GOP sues to get Balderas off ballot, others on

The Republican Party of New Mexico has sued the secretary of state and attorney general, alleging that two Republican candidates were unfairly denied spots on the Nov. 7 general election ballot and that the Democrats illegally placed a candidate on the ballot.

At issue is the secretary of state allowing Democrats to place Hector Balderas on the ballot for state auditor and denying Republican attempts to place Roger Gonzales of Mora on the ballot for Balderas’ House seat and Barbara V. Johnson of Albuquerque on the ballot for a district judgeship in Albuquerque.

The two joined the party in filing the suit Wednesday against Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron and Attorney General Patricia Madrid. Since ballots are already being printed, they requested an emergency hearing and will ask a judge in Santa Fe to order that their candidates’ names be placed on the ballot, and Balderas’ name be removed.

“Republican nominees have been disfavored and stricken from the general election ballot while a Democratic candidate has been illegally included,” Marta Kramer, executive director of the state Republican Party, said in a news release. “They have been irreparably harmed because Patricia Madrid and Rebecca Vigil-Giron are rewriting election law to favor their political party.”

The Democrats didn’t place anyone on the ballot in the House District 68 race after Balderas withdrew from that race, so there is no candidate on the ballot.

“More importantly, the voters of HD 68, which includes all or part of San Miguel, Mora, Guadalupe, Colfax and Taos counties, have been disenfranchised because they will not be allowed to vote for any candidate,” Lyn Ott, election integrity director of the state Republican Party, said in the release. “The governor is simply going to appoint a replacement for HD 68 and rob the people of their right to vote for a representative.”

As for Balderas, the Republicans claim Democrat Jeff Armijo did not withdraw from the race by the statutory deadline of Sept. 5, so the vote by the Democratic State Central Committee to place Balderas on the ballot was “illegal and therefore a nullity.”

Vigil-Giron, responding to the lawsuits, told the Albuquerque Journal she is “following the laws the way they are written.”

In response to the Republican attempt to place Gonzales on the ballot, Vigil-Giron’s office has said there was no vacancy on the Republican side because that party didn’t run a candidate in the primary. That decision is based on a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1980s upholding such an interpretation of New Mexico law.

Vigil-Giron told the Journal that Johnson didn’t follow the proper procedures to get on the ballot.

Armijo announced that he would drop out of the race in late August because of allegations that he made unwanted sexual advances toward a campaign volunteer. Though he claims the allegations are false, Gov. Bill Richardson pressured him to drop out.

Armijo changed his mind before the deadline to officially withdraw and announced he would not file the signed, notarized withdrawal letter that had typically been required by the secretary of state’s office. The governor’s office and Democratic Party argued that Armijo’s prior public statements and actions constituted a withdrawal, and the secretary of state took his name off the ballot. Armijo and his party sued each other in an attempt to resolve the issue, but Armijo gave up the fight before a court hearing.

Republican Party spokesman Jonah Cohen told me 10 days ago the party was still considering whether to sue.

“We are in a bit of a conundrum,” he wrote in an e-mail. “On the one hand, we don’t want to make the case for Armijo, since we don’t like him and feel he would be bad for New Mexico should he somehow win; at the same time, we feel that Madrid, Vigil-Giron and the rest of the Democratic Party hierarchy have abused their power and broken election law. They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this Scot-free. Our grassroots are furious and want something to be done.”

The inclusion of Madrid in the lawsuit may appear to be political because of her neck-and-neck race with Heather Wilson in the Central New Mexico congressional race, but Madrid’s office did back Vigil-Giron’s decision to take Armijo off the ballot.