By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
SANTA FE – And now there are four.
Businessman, editor and writer Alan Webber became the fourth Democrat to enter the race to challenge Republican Gov. Susana Martinez on Monday, announcing his candidacy while making media appearances in Santa Fe and Albuquerque.
“I consider myself a pro-business, progressive Democrat,” Webber, 65, [...]

By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
SANTA FE – First, Michael Sanchez was playing Hamlet — agonizing over a decision to run for governor.
Now, he’s playing keep away.
As of the close of business Tuesday, the state Senate Majority Leader and veteran Roundhouse Democrat hasn’t returned reporters’ telephone calls after declaring he would announce by Labor [...]

By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
ALBUQUERQUE – The grudge match is on hold.
Michael Sanchez still hasn’t made up his mind on whether to run for governor in 2014.
The Senate majority leader, considered by many the most powerful Democrat in the Legislature and an arch-nemesis of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, said he’ll announce his intentions [...]

SANTA FE – Wendell Wilkie once said education is the mother of leadership.
Taking that to heart, New Mexico has committed a couple million dollars to a program focusing on turning around low-performing schools by nurturing leadership skills for principals and superintendents.
“There’s no way around it. I don’t care what kind of organization you’re talking about, [...]

By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
SANTA FE – First, People magazine, in a story about the relationship between Gov. Susana Martinez and her developmentally disabled sister, said Martinez doesn’t have “a serious 2014 re-election challenger in sight.”
Then, last week, a story from Politico about various gubernatorial races across the country mentioned Martinez, along with [...]

By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
SANTA FE — In one corner are allegations that some $36 million has been misspent by behavioral health providers in New Mexico.
In the other corner are the providers, who say it’s unfair their Medicaid funding was suspended while the state’s Attorney General’s office — and possibly other law enforcement [...]

The battle over capital outlay projects continues.
New Mexico Watchdog has learned that 11 Democrats in the state Senate have sent a letter to Attorney General Gary King asking his office to offer an opinion on an executive order that Republican Gov. Susana Martinez signed in early May.
In an attempt to get communities and entities that have [...]

According to The Hill – the congressional newspaper in Washington D.C. — Gov. Susana Martinez raised $220,000 last Tuesday night (June 4) in the nation’s capital at a fundraiser for her re-election effort.
The story reported that “many powerful GOP donors” as well as Senate Minority Leader Mitch  McConnell, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince [...]

You can count state Sen. Tim Keller, D-Albuquerque, out as a potential rival to Gov. Susana Martinez in 2014.
The 35-year-old who won a second term in what’s known as the International District in north-central Albuquerque in 2012, told New Mexico Watchdog Thursday afternoon (May 30) he’ll run for State Auditor in 2014.
“I think it’s a good fit [...]

Gov. Susana Martinez seems to have kept her approval-ratings winning streak intact.
In a poll released by KOB-TV in conjunction with the polling outfit Survey USA, 66 percent of New Mexicans are happy with the job she is doing.
For nearly a year and a half, the Republican governor — the first Hispanic female governor of any party in the U.S. — has finished with [...]