The governor of New Mexico is having a meltdown
LatestIf you had an office holiday party this year, odds are that at some point things got a little out of hand. Whatever happened, at least you’re not the governor of a U.S. state for whom apparently things have likewise spun a bit out of control.
Gov. Susana Martinez and more than 200 guests had rented out the Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe for her yearly staff holiday party.
Several hours into the event, police were called to investigate reports of a loud party in a hotel room. Once they arrived, a woman called 911 and, while repeatedly identifying herself as Governor Susana Martinez, demanded to know why the police were called while insisting she and her friends were just “eating pizza.”
But the New Mexican reports a Santa Fe police sergeant says Gov. Martinez “was inebriated when he questioned her.”
And New Mexico Political Report among other outlets got audio of the call, in which Martinez apparently implies she might have been in the room when bottles were being thrown from a balcony.
Since the incident was reported, the Political Report says, Martinez has been contrite, though she has denied she was throwing bottles.
“I apologize to the people of New Mexico for having done that,” Martinez told radio station KOB. “I should have never talked to central dispatch the way I did, and I own it.”
But over the weekend, the New Mexican reported federal investigators were seeking records from Martinez’s time as the district attorney of New Mexico’s Doña Ana County:
That news comes on top of a federal criminal investigation into Martinez’s top political adviser, suspected of making illicit payments from Martinez political committees to companies he controlled.
It’s also on top of subpoenas of records from the state Taxation and Revenue Department related to accusations the agency performed retaliatory audits on former members of Martinez’s “political team or state officials who ran afoul of her administration,” according to the New Mexican.
And on Monday, New Mexicans learned from station KRQE that they footed the bill for the $7,900 party, though the hotel room was paid for out of a staffer’s pocket.
Rob covers business, economics and the environment for Fusion. He previously worked at Business Insider. He grew up in Chicago.