Secretary of State Dianna Duran
Following the advice of the attorney general, Secretary of State Dianna Duran today certified the candidacies of at least a dozen hopefuls who improperly left the number of the district or division they’re seeking off their nominating petitions.
Duran’s decision came after Assistant Attorney General Tania Maestas sent her a letter Friday advising that, “In the absence of any evidence of fraud or bad faith, it is unlikely that a court would require strict adherence to the statutory requirements at the cost of denying a significant number of voters their constitutional right to participate in the election process.”
You can read the full letter here.
At least 12 candidates who filed to run in the June 5 primary failed to comply with a new law that requires that district or division numbers be listed on their nominating petitions. They include, according to Duran:
- Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas, whose candidacy has been challenged by primary opponent Thomas Garcia of Ocate.
- Rep. Rick Little, R-Chaparral.
- Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort, R-Sandia Park.
- Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell.
- Rep. Dianne Hamilton, R-Silver City.
- Rep. James Roger Madalena, D-Jemez Pueblo.
- Rep. Rodolpho Martinez, D-Bayard.
- Democrat Guadalupe Cano, who is running for the seat Hamilton now holds.
- Democrat Joshua Madalena of Jemez Pueblo, who is running against Sen. Lynda Lovejoy, D-Crownpoint.
- Democrat Louis Luna of Deming, who is running against Rep. Dona Irwin, D-Deming.
- Public Education Commissioner Vince Bergman, a Republican.
- Democrat Karen Montoya, who is running for the District 1 seat on the Public Regulation Commission.
NMPolitics.net has learned that Virginia Vigil, a Democrat seeking the District 3 seat on the PRC, and Mark D’Antonio, the Democrat running for district attorney in Doña Ana County’s Third Judicial District, also left the numbers off their petitions.
Thomas Garcia
Let the lawsuits commence
Garcia plans to sue to challenge Campos’ candidacy, according to Capital Report New Mexico.
“Everybody was playing by the same rules and everybody else complied,” the news website quoted Garcia as saying. “The rules were clear … 12 out of 250 (candidates for statewide office) didn’t follow the correct rules. So 99.5 percent (of the other candidates filling out the form) did it right.”
As I said on Twitter today:
“Let the lawsuits commence. Of course, if SOS disqualified the candidates, lawsuits would also commence.”