Gov. Susana Martinez Reacts to Mother Jones Story: “One of the Most Desperate and Despicable Attacks”

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez.Dean Hanson/Journal/Albuquerque Journal/ZUMAPRESS.com)

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On Wednesday morning, Mother Jones published a cover story about New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, a rising star in the Republican Party, that draws on previously unreleased audio recordings, emails, and text messages. In these audio tapes, she and her aides use crude and often offensive language when referring to political opponents. Martinez’s reelection campaign immediately responded.

In an email blast to supporters, Martinez attacked the messenger, calling Mother Jones a “tabloid” and “one of the most radically liberal publications in the country.” Martinez accused Mother Jones of “peddling false, personal attacks against me, using stolen audiotapes from our debate prep sessions four years ago.” She claimed that “this shows just how far the Left is willing to go to stop reforms in New Mexico.” In the email, Martinez does admit to calling 2010 Democratic opponent Diane Denish “the B-word,” adding, “I admit it—I’ve had to fund the cuss jar a few times in my life.” Her email ends with a plea for a campaign contribution.

Her email neglects to address several parts of the story, such as the reports that Martinez’s top adviser, Jay McCleskey, wrote “I HATE THAT FUCKING BITCH!” about a fellow GOP pol, and that a former Martinez adviser mocked New Mexico political icon Ben Luján for his English-speaking abilities, saying he “sounds like a retard.”

Martinez’s campaign has also created a petition describing Mother Jones as “the far-left’s premier magazine” and calls the story “one of the most desperate and despicable attacks to date.” The Martinez campaign’s message goes on to ask supporters to sign a petition ostensibly to “show the D.C. liberal media that their desperate attacks have no place in our state.”

Here’s the petition:

Martinez’s campaign has made full use of social media in its pushback, buying a promoted tweet on Twitter urging people to “stand with me”:

Similarly, she asked her Facebook friends to “stand with me against the D.C. liberal media and show them that their Washington-style attacks have no place in our state.”

Martinez did retweet a link to Mother Jones‘ story that was tweeted by Buzzfeed writer McKay Coppins—only to delete her tweet 14 seconds later.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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