Juan A Martinez: Difference between revisions

'''Juan Anthony Martinez''' is a libertarian political operative and executive within the [[Stand Together]] / [[Americans for Prosperity]] network of organizations. He previously served as Deputy Executive Director of [[The LIBRE Initiative]] and as State Director over all Americans for Prosperity's network operations in Nevada. <ref name=":0">[http://www.linkedin.com/in/juan-martinez Juan Martinez's LinkedIn]</ref> Before entering politics, he had a career in real estate and co-founded his own mortgage firm. <ref name=":2">Conversations between Juan Martinez and Nick Gausling</ref>

Martinez was also a candidate for North Las Vegas City Council in 2013. <ref name=":3" /> Although he didn't win, the City Council later appointed him to the North Las Vegas Civil Service Board of Trustees, where he served from September 2014 - December 2016. <ref name=":0" /> In subsequent years, the skills Martinez and his volunteers honed during the campaign also went on to significantly shape the way libertarian grassroots activism was done in Nevada. Martinez would later bring these methods to other states through his work with Americans for Prosperity and The LIBRE Initiative. <ref name=":2" /> <ref name=":1" />

Martinez co-founded a mortgage brokerage firm in Las Vegas. It became one of the top mortgage brokerages in the city until the onset of the Great Recession. <ref name=":2" />

Martinez ran for North Las Vegas City Council in 2013. <ref name=":3">[https://www.nvsos.gov/SOSelectionPages/results/2013CityPrimary/CityofNorthLasVegas.aspx Unofficial Municipal Primary Election Results, City of North Las Vegas (2013)]</ref> He was convinced to run by several libertarian friends who also held leadership positions in the Clark County Republican Party, including [[Doug Pestana]] and [[Nick Gausling]]. The pivotal conversation took place one night in late 2012 in the cafe of the El Cortez, a casino in downtown Las Vegas. It was debated if Martinez should run for City Council or for Mayor of North Las Vegas, with City Council ultimately being settled on as the better choice. Pestana was chosen as Campaign Manager. <ref name=":2" /> <ref name=":1" />  

Martinez's council district was North Las Vegas Ward 1. While the race was officially non-partisan and there was no incumbent, Ward 1 leaned heavily Democratic and had a high Hispanic population. Martinez's official campaign slogan was "''Meristemos mejor''," roughly translated as "We deserve better." <ref name=":3" /> <ref name=":2" /> <ref name=":1" />

In addition to Martinez, the other candidates were: <ref name=":3" />  

#Jared Hardy (R), son of former City Councilman Brent Hardy. He was expected to capture most of the Mormon vote, which was a significant and politically-active minority in the ward.

A political operative who supported Hardy downplayed Martinez's chances in a personal conversation with Martinez and Pestana, claiming that Martinez was going to "get his ass kicked" in the race and should drop out. <ref name=":2" /> Many board members of the Clark County Republican Party, at the time controlled by libertarians, endorsed Martinez. <ref name=":2" /> <ref name=":1" />  

Martinez's campaign ran on a shoestring budget with heavy grassroots volunteer support. It used many tactics that were considered unconventional, such as diamond-shaped signs, hand-written letters, conducting official sign placements and changes at highly-visible locations in the middle of the night, and the encouragement of supporters to request mail-in ballots. Pestana's professional background in data analytics was credited with playing a significant role in allowing the campaign to out-maneuver their opponents and leverage low expenditures for high impact. Barron's campaign increased their activity significantly to counter Martinez, including sending direct mail with a quote from Harry Reid claiming that Barron was the only candidate in the race who spoke Spanish (which Martinez didn't learn until several years later). <ref name=":2" /> <ref name=":1" />

In the March non-partisan primary, Martinez received 17.92% of the vote and did not advance to the general election. He came within approximately 7 points of Hardy. <ref name=":3" /> Although he was a registered Republican, Martinez is believed to have mostly drawn Democrat support away from Barron, thus preventing Barron from claiming the 50%+ he needed for an automatic win in the primary. In the aftermath, Hardy's campaign attempted to secure Martinez's endorsement for the general election, but Martinez declined. The Hardy campaign later listed a (presumably different) Juan Martinez as endorsing Hardy. <ref name=":2" /> <ref name=":4">Analysis from Doug Pestana (circa 2013)</ref> <ref name=":1" /> Barron went on to defeat Hardy in the general election by over 17 points, which was the approximate vote count that Martinez had won in the primary. <ref>[https://www.nvsos.gov/SOSelectionPages/results/2013CityGeneral/CityofNorthLasVegas.aspx Official Municipal General Election Results City of North Las Vegas (2013)]</ref> <ref name=":3" />

The Juan Martinez Campaign Committee ultimately achieved a significantly lower expense per vote ratio than most other campaigns averaged throughout the state, and the lessons and methodologies learned by Martinez and his volunteers went on to profoundly shape grassroots political activism in Nevada and eventually several other states. <ref name=":3" /> <ref name=":2" /> <ref name=":4" />   

In the aftermath of his campaign, Martinez co-founded the [[Synergy Opportunity Liberty Organization (SOLO USA)]], a Nevada non-profit that promoted libertarian ideas to Hispanics, around the summer of 2013. Many of SOLO USA's grassroots efforts were informed by the operational successes and efficiencies of the campaign, and a number of the organization's co-founders had been his campaign volunteers, including [[Doug Pestana]]. <ref>[https://esos.nv.gov/EntitySearch/BusinessInformation Nevada SilverFlume Business Entity Search, Entity Number E0216072014-7]</ref> <ref name=":2" /> <ref name=":1" />