N.M. Gov. Susana Martinez making waves in GOP

By Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times

Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013 | 2 a.m.

SANTA FE, N.M. — In 2010, New Mexico’s Susana Martinez made history, being elected the nation’s first Latina governor. Since November, she’s made waves, criticizing Mitt Romney for the harsh rhetoric of his presidential campaign and chiding fellow Republicans for actions that, she says, have needlessly estranged Hispanics from the GOP.

“We have to make sure that, as Republicans, we don’t just visit Latinos during election time but that we make them part of the solution,” Martinez said in an interview. “It’s extremely important that we elect people that look like the population they serve.”

Martinez is a strong favorite for re-election in 2014. Beyond that, the former prosecutor and Democrat-turned-Republican is touted as a potential U.S. attorney general or even vice president in a future GOP administration.

But here at home, some question Martinez’s ability to advise her party, much less serve as a role model for Republicans grappling with their poor image among Hispanics.

The doubts point to the highly charged politics surrounding immigration and related issues and underscore the challenge Republicans face as they try reaching out to Hispanics without antagonizing the party’s conservative base, as well as supporters who resist any easing of the GOP’s hard-line stance.

Martinez has advantages other Republicans can’t easily match, including a charismatic personality, a compelling up-by-the-bootstraps history and the benefit of running in a majority-minority state where Hispanics have been an integral part of the power structure for decades.

“She can go into rural Hispanic areas and tell (her) story and impress a lot of people,” said Brian Sanderoff, New Mexico’s leading independent pollster. “It’s a lot easier for a female Hispanic Republican to pull off than a middle-aged white guy, frankly.”

But Martinez also has been a surprisingly divisive figure. Though she enjoys strong public approval ratings, she has a contentious relationship with Democrats in Santa Fe, the state capital, as well as with many Hispanics activists, who accuse her of scapegoating Hispanic newcomers and exploiting anti-immigrant sentiments for political gain.

“It’s one thing to talk about changing tone and rhetoric,” said Marcela Diaz, head of Somos Un Pueblo Unido, a group that has waged protests against Martinez and opposes her efforts to repeal the state law allowing illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses. “We’d like to see a change in tone and rhetoric, accompanied by action.”

Martinez, speaking by phone from her Capitol office, cited polls that showed an overwhelming majority of New Mexicans — including most Hispanics — favored repeal of the driver’s license privilege, passed in 2003 under her Democratic predecessor, Bill Richardson.

Another poll, putting the question differently, found that a substantial majority of New Mexico Hispanics favored reforming the law, rather than repealing it.

“It’s not a controversial issue,” Martinez said. “The only ones who seem to call it a controversial issue are the people from the media.”

Martinez won a tough primary by accusing her main rival of favoring “amnesty” for backing legislation, proposed by President George W. Bush, that aimed to stiffen border enforcement, create a guest-worker program and establish a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants. Any comprehensive bill that passes Congress probably would contain those same elements.

Asked whether the attack on her opponent, a former state GOP chairman, had been a mistake, the governor quickly replied, “No.”

“There are many solutions to people who are here illegally that are between amnesty and deporting 12 million people,” she said.

“I’m very pleased that Mrs. Martinez has come around to my position,” the former chairman, Allen Weh, said dryly.

Martinez, 53, grew up in a bilingual household in El Paso, Texas. As a teenager she worked in her father’s security business, toting a .357 Magnum — “That gun weighed more than I did!” — while patrolling the parking lot at church bingos, something she recounted in a well-received speech at last summer’s Republican National Convention.

After college and law school, Martinez crossed the state line into New Mexico, switched parties and was elected district attorney in Dona Ana County, in the far south of the state, where she served four terms as chief prosecutor. She was a distinct underdog in the gubernatorial primary but surged to victory thanks in good part to her tough-on-immigration stance.

Martinez largely abandoned the issue in the general election, but she took a firm stand opposing the driver’s license law — a position shared by the Democrat she beat.