Supreme Court to consider Vigil-Giron’s candidacy

Three supporters of 1st Congressional District candidate Michelle Lujan-Grisham have appealed to the Supreme Court last week’s rejection of their challenge to the candidacy of Rebecca Vigil-Giron.

A district judge in Santa Fe rejected the challenge to the signatures collected by Vigil-Giron, who like Lujan-Grisham is a Democrat. The supporters of Lujan-Grisham alleged that Vigil-Giron submitted more than 600 signatures that weren’t valid, which would have left her 100 short of the 1,214 to qualify for the ballot.

Vigil-Giron said in an e-mail that “ego prevailed over logic” in commenting about the appeal to the Supreme Court. She said she doesn’t know whether the court will issue a ruling before early voting begins on May 6, but noted that ballots are already being printed and questioned who would have to pay for the cost of printing new ballots if the high court were to remove her from the ballot.

As I’ve written before, Lujan-Grisham is fighting the conventional wisdom that Democrat Martin Heinrich is easily the frontrunner in this primary race. Many believe Lujan-Grisham and Vigil-Giron will split the votes of those who oppose Heinrich, but those voters might unite behind Lujan-Grisham if Vigil-Giron wasn’t on the ballot.

Albuquerque attorney Robert Pidcock is also in the primary race.