ABQ Journal poll shows Governor Martinez approval rating up

SANTA FE – Fresh off her prime-time speech at the Republican National Convention, Gov. Susana Martinez is riding high among New Mexico voters.Sixty-nine percent said they approve of the Republican governor’s performance 20 months into her first term, a new Journal Poll found.Just 17 percent of voters polled Sept. 3-6 said they disapprove of her job performance, while 14 percent were undecided.

Martinez, elected in 2010 with 53 percent of the vote, has pursued an apparently popular agenda, campaigning against driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, pushing for tougher school standards, opposing new taxes and trimming the size of state government without mass layoffs, Journal pollster Brian Sanderoff said.

“She’s focused on issues that are popular among the voters,” said Sanderoff, president of Research & Polling Inc. “As a Republican governor, she has not followed the curve of other Republican governors who have tried to balance the budget by cutting Medicaid or school funding.”

Martinez’s prime-time speech at the Republican National Convention on Aug. 29 in Tampa probably boosted her approval rating back home, Sanderoff said. She spoke between former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, though several major television networks skipped most of her address. She was the subject of vice presidential speculation early on but ruled it out to stay home.

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ABQ Journal poll shows Governor Martinez approval rating up