Wow:
http://www.lcsun-news.com/...
Protest ABQ, led by anti-abortion activists Bud and Tara Shaver, has been showing up at recent public appearances by Martinez, the nation's first Latina governor and rising star in the national GOP.
Last weekend, members of the group had a confrontation with Martinez's political strategist, Jay McCleskey, after they took their protest to his neighborhood.
Tara Shaver said McCleskey "degraded" the group with vulgar language.
McCleskey said he confronted the group of about 20 as they marched in front of his house and raced a truck with a graphic billboard up and down the residential street.
"As a father, I objected to this group terrifying young children innocently playing in their neighborhood on a Saturday morning, including my own 8-year-old son, with grotesque posters and billboards of dead fetuses, and I think most parents would share my disgust," McCleskey said.
The confrontation and the governor's office's response has only increased tensions, with Tara Shaver saying Wednesday that group "is going to keep exposing her."
"Essentially, she has a short window of time to prove to us that she really is pro-life," she said. "... She is not really concerned about doing what is right. She is more concerned about getting more pro-choice voters to support her because that is the only way she can win." - Las Cruces News, 6/26/14
More below the fold.
http://www.abqjournal.com/...
Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, agreed that Martinez has not been able to curb abortion in New Mexico, but said the Democratic-controlled Legislature bears most of the blame.
Sharer, among the most conservative members of the Senate, said Martinez backed legislation requiring parental notification for minors seeking abortions in 2012, although the governor did not include that effort on her legislative agenda this year.
“She’s done as much as she can do,” Sharer said. “Unless the Legislature gives her something, what can she do?”
Sharer said Martinez and other Republican lawmakers backed away from abortion issues this year after the 2013 Albuquerque voter referendum showed signs of disagreement among anti-abortion groups. Different groups, for example, pursued competing messaging campaigns during the referendum campaign that some characterized as counterproductive.
“There was infighting between the pro-life groups, and the governor simply decided to back off,” Sharer said.
Anti-abortion lawmakers who joined Martinez in backing off abortion legislation this year were concerned the competing groups would dispute what legislative action was “good enough,” Sharer said.
Sharer said he was “disappointed” that Martinez hasn’t used her regulatory authority to limit abortion in New Mexico but said he respects the governor’s restraint on using executive orders to run state government. - Albuquerque Journal, 6/25/14
We'll see how big of a role this plays in martinez's re-election bid. Her opponent, Attorney General Gary King (D. NM), is hitting back at Martinez's attacks:
http://www.abqjournal.com/...
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gary King is returning fire in a new ad that says Republican Gov. Susana Martinez “lied” in her recent commercial that charged King “paid women less” than men in his Attorney General’s Office.
Martinez’s campaign – after King has promoted a campaign pledge to ensure equal pay for women – has highlighted a series of four gender discrimination lawsuits filed against King by former female employees who alleged they were underpaid.
One of those claims was dismissed by a federal judge on summary judgment. Three others were settled for between $5,000 and about $15,000 apiece, an amount so low that the state Risk Management Division required King to accept the settlement, King has said.
But a recent Martinez ad said bluntly: “Gary King paid women less than men.”
Nearly one week later, King is pushing back.
“A federal judge’s ruling proves Gov. Martinez latest attack ad is a lie,” a narrator says in the King ad that launched Wednesday.
The opinion King refers to is the court order dismissing one of the suits, finding that the female employee failed to demonstrate that men who were paid more worked in a comparable position.
The King ad also attacks Martinez for the state’s lack of job growth, continued No. 50 ranking in child well-being and for vetoing a $8.50 minimum wage backed by the Legislature in 2013. - Albuquerque Journal, 6/27/14
Click here to get involved and donate to King's campaign:
http://www.garykingforgovernor.com/