A celebration will be held next month in honor of longtime Republican Party leader Mike Laurance.
Laurance died in May following a battle with cancer. He was 65.
The celebration of Laurance’s life will be held on July 14 at 4 p.m. in the Creative Media Institute auditorium on the New Mexico State University Campus in
Those who can’t attend, but wish to contribute to a scholarship in Laurance’s name, can make checks out to the Mike Laurance Memorial Scholarship Fund and mail them to The Mike Laurance Memorial Scholarship Fund, c/o Jonathan Benson, NMSU Box 3001 MSC 3CMI, Las Cruces, NM 88003.
Laurance was a former chairman of the Doña Ana County Republican Party and former southern regional political director for the Republican Party of New Mexico. He was instrumental in organizing the county party’s effort to find and train watchers and challengers to staff every polling place. The new level of organization he brought helped expose problems with the 2002 primary election that led to the indictment and later conviction of then-county Clerk Ruben Ceballos, a Democrat, on five felonies related to mismanaging that election, which forced Ceballos from office.
Laurance was also a professional photographer who had taught journalism classes at NMSU and helped establish the Creative Media Institute. You can read his obituary by clicking here.