It isn’t often that we see a Republican gubernatorial candidate, running in a crowded primary, quote liberal Albuquerque Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino — and agree with him. But that is the case in a statement GOP hopeful Susana Martinez sent minutes ago.

Martinez excerpts a part of a news story from Sunday’s Santa Fe New Mexican in which Ortiz y Pino criticized the governor’s spending:

Some of the harshest words for Richardson came from Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, who said the administration has been aware for months of the revenue crisis.

“Knowing that, the administration has not put the brakes on spending,” said Ortiz y Pino, who is running for lieutenant governor. “There is no evidence in my mind that this administration in any way slowed down the spending in state government. Now, I’ve worked in administrations in the past, and as soon as there was any question that we were going to be in budget trouble, the word was out. Stop hiring, don’t fill vacancies, no out-of-state travel, no contracts, no printing. Nothing, nothing, nothing, just make sure we get through this OK. Has this administration done anything remotely like that? They’ve brought us right up to the cliff and they say, ‘You can’t put a bridge across that cliff.’ “

And, as is the norm for Republican statements in recent months, the term “Richardson/Denish Administration” appears in the statement.

Denish has said, in an attempt to distance herself from the scandal-plagued Richardson administration, “There is only one governor at a time.”