Governor Susana Martinez (R-NM): VP Vetting Process Now Complete

Gov. Martinezs Policy Record Holds Back Her National Political Ambitions
As Mitt Romney inches his way toward the Republican presidential nomination, the attention of political handicappers and pundits is beginning to shift to the potential vice presidential choice. Included on the short list of speculative running mates is New Mexicos Republican Gov. Susana Martinez. POLITICO listed Gov. Martinez as one of six leading vice presidential contenders and later noted that Gov. Martinez clearly ranks among the Republican newcomers who could bolster her party in a Democratic-leaning swing state and perhaps expand its geographic and demographic reach more broadly. Yet as the New York Times political blog The Caucus recently wrote, In any other year, your musings might lead you to, say, Gov. Susana Martinez of New MexicoBut in the world after Sarah Palin and Game Change, the chances of Mitt Romney or anyone else choosing a first-term governor lacking a national brand name and experience are greatly diminished. However good a fit she might be on paper, Ms. Martinez probably bears too many surface similarities to Ms. Palin to get a serious lookFor any Republican who makes it onto the short list of possible vice presidential nominees, the vetting process this year promises to be as thorough and intrusive as the vetting of Ms. Palin was rushed and incomplete. As there are questions about Gov. Martinezs vetting process, we decided to save the Romney research team some trouble. Upon examination, Gov. Martinezs policy record and pattern for executive overreach call into question both her acumen and appeal to national audiences. By siding with out-of-state corporate interests at the expense of working people and small business owners in New Mexico and by pushing a public employee collective bargaining agenda disturbingly similar to that of Governors John Kasich (R-OH) and Scott Walker (RWI), Gov. Martinez has called her national political viability into

question. If Gov. Martinezs best political asset is to expand the Partys reach, her recent policy directions narrow her appeal significantly. In reality, she is both pushing a narrow ideological agenda and doing so through an extreme brand of executive overreach. See below for several recent examples of how Gov. Martinez is following a policy path that could hurt her potential national political prospects:

Gov. Martinez Standing with Out of State Corporate Special Interests over New Mexico Small Businesses and Workers: Earlier this month, Gov. Martinez vetoed legislation that would improve New Mexicos fiscal situation and aid New Mexico small businesses and working families. The bi-partisan Corporate Fair Tax bill, SB9, passed the New Mexico State Legislature and would have required out of state corporations to begin to pay their fair share of state taxes. Until recently, out-of-state corporations in New Mexico paid no taxes at all, putting a bigger share of the state's tax burden on taxpayers and small businesses. New Mexico is the only western state that does not collect this tax. Over the last three years the New Mexico legislature has cut $1 billion in funding to education, health care, public safety, and community services. Meanwhile, one in four children in New Mexico go to bed hungry every night. Classrooms are overcrowded and understaffed. Cities and towns are forced to lay off police and firefighters, putting public safety at risk. Forty percent of New Mexico's bridges are crumbling and dangerous to cross. The Corporate Fair Tax Bill would have leveled the playing field and made multistate corporations pay their fair share of corporate taxes. New Mexico is missing out on tens of millions of dollars of revenue every year that could pay for the community services. Right now New Mexico-based businesses that dont have this loophole are competing against these big corporations at a considerable disadvantage. Gov. Martinez vetoed the bill in spite of revisions to secure broad support and passage in the state legislature and pressure from a variety of in-state messengers to sign the bill in the best interest of New Mexico businesses and New Mexico workers. As the Santa Fe New Mexican reported recently, Supporters of a bill that would require big-box retail chains to pay more taxes in New Mexico handed in more than 5,000 petition signatures to Gov. Susana Martinez's office Thursday Earlier this week, the Communications Workers of America launched a website, Ohsusana.org, to encourage individuals to ask Martinez to sign the legislation. The group also is using Facebook to target ads to New Mexicans on the social networking site. Overall, the Governor received over 5,000 petitions, 2,000 calls to her office and a targeted advertising campaign delivered a combined total of over 1.4 million impressions via Facebook and through Google Ads, with the message Stop Governor Susana

Martinez from hurting New Mexico small businesses and workerstell Martinez to sign SB9 and call for A New Mexico for New Mexicans instead of out-of-state corporate interests.

Gov. Martinez State Supreme Court Rebukes Her for Types of Executive OverreachFOUR Times!: New Mexicos Supreme Court has rebuked Gov. Martinez multiple times for a similar reason executive overreach. Gov. Martinez has shown a special willingness to overreach when concerning issues of partisan politics and when trying to overturn progressive policy achievements. The four separate occasions involved Gov. Martinez overstepping her boundaries by attempting to establish overly partisan redistricting maps for the state legislature; trying to issue a line item veto on housing funding; trying to arbitrarily remove two members of the state Public Employee Labor Relations Board; and attempting to delay greenhouse gas emissions rules issued by the state Environmental Impact Board. As the Santa Fe New Mexican noted in understated fashion, Martinez's record before the New Mexico Supreme Court has not been good. Gov. Martinez Union-Busting in the Mold of OH & WI: Additionally, Gov. Martinez continues to try and silence the voices and strip the basic rights of New Mexico state employees. As the Albuquerque Journal recently noted, With a new round of talks approaching, Gov. Susana Martinezs administration and union negotiators are far apart on a new collective bargaining agreement for more than 12,000 rank-and-file state workers. Individuals on both sides of the talks are bracing for the negotiations to drag into the summer, if not longer, as more than a dozen issues remain unresolved. As Robin Gould of CWA-New Mexico told the paper, Its going to be a long haul, because we disagree on almost every point. New Mexico state employees are already restricted in what they are allowed to negotiate fortheyre currently prohibited from bargaining for pensions; and have in the past been forced to take furlough days, pay cuts, and heavier workloads with little say in the process. Yet Gov. Martinezs demands go even further, and if implemented, they have dangerous potential to harm New Mexicos working families while enriching corporate interests. Among Gov. Martinezs proposals for state workers are: Prohibiting sick days and giving free reign to outsource state jobs to the private sector allowing her to reward her private sector contributors even further. Gov. Martinezs proposals translate into a near-feudal public employment system, where upper-level managers possess exclusive, unchecked control over workload, performance reviews, discipline, and preferential treatment. They are also reminiscent of the union-busting

approaches advanced by other ideologically-motivated Republican governors. Despite the political blowback suffered by Governors John Kasich (R-OH) and Scott Walker (R-WI) due to their embrace of an unfettered corporate agenda at the expense of working people, Gov. Martinez seems intent to follow in their footsteps. In Ohio, voters in November 2011 offered a resounding defeat to Gov. Kasichs signature legislation, voting to repeal his legislation that restricted collective bargaining in the state. In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker is facing a recall election in 2012 a direct consequence of using the cover of the states fiscal crisis to gut collective bargaining and silence workers voices. Unsurprisingly, you dont find either Gov. Walker or Gov. Kasich on the short-list of VP names.

Gov. Martinez Rewarding Her Campaign Contributors & Ideological Backers? Perhaps it is unsurprising that Gov. Martinez is all-in on rewards for corporate interests they are her largest political patrons. A number of outside forces have helped to shape Martinezs political direction. During the 2010 campaign cycle, the infamous Koch brothers notorious for their close ties to ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council) and for their donations to ideologically extreme right-wing Governors, causes and national-level elected officialscontributed $10,000 to the Martinez campaign. Martinez also received $1.3 million from the Republican Governors Association, who themselves took over $1 million from the Koch brothers. But its not just Martinezs campaign contributions that make for obvious ties between her administration and the outside right-wing groups most known for tampering with state legislative activitystate political blog Clearly New Mexico reported earlier this year that error-ridden language from a bill crafted by the billionaire Koch Brothers and served up as a template for a number of states had recently surfaced in the New Mexico state Legislature. The legislationa near replica of one of ALECs model bills, provided to state legislators for a small membership feewould have pulled the state out of the Western Climate Initiative (a regional pact formed in 2007 to reduce the effects of climate change). Unsurprisingly, withdrawing from the WCI also happens to be listed as one of the top recommendations of the Governors Small Business-Friendly Task Force, which appears to recommend Martinez revise or rescind virtually every pending environmental regulation and a number of existing ones. [Clearly New Mexico, March 17, 2011].

Driving ideologically extreme policy proposals in a heavy-handed manner has the potential to define Gov. Martinez to a broad swath of people to whom she may be unfamiliarin a way that may be

damaging to her national political prospects. Tough talk around unions and legislating with a corporate wish list in mind may be what works in a GOP primary and might prove popular with the GOPs ideologically extreme base but whats important for the general election and the vice-presidential nod is another thing altogether. If Gov. Martinez is really a serious candidate to be vice president, it will be for her potential to expand the Republican Partys appeal. Yet by consistent overreaching, pushing for an unyielding procorporate and anti-worker policy agenda, Gov. Martinez is stepping all over her best potential political asset and weakening her potential to be a viable national political figure.