Governor's pizza, water handout questioned

KRQE TV

Updated: Nov 13, 2012 7:26 AM

RIO RANCHO, N.M. (KRQE) — Governor Susana Martinez spent part of election night in Rio Rancho handing out water and pizza.

“We’re just trying to make them comfortable you know they're thirsty they’ve been in line a while,” Martinez told KRQE News 13.

Some voters spent up to five hours in a line at Puesta Del Sol Elementary.

The governor said her goal in going out there was to encourage people to stick it out.

“They’re hungry, we brought pizzas so that we can feed everybody who, so they don’t get discouraged and say forget it I’m leaving this is just too difficult,” Martinez said.

UNM Political Science Professor Lonna Atkeson says the governor did not violate election code because she is not on the ballot and did not tell people how to vote.

“For her it was a humanitarian effort but it has this perception, this grey area of a perceptual problem,” Atkeson said.

That problem Atkeson said has to do with the fact that the Governor provided these goods in a heavily republican area, thereby opening herself up to criticism.

“Particularly when she has aggressively campaigned on behalf of certain people and against certain people,” said Atkeson.

A PAC run by the governor’s chief strategist had its hands in two big races in Sandoval County.

The governor has repeatedly denied any political motive for her appearance first in an interview with KRQE News 13 on election night.

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