A Republican Public Regulation Commission candidate says he has become the second to qualify for public financing this year.
Alan Reed, who is challenging PRC Chairman Jason Marks this year for the Albuquerque-area seat, confirmed in an e-mail that he has reached the threshold of raising at least 230 $5 contributions.
“We will be the first Republican campaign (of this election season) to meet this requirement,” Reed said in an e-mail, adding that several GOP organizations helped him qualify.
Marks recently announced that he was the first candidate to qualify for public financing by filing notice of more than 400 $5 contributions.
The public-financing system was first tested in PRC races in 2006, with the three candidates who took advantage of the system expressing some concerns about the timeliness of payments and reporting deadlines. When the Legislature expanded the public financing system in 2006 to include statewide judicial races, it also approved changes that are designed to fix those problems.