After three years at the helm, Sid Goddard resigned Saturday from the position of chair of The Republican Party of Doña Ana County, citing personal reasons.
The party’s vice chair, Mark Van Dyke, has been named interim chair, and hopes to have the “interim” stripped from his title when the party elects a new chair at its March 8 meeting.
Goddard, who had a year left on his second, two-year term as party chair, notified Republicans of his resignation during the party’s Saturday meeting.
“My reasons are personal and beyond that I will say nothing to anyone,” Goddard said in an interview. “It did not have anything to do with being disgruntled or upset or anything like that.”
During Goddard’s tenure, the party became more visible and active in the community, becoming a member of the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce and Hispano Chamber of Commerce de
Goddard was also active in pushing the Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners in recent years to take steps to improve county elections. His call for action helped lead the commission in 2006 to form a task force to study problems with elections and recommend solutions.
“I think standing up before the commission and recommending that they form a bipartisan group, I thought that was something that I did in a nonpartisan way that has paid dividends for the residents of the county,” Goddard said. “Very proud of that.”
During that process, Clerk Rita Torres hired Lynn Ellins to run the elections bureau. Goddard said Ellins has done a good job and it has been “a lot of fun” to work with the elections bureau under Ellins’ leadership.
Van Dyke praised Goddard’s involvement in the county election-reform process.
“I truly think his legacy of pushing for election reform, which germinated into the election task force, resulted in kind of a new way of doing business here in the county,” Van Dyke said.
He said there is more to do, but he is pleased with the direction of the county’s party.
Goddard said he doesn’t know whether anyone besides Van Dyke will seek the chairmanship, and he didn’t endorse Van Dyke’s candidacy, but he did say Van Dyke “has always had my complete confidence. He’s done a great job.”