Committee OKs bill that would ease ballot access

The House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee has given a big boost to a bill that would provide an alternate method for major-party candidates to get on the ballot in New Mexico. It also gave what is likely a death blow to a competing and controversial bill.

Rep. Al Park’s proposal, House Bill 190, received a unanimous “do pass” vote on Tuesday from the committee, of which he is a member. It now moves to the Voters and Elections Committee, chaired by Rep. Jose Campos, whose competing bill was tabled on a 5-2 vote on Tuesday.

Campos told the Santa Fe New Mexican that he doesn’t like Park’s bill, but will probably vote for it after his House Bill 203 was tabled.

At issue is whether Democrats and Republicans who don’t secure 20 percent at their party’s preprimary nominating convention should be allowed another path to the ballot. Under the previous law, they could do that by submitting petitions containing enough signatures to qualify, but a 2007 change, approved unanimously by lawmakers and signed by the governor, got rid of the second provision.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers from the House and Senate, including Park, have sponsored legislation that would return the law to the way things were before the 2007 change. Campos’ proposal, instead of merely requiring a certain number of signatures to get on the ballot, would require that those signatures come from every county in the state or congressional district.

Campos said his goal was providing a voice to rural communities, not restricting ballot access, while critics, including Park, said his proposal would make it so difficult to get on the ballot via the alternate route that there would effectively be no alternate route.

Interestingly, Third Congressional District candidate Ben R. Luján, son of the House speaker, spoke in favor of Park’s bill at Tuesday’s hearing. Many believe he benefits from the current law because, as the speaker’s son, he is certain to get on the ballot at the preprimary convention, while other candidates are not.

“It’s important that we do open up the process,” the New Mexican quoted Luján as saying. “We need a very thorough and open process.”

Campos’ bill is most likely dead, though a member of the Consumer and Public Affairs Committee could make a motion to bring it back up for reconsideration. The Senate version of Park’s bill is also moving forward, so there is a strong possibility that the proposal will get the two-thirds approval it needs in the House and Senate to take effect before the March 15 preprimary conventions.