September 14th, 2012 at 12:26 pm
‘Party of Women’ May Have No Female Governors in 2013
Bloomberg shows that for all the Democrats’ talk about a Republican war on women, it’s the self-proclaimed ‘party of women’ that must explain how unless its gubernatorial candidate in New Hampshire wins in November, Democrats will have no female governor anywhere in the United States.
Meanwhile, Republicans have New Mexico’s Susana Martinez, Arizona’s Jan Brewer, Oklahoma’s Mary Fallin, and South Carolina’s Nikki Haley.
Here’s another example of conservative reality beating liberal rhetoric.
September 19th, 2011 at 5:03 pm
New Mexico Governor Battles Illegal Drivers’ Licenses
When it was passed back in 2003, New Mexico’s law allowing illegal immigrants to receive state drivers’ licenses was billed as a way to make the roads safer by requiring illegals to pass a driving test and carry insurance.
For all the hoopla, a recent study showed that New Mexico is second in the nation for percentage of uninsured drivers on the road at 25.7 percent. As for making New Mexico safer, a different reality has emerged:
The unintended consequence has been an eruption in criminal rings assisting illegal immigrants in obtaining New Mexico driver’s licenses. In the past year, the state has indicted members of at least seven operations on fraud charges.
The consequence may have been unintended, but it was foreseeable. Extending a legal privilege to a person whose very existence breaks the law of the country encourages more law-breaking.
It’s a good thing for New Mexico that newly elected Governor Susana Martinez is a former prosecutor. Too bad for America that President Barack Obama isn’t.
January 3rd, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Demography Is Destiny; So Too Running Mates?
With much of the 2012 presidential election coverage centering on Republican candidates, it’s worth noting – as this blog from the National Interest does – that President Barack Obama posted lopsided support among African-American and Hispanic voters during the 2008 campaign (95% and 67%, respectively). Those numbers will likely grow as Hispanics continue to increase their share of the voting base.
So, what’s a WASP-ish GOP frontrunner like Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, or even Sarah Palin to do? Any contestant eyeing a general election takedown of Obama-Biden (or even, heaven forbid, Obama-Clinton) should make travel plans for Santa Fe, New Mexico. There newly inaugurated Governor Susana Martinez can teach them how to frame a winning position on illegal immigration: “It’s not about the Mexican population. It’s about the Mexican border.”
That message, combined with Martinez’s career as a state prosecutor and traditional values stances, earned her 30% of the Hispanic vote in a heavily Democratic state. It’s the kind of success story that just might earn her a place as the next Vice President of the United States.
June 2nd, 2010 at 5:56 pm
Update on Female Conservatives
Last week, CFIF highlighted the rise of female conservatives as a political force. Last night, voters had their say. Republican primary voters in Mississippi’s first congressional district deflected Fox News analyst Angela McGlowan’s overtures, handing her a distant third place finish. McGlowan’s political future will depend on whether she steps up her local presence in Oxford, MS, to build towards another race.
For Susana Martinez, though, the future is now. After handily beating her male opponent in the GOP primary yesterday, Martinez is poised to be a “game changing” candidate if elected governor of New Mexico later this year.
If you haven’t heard of Martinez, you will. She’s served thirteen years as the Las Cruces-based District Attorney where she secured reelection twice despite Democrats outnumbering Republicans 3-to1 in her county. Most impressively for the governor’s race, she has a detailed plan to fix New Mexico’s sputtering economy. Hmm…tough career prosecutor with a detailed fiscally conservative vision. Sound familiar? Thankfully, she’s a lot prettier than New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
If she’s half as forceful, in a few years New Mexico might join New Jersey as two of the friendliest states to business and consumers.
CFIF on Twitter
CFIF on YouTube