In New Mexico, Governor Susana Martinez has won reelection by a landslide. She is a conservative Republican — a Reagan Republican — in a heavily Democratic state. She is anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage. She is for low taxation, light regulation, and enterprise. (She is also for a strong national defense and American world leadership, not that these were issues in the gubernatorial race.) She is the first Hispanic female governor in America. Her opponent this year was a pillar of the Democratic establishment, in this overwhelmingly Democratic state: the state’s attorney general, and the son of a very popular three-time governor.
Martinez’s success is a pretty big deal.