Ben L. Hall
While Kent Evans and Jamie Estrada were fighting with each other in the Public Regulation Commission District 5 GOP primary, Ben L. Hall was building support.
Hall currently leads with 925 votes, or 34.6 percent, to Evans’ 817 votes, or 30.5 percent, and Estrada’s 524 votes, or 19.6 percent. Robert Maez has 410 votes, or 15.3 percent.
Hall, who is from Ruidoso, had TV ads, billboards and signs all over the district, but the media attention (on this site as well as elsewhere) has focused on Evans and Estrada.
Expect this race to tighten. Evans is doing very well in his home county of Doña Ana, and the vast majority of the vote there has yet to be counted. Evans and another candidate, Doyle Pruitt, split the Las Cruces vote in this same primary race in 2006, and the rural candidate, C. Earl Greer of Truth or Consequences, went on to win the primary. Will that happen again?
I’m guessing not, with Evans as close to Hall as he is right now. I think things look pretty good for Evans, but Hall also has a chance of winning.