One of the potential Democrat rivals to New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez apparently wants to send her back to what he asserted was “wherever she really came from.”
A Republican who is running for reelection this year, Martinez is the first woman ever to be elected governor of her state, and the first Hispanic female governor in the US. She is also regarded as a possible presidential or vice presidential candidate for the GOP ticket in 2016.
Five Democrats are running in a June 3 primary for the chance to oppose Martinez in the November general election. One of them is Santa Fe businessman Alan Webber. In remarks that may have been a lame attempt at a joke made before a group of supporters, Webber has this to say:
So I’m asking you for your help, we need to make Susana Martinez a one-term governor. We need to send her back to wherever she really came from. I suspect it’s Texas. And that would be good for Texas and that would be good for New Mexico.”
Martinez, who is of Mexican heritage, was born in El Paso, Texas, which is located right at the border of both Mexico and New Mexico, and has lived in New Mexico since the mid 1980s. She served as District Attorney for Dona Ana County in New Mexico for 14 years prior to successfully running for governor against then-Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, the Democrat candidate.
Martinez is currently favored to win reelection regardless of which Democrat runs against her in the fall.
Webber has a questionable background , according to the Washington Free Beacon, which includes a “history of radical views, including ties to the Weather Underground, and urging empathy for a child sex offender.”
According to Mediate , candidate Webber was not race-baiting with this comment about wanting to deport the governor from New Mexico. “The full context of his comment suggests that Webber was making a comment about Martinez’s political leanings and not her ethnic heritage… [there’s] a strong case to make against Webber, but the implication that he was appealing to some form of racial solidarity here does not pass the smell test… ”
Watch Alan Webber’s remarks about Gov. Susana Martinez and draw your own conclusions as to whether or not this is yet another example of liberal racism :
Susana Martinez cut perhaps the best political ad in the 2010 election cycle. Watch it below:
[top image credit: State of New Mexico ]