Vigil-Giron vows to fight petition challenge

First Congressional District Democratic candidate Rebecca Vigil-Giron is vowing to fight on despite a legal challenge that alleges she didn’t gather enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

The lawsuit was filed in district court in Santa Fe on Friday by three supporters of another Democratic First Congressional District candidate, Michelle Lujan-Grisham. It alleges that Vigil-Giron submitted more than 600 signatures that weren’t valid, which would leave her 100 short of the 1,214 required to qualify for the ballot.

A hearing has not yet been scheduled in the case.

“I think it’s unfortunate that Grisham does not want the voters of Congressional District One to make the decision of who their choice will be to represent them in this open seat by eliminating me from the equation,” Vigil-Giron said. “I will continue to fight to stay on the ballot.”

The conventional wisdom is that Martin Heinrich is easily the frontrunner in the Democratic primary, and that Lujan-Grisham and Vigil-Giron will split the anti-Heinrich vote, ensuring him a victory. Some believe eliminating one from the race might give the other an opportunity to put up a serious challenge to Heinrich.

The fourth Democrat in the race is Robert Pidcock. The winner will face either Joe Carraro or Darren White in November.

Vigil-Giron is the only candidate in New Mexico’s races for three seats in the U.S. House and one in the Senate whose petition signatures are being challenged. All who failed to secure the support of 20 percent of delegates at their March 15 preprimary nominating conventions but submitted signatures to stay in the races had their candidacies verified last week by the Secretary of State’s Office. Click here for my current list of federal candidates.

Update, 1:45 p.m.

At a news conference held earlier today, Vigil-Giron called the lawsuit “unfounded, unethical and time consuming.”

“It appears that my opponent does not want to give the voters of this district the opportunity to vote their choice from the field of candidates that have qualified and were certified the Secretary of State for this election,” Vigil-Giron said, according to prepared remarks she sent me. “She is denying my constitutional right to become a candidate for the First Congressional District and I will fight to stay on the ballot.”