Diane Martinez

Who is Diane Martinez?

Diane Janet Martinez is an American politician who served in the California State Assembly from 1992 until 1998. She was "reviled as just about the worst legislator in Sacramento by the insider magazine California Journal." Her outbursts and other strange behavior led many to believe she was literally crazy. Her apparent mental instability was so well known that newspapers typically did not bother to detail her bizarre behavior. For example, the LA Weekly began an editorial endorsing her successor to the State Assembly: "After years of being poorly represented by the loopy Diane Martinez..." And Capitol Weekly simply described her as "crazy." A resident of Monterey Park, she ran for state Insurance Commissioner in 1998. In the Democratic primary, she was nominated over Hal Brown, Jr., a Marin County Supervisor and cousin of current California Governor Jerry Brown. Martinez lost the general election to the incumbent Republican, Chuck Quackenbush.

Martinez is the daughter of former Congressman Matthew G. Martinez.