New Mexico’s Republican Governor Accepts Medicaid Expansion

[ProSense]

New Mexico’s Republican Governor Accepts Medicaid Expansion

Republican Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico announced Wednesday that she will accept the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, according to The Associated Press.

The move makes her just the second Republican governor to take up the expansion, which makes people within 133 percent of the poverty line eligible for the program and is critical to the law's coverage expansion. Unlike Democratic-governed states, most GOP-led states have rejected the expansion, which the Supreme Court made optional.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/new-mexicos-republican-governor-accepts-medicaid-expansion

The health care law is still the biggest expansion of the safety net since Medicare
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022159929

[southernyankeebelle]

1. That is nice that she puts the state before her party.

[TygrBright]

2. Yep. Let's not mention she had to smell the tar heating in order to do so...

We rarely get a lot of attention to our advocacy and organizing efforts in our little backwater state, but believe me, there was some MAJOR mojo gearing up to nail her on this one if she tried to take the Teeper Trail or the Weasel Way.

She was in way over her head from day one, and it's finally accumulated to the level that even a thick-skinned denial expert like Texas Susie couldn't ignore it.

grimly,
Bright

[southernyankeebelle]

3. Good the voters put the pressure on her. Didn't your state vote for Obama?

[TygrBright]

5. Yes, but we're not your run-of-the-mill swing state.

It's REALLY complicated here.

For one thing, the state Democratic Party has a truly appalling history of corruption and cronyism. Even dyed-in-the-wool liberals sometimes vote AGAINST a particularly egregious Democrat rather than FOR a GOPpie.

(Not that Diane Denish was corrupt or incompetent, quite the reverse, in fact. But, as I say, it's complicated.)

Geography and who goes to the polls has a lot of impact. We have some indigo-blue areas and some tomato-red areas, but the Albuquerque area, which has more than half of the state's population, is very mixed.

We have a lot of very conservative Democrats here. The Catholic Church carries a big stick in rural areas. And in some towns an election comes down to literally who could get more cousins to the polls.

We can predict stuff, but on a very case-by-case basis.

In the case of Texas Susie, the fix was in down south and in suburban Albuquerque, and a lot of conservative and unmotivated Dems stayed home.

explicatorially,
Bright

[southernyankeebelle]

7. Wow I didn't realize the problems that are there. Lets hope you can find some decent dems.

[sadbear]

4. Some republicans want her to run for Prez in '16.

Is that out the window now?

With their party in disarray as it is, who the hell knows?

[TygrBright]

6. Ain't gonna happen. NEGATIVE job growth in our state the last two years.

Texas Susie forgot that the public sector is one of our biggest employers. Arriving in Santa Fe to send out a flurry of pink slips to state employees might have looked good to the Teepers but it was totally boneheaded over the longer haul.

Even with a name ending in z, she ain't got a chance.

relievedly,
Bright