The New Mexico Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this afternoon regarding the Republican Party’s lawsuit against the secretary of state and attorney general.
The hearing is a 4 p.m. today in
The lawsuit alleges 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
Republicans filed the lawsuit on Sept. 27 and requested an emergency hearing because ballots were already being printed. District Judge Daniel Sanchez of
Weh said either Gonzales or Johnson called Sanchez’s office and asked when the judge would set a hearing. According to Weh, Sanchez’s clerk said he would not schedule a hearing until January.
“He ignored the situation,” Weh said. “… That was a partisan act on his part.”
The clerk’s comment, however, allowed the plaintiffs to seek relief from a higher court, Weh said, leading to today’s hearing.
I was unable to reach Sanchez or his clerk for comment.
I’ll update you on what happens at the hearing later today.
Update, 3:30 p.m.
Judge Sanchez called to deny allegations that he is putting politics above the law. He said his clerk set a hearing in the case for Thursday, the soonest date available, though he did not know when the scheduling had taken place.
The state’s online court system does not indicate that a hearing has been scheduled in the case, but information on that site is often at least a day old.
“She set it up as soon as she could,” Sanchez said, adding that there are “no politics, no nothing,” involved.
“I guess that wasn’t soon enough,” he said.