Republican Joe Carraro plans to stay in the race to replace Heather Wilson in Congress despite failing to qualify for the ballot at Saturday’s Republican preprimary nominating convention.
Carraro won 15 percent of the vote at the convention, while Darren White took 85 percent. Carraro said he suspected before the convention that he wouldn’t reach the 20-percent threshold that would qualify him for the ballot. He said on Sunday that he has already collected the signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot via the alternate route.
“After seeing the results of (the) Bernalillo County Convention, we knew we were at 10 percent in Bernalillo, so we went out and got what we needed,” Carraro said of gathering signatures.
The state senator said he expects to gather 1,000 signatures to turn in before the March 25 deadline, on top of the 625 he already turned in when he filed his declaration of candidacy in February. He would have to submit 658 signatures from registered Republicans in the congressional district to appear on the June ballot, and the 625 he already submitted count toward that goal, Secretary of State spokesman James Flores said.
Carraro said he has enjoyed gathering the signatures, saying it is “a good way to meet people and let them know I am running.”