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(NM) Gov. Susana Martinez's Emails Have Mysteriously Disappeared
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/09/susana-martinez-destroyed-emails-hard-drives-new-mexicoOne of the central themes in my April cover story about New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, a rising star in the Republican Party touted as a potential vice presidential candidate, was the paranoia displayed by Martinez's 2010 gubernatorial campaign. Here's one of the juiciest nuggets illustrating this behavior:
Martinez's [2010] crew saw enemies everywhere. A former staffer recalls the campaign on multiple occasions sending the license plate numbers of cars believed to be used by opposition trackers to an investigator in Martinez's DA office who had access to law enforcement databases. In one instance, a campaign aide took a photo of a license plate on a car with an anti-Martinez bumper sticker and emailed it to the investigator. "Cool I will see who it belongs to!!" the investigator replied.
After my story went live and the Santa Fe Reporter published its own report on the license plate controversy, the Democratic Party of New Mexico filed an open-records request with the state's Third Judicial District Attorney's Office, which Martinez ran as DA before becoming governor in 2011. The Democrats asked for emails spanning August to December 2010 written by Martinez; Amy Orlando, a close friend who was Martinez's chief deputy DA and then briefly succeeded her as DA; and a senior investigator in the DA's office. The Democrats also asked for all correspondence to and from employees of Martinez's DA office relating to her 2010 gubernatorial campaign, and any correspondence from August to December 2010 mentioning the words "Diane Denish," "Denish," and "license plate." (Diane Denish was Martinez's 2010 Democratic opponent.)
On Tuesday, Mark D'Antonio, the current DA in New Mexico's Third Judicial District, released the findings of an internal investigation that concluded that large amounts of emails—potentially including those sought by the Democrats—had been "deleted and/or removed" during the period when the office was briefly run by Orlando, Martinez's onetime deputy. Two of the four hard drives used by Orlando's administration—hard drives that might have contained the requested emails—were missing. And investigators noted that all emails in the DA's office were supposed to be backed up by a "special tape drive" in the office, but the back-up tapes were "blank and appear to have been erased."
Martinez's [2010] crew saw enemies everywhere. A former staffer recalls the campaign on multiple occasions sending the license plate numbers of cars believed to be used by opposition trackers to an investigator in Martinez's DA office who had access to law enforcement databases. In one instance, a campaign aide took a photo of a license plate on a car with an anti-Martinez bumper sticker and emailed it to the investigator. "Cool I will see who it belongs to!!" the investigator replied.
After my story went live and the Santa Fe Reporter published its own report on the license plate controversy, the Democratic Party of New Mexico filed an open-records request with the state's Third Judicial District Attorney's Office, which Martinez ran as DA before becoming governor in 2011. The Democrats asked for emails spanning August to December 2010 written by Martinez; Amy Orlando, a close friend who was Martinez's chief deputy DA and then briefly succeeded her as DA; and a senior investigator in the DA's office. The Democrats also asked for all correspondence to and from employees of Martinez's DA office relating to her 2010 gubernatorial campaign, and any correspondence from August to December 2010 mentioning the words "Diane Denish," "Denish," and "license plate." (Diane Denish was Martinez's 2010 Democratic opponent.)
On Tuesday, Mark D'Antonio, the current DA in New Mexico's Third Judicial District, released the findings of an internal investigation that concluded that large amounts of emails—potentially including those sought by the Democrats—had been "deleted and/or removed" during the period when the office was briefly run by Orlando, Martinez's onetime deputy. Two of the four hard drives used by Orlando's administration—hard drives that might have contained the requested emails—were missing. And investigators noted that all emails in the DA's office were supposed to be backed up by a "special tape drive" in the office, but the back-up tapes were "blank and appear to have been erased."
Looks like Tejana Susana would make a perfect running mate for Christie (campaign slogan: "Bridging The Gap"
) or her neighbor Gov. Indicted Goodhair. 
