In March 2007, Los Angeles Times reporter James Rainey wrote that the paper's publisher David Hiller was considering the cancellation of that weekend's "Sunday Current" section in response to an internal controversy regarding Martinez's role.
[5] Rainey wrote that the news staff of the Times, including editor Jim O'Shea, pressured Hiller to stop publication after learning that Martinez was romantically involved with a key position employee[5] Martinez called a staff meeting in hopes of quelling criticism, where he denied that his relationship with Mullens played a role in Grazer's selection as guest editor.
[5] Later in the day he filed a post on the Times opinion blog where he claimed several other editors were involved in the decision, denied Mullens played any role, and described allegations of a conflict of interest as "absurd".
[7] In August 2008, Martinez filed a lawsuit against ex-girlfriend Mullens, alleging that the public relations executive had cost him his job at the newspaper and tarnished his professional reputation.
[8] In November 2007, Martinez was hired by the Washington Post's website to write a twice-weekly political advice column called "Stumped".
In 2009, Martinez was hired to direct the Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program with the mission to "identify and support the next generation of American public policy scholars and writers"[2] at the New America Foundation in Washington, DC.