a little girl.

My wife and I braved the 8 degree temperatures and drove to Santa Fe for Susana's swearing in and Inaugural speech. I had a pretty good vantage point so I thought I would share these clips with my fellow Freepers. Sarah had campaigned here for her, which I think gave her a good boost!

Last September, I drew attention to some strange polling that I had come across in New Mexico. I was astonished to learn at the time that 53 percent of New Mexico voters supported Arizona's SB 1070. That included 39 percent of Hispanics in New Mexico. How can this be? Why would Hispanics support Arizona's "racist papers please" law in such large numbers? Progressive Democrats in the mainstream media have spent months telling America that the Republican Party is doomed in 2012 because "nativists" are alienating the fast growing Hispanic electorate. Fastforward to January 2010. New Mexico, the state where Hispanics...

SANTA FE, N.M. – New Mexico’s newly elected Gov. Susana Martinez has come out swinging with a budget proposal that would cut spending and close the budget deficit without raising taxes or making cuts to classroom spending or health care for New Mexico’s most vulnerable. Martinez also stated one of her first priorities is to revoke driver licenses issued to illegal aliens, pointing out since Arizona passed SB 1070, illegal aliens have been pouring in to New Mexico, which does not require proof of citizenship to obtain licenses.

Gov. Susana Martinez has had only a couple of months to hire a staff that will run the executive branch of state government, build a proposed budget and come up with a legislative agenda before New Mexico lawmakers convene Tuesday. It hasn't left much time to move. "We have boxes everywhere," the former district attorney from Las Cruces told the Journal. "I can find one shoe, but not the other. It's very difficult." Meanwhile, the official Santa Fe digs for the new governor and her husband, former Doña Ana County Undersheriff Chuck Franco, haven't been a quick fit either. They...

In a petition filed Tuesday with the state Supreme Court, New Energy Economy Inc. alleged that the administration circumvented the state's rule-making process and encroached on the powers of the Legislature and the state Court of Appeals. The petition filed by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center asks the state's highest court to order the new regulation reinstated and order Martinez to stop interfering with the rule-making process. Martinez's office did not respond to a request for comment on the petition. Immediately after she took office on Jan. 1, the Republican governor ordered a 90-day hold on proposed or pending...

Former U.S. Sen. Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, a geologist and Apollo astronaut who bucks conventional theory on human-caused global warming, was named Thursday by Gov. Susana Martinez to head the state's Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. Schmitt, a Silver City native who was elected to the Senate in 1976 and defeated after one term by current officeholder Jeff Bingaman, is one of the last people to walk on the moon. His appointment drew immediate fire from environmentalists. "We are disheartened to see the selection of a climate change denier," said Sandy Buffett, executive director of the Santa Fe-based Conservation Voters...

Former astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon and served in the U.S. Senate, was nominated Thursday by Gov. Susana Martinez to run a state agency that oversees energy production in New Mexico. Schmitt was selected as cabinet secretary of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. Schmitt, 75, was one of the last men to walk on the moon as part of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. He won election to the Senate in 1976, but lost his re-election bid in 1982 to Democrat Jeff Bingaman, who remains in the Senate.Martinez said the Schmitt's task is to...

New Mexico, the only state besides California to move forward on comprehensive global warming regulations, is reversing course under a new Republican governor, Susana Martinez. The move threatens to cripple the Western Climate Initiative, a California-driven effort to enact a regional trading program to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Martinez, who replaced Democrat Bill Richardson, announced on Tuesday that she is removing all members of New Mexico's Environmental Improvement Board because of what she said was its "anti-business" policies. After a heated debate, the board last year approved measures to limit the emissions of the state's largest polluters and to join...

Gov. Susana Martinez on Tuesday took aim at the controversial Environmental Improvement Board, announcing that she was removing all members over concerns about the board's approval in recent months of what she considers "anti-business" policies. The board — made up of members appointed by former Gov. Bill Richardson — was at the center of a heated debate last year over whether New Mexico should regulate greenhouse-gas emissions. The board ultimately decided to approve two proposals — one from an environmental group that aimed to limit the emissions of the state's largest polluters and another from the state Environment Department that...

Martinez Halts Environmental RulesPOSTED: 1:51 pm MST January 5, 2011 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Gov. Susana Martinez's administration is making good on campaign promises to drop new regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions by canceling their planned publication in the state register. Officials at the state Environment Department made the request to keep the rules from being published. A state records official confirmed Wednesday that he has received the request and the rules will not be published. The move is being criticized by environmental groups and lawyers who spent the past two years debating the merits of the rules before...

Alamogordo, New Mexico (CNN) – When CNN interviewed Susana Martinez, New Mexico's Republican candidate for Governor, we got a surprise. Our cameraman John Torigoe was trying to clip the microphone pack to the candidate's belt when she pulled away and said "Be careful, that's a gun back there." Martinez tells CNN she has a permit to carry a concealed weapon. She was packing heat when she addressed a gathering in Alamogordo, New Mexico on Monday. She warned them not to get too confident because "as Republicans we're outnumbered."

SANTA FE — Hours before she was sworn in as New Mexico's new governor, Susana Martinez was welcomed for New Year's Eve Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. Martinez, a Catholic, arrived Friday evening behind dozens of friends and family members who piled out of a bus to fill the pews inside the century-and-a-half-old church. Wrapped up against single-digit temperatures in a long black coat and purple scarf, Martinez walked with her husband, Chuck Franco, up the steps leading to the front of the church as the bells pealed. She paused to wave at a spectators...

Gov.-elect Susana Martinez named certified public accountant and business owner Demesia Padilla as her nominee for the state Taxation and Revenue Department Secretary on Friday. "I selected Ms. Padilla because she is a professional administrator, one who understands how New Mexico tax code affects businesses, families and certainly the parents that live in New Mexico," Martinez told an Albuquerque news conference Friday. Padilla has owned and operated her own tax preparation and consulting business in New Mexico for 18 years, formerly worked as an IRS agent and ran an unsuccessful campaign for state treasurer in 2006. Martinez said Padilla has...

Authorities say a person has been arrested in the Baltimore area for plotting to blow up a military recruitment center. Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Baltimore, tells The Associated Press the person will appear in court Wednesday afternoon. An FBI spokesman also confirmed the arrest. They did not provide any more details. An official who was briefed on the arrest told AP on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information that the person was given a phony bomb and was arrested after trying to detonate it. The official says...

Geraldo Rivera appeared on The O’Reilly Factor Wednesday night to argue that Mohammed Hussein, the man who attempted to bomb a military recruitment center in Catonsville, Maryland, was entrapped by the FBI.  For a reporter who claims to strongly support the military (when he isn’t giving military positions away on the air in a war zone), this position comes as something of a shock. Video 1:27 minutes (via Blogmocracy)It’s tempting to see Rivera’s position through a racial lens. In the clip he attributes not only the Baltimore plot, but also the Sears Tower plot and  a couple of others...