Campos qualified for the ballot after all, Dems say

Lieutenant governor candidate’s 19.69 percent at preprimary convention should have been rounded up, party rules

Joe Campos qualified to appear on the primary ballot for lieutenant governor on Saturday after all, the Democratic Party of New Mexico has decided.

The party says it’s required by state law to round up Campos’ 19.69 percent of delegate votes from the preprimary nominating convention to 20 percent – the threshold for qualifying for the ballot at the convention.

The ruling to reverse courses and round the number up was made today by Party Chairman Javier Gonzales following a unanimous vote of the party’s judicial council in support of qualifying Campos for the ballot. That means the party will ask the Secretary of State’s Office to certify three lieutenant governor candidates as having qualified at Saturday’s convention – Campos, Brian Colón and Lawrence Rael.

“We’re back to work, rather us having to look for petition signatures, so obviously this is a lot better,” Campos said in an interview. “We’re going to keep pushing forward.”

Today’s ruling from the party is significant because, by law, those who fail to get 20 percent at the convention have to collect twice as many signatures as those who do get 20 percent if they want to appear on the ballot. And no candidate who has failed the organizational test of getting 20 percent at the convention has gone on to win the primary.

The statute the party cited in reversing courses states that, at any place in the election code “requiring counting or computation of numbers, any fraction or decimal greater than one-half of a whole number shall be counted as a whole number.”

“This is exactly why the Democratic Party of New Mexico waits three days before certifying, so everyone can thoroughly review the rules and make the right call,” attorney John Wertheim, a former state party chairman who was involved in the ruling, said. “In this case, the law is clear.”

The party originally announced Saturday that Colón had 34.3 percent of the vote, Rael had 21.9 percent, Campos had 19.9 percent, Jerry Ortiz y Pino had 18.86 percent and Linda Lopez had 5 percent. After a recount, Colón had 34.54 percent, Rael had 22.15 percent, Campos had 19.69 percent, Ortiz y Pino had 18.87 percent and Lopez had 4.73 percent.

Though Campos’ support fell slightly with the recount, it’s still above the 19.5 threshold at which the party would have rounded up.

Campos says he’ll keep ‘leaping’ over ‘hurdles’

Campos said the new challenge to the party’s interpretation of the rules came only after a number of county party chairs complained. He said the original interpretation of the election code was an attempt to keep him off the ballot.

“It’s just tough running against the Richardson machine putting up hurdles,” he said. “We just have to keep leaping over them.”

Asked who was putting hurdles in his campaign’s path, Campos declined to specify. Richardson has not endorsed any candidate in the race, and he did not specifically accuse Richardson.

“What I’m saying is that there’s been hurdles. A lot of my supporters have been strong-armed. Donors have been threatened. It’s one after another,” he said.

Ortiz y Pino has said, though he didn’t qualify for the ballot Saturday, that he’s staying in the race.

What about Kokesh?

There’s another candidate, on the Republican side, who might be interested in the Democratic Party’s ruling. Republican 3rd Congressional District candidate Adam Kokesh won the support of 19.5 percent of delegates at his party’s preprimary convention on Saturday.

The GOP decided after considering the situation that the number should not be rounded up, citing the provision in the election code stating that “every candidate receiving twenty percent or more of the votes” at the convention qualified for the ballot.

Kokesh has said he’s staying in the race even though the party ruled that he didn’t qualify for the ballot at the preprimary convention.

The state GOP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Update, 8:30 p.m.

Gonzales, the Democratic Party chairman, responded to Campos’ comments about “hurdles” and donors being “threatened” by saying that the state party has done nothing to try to keep Campos off the ballot.

“To the contrary,” Gonzales said, he made the decision earlier today to qualify Campos for the ballot “prior to any county party chair involvement” – despite what Campos claimed – and prior to the meeting of the judicial council. Gonzales said the council’s vote was simply to ratify his decision.

“I’m proud of the fact that we had a successful convention,” Gonzales said. “… At the end of the day, I’m glad that we were able to cite a law that allowed a candidate (Campos) access to the ballot.”

Meanwhile, state GOP spokeswoman Janel Causey said the party is “currently reviewing this matter” as it relates to Kokesh “to ensure that the party is in strict adherence with the law, and where applicable, rules, which determine when a candidate has reached the 20 percent threshold of delegate votes necessary to earn a place on the primary ballot.”