If there was any damage done to her by the debacle over that $264 million capital outlay bill--and there may very well have been--Gov. Martinez is utilizing the symbolism that has been her stock in trade to limit it. Once again we get pictures of her reading to elementary school children and touting a very modest investment in science education. The activity highlights her personality in a positive fashion as much as what she is doing which one supposes is the point.

Martinez's public likability and popularity among Hispanics has held her polling numbers together. But everyone is on alert now that the second term is fully engaged and especially after the political meltdown with the Senate Dems signaled to veteran wall-leaners that her relationship with them is irreparable. For the next three years there will be no major legislative deals (not that there were many in the first term).

Martinez continues an active out-of-state schedule as she plays national GOP politics but unlike former Gov. Richardson--who also pursued national attention--her travels get little notice here, perhaps giving her insurance from an attitude forming that she's getting too big for her britches--an attitude that contributed to Richardson's fall from grace.

Martinez's tenure has coincided with an historic redefinition of New Mexico as a no-growth state with little forward momentum. But there hasn't been much of a political price to pay for it. In fact, her party picked up the state House during the downsizing. In light of that the Governor seems content not to add any bells and whistles to her act--at least not until someone forces her to. Now get out those third-grade readers. We've got work to do.

Meantime, critics of the administration continue to pound away at the state's economic standstill, hoping their shouts will eventually fall on the ears of what has been a hard of hearing electorate. From Santa Fe a reader writes:

This link is to a report from the Pew Charitable Trust and is another dismal update on New Mexico's slow economic growth. New Mexico at 3.77% growth in employment since the recession is fourth from the bottom of the list of all the United States and DC (just ahead of Mississippi - 3.56%; Maine - 2.66%; and West Virginia - 2.16%).

When you look at the report from the State Auditor on the failure to execute on capital projects, as well as the report from the Legislative Finance Committee highlighting approximately $1.5 billion in projects authorized but stalled for various reasons, it is apparent that the administration has no clue how to govern effectively. Maybe the first step to creating some desperately needed good paying jobs would be to spend less time traveling and more time rolling up the shirtsleeves and working.

I get this may be beating a dead horse, but it seems no one in the state of New Mexico's governmental structure cares enough to do something!

Or put another way: A crane in the ABQ sky building something is as rare as a dodo bird.

CARLY AND CLINTON

Fiorina & Pearce

New Mexico Republicans got a taste of the '16 presidential contest Saturday night when former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina keynoted their Silver Elephant fund-raiser at the Hyatt Tamaya in Bernalillo. She is pictured here with Cynthia Pearce, wife of southern GOP Congressman Steve Pearce.

Others spotted in the crowd included Gov. Martinez, Lt. Gov. Sanchez, current GOP Chair Debbie Maestas, former NM GOP Chairs Harvey Yates and Allen Weh, PR executive Doug Turner and businessman Richard Priem who ran for the ABQ congressional seat in '14. The state GOP says more than 300 turned out for the event.

With the number of GOP prez hopefuls in the double digits, it's a fairly good bet that we'll see more candidates, even if we aren't an early primary state. . . .

Is Hillary Clinton going to do anything besides suck up campaign cash when she slips into ABQ this week? Apparently not. She will be at the home of former US Ambassador Ed Romero Wednesday for a $2700 a pop breakfast fundraiser and immediately after head for Texas for two more fundraisers. And that raises a question in some quarters about her embryonic campaign for the presidency.

This is one of the poorest states in the union with the largest percentage of Hispanics in the USA--a loyal Democratic voting bloc when it comes to the presidential contest.  Against that backdrop is it good politics for Clinton to confine her short visit to only hanging out with the well-off? And will Martin O'Malley play it the same if he makes his way here?

NOT OPTIMISTIC

Reader Joe Craig doesn't sound too optimistic about the future in this bit of satire hooked to the accompanying photo:

Santa Fe, NM (AP) February 20, 2019.

Visitors tour the former site of New Mexico’s State Capitol building and the former town of Santa Fe.

Vice President, Susana Martinez (R) issued this statement from her office in Washington, “I told them it was my way or no way.”

Governor Steve Pearce (R) commented from his office in the new Capitol building in Hobbs, NM: “While the entire Northern Rio Grande Region is still considered slightly toxic, we can still tap the oil reserves with extended reach-lateral drilling.”

Steven Michael Quezada, Speaker of the NM House of Representatives and the last remaining member of the Democratic Party of NM, issued the following statement from his office in Tucson, AZ while filming his new movie, “Breaking Bad, the Sequel.” “The Democratic Party will rebuild and we will have a viable candidate for the 2022 elections. We will return!”

Okay, Joe, but how did Quezada get to be House Speaker if there were no more Dems left? Oh, he formed a coalition with the R's. Got it. . . .

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2014. Not for reproduction without permission of the author