A Democrat who was disqualified from running for a magistrate judgeship in Doña Ana County because he’s not an attorney is still trying to get on the ballot.
Paul Martinez has asked the state Court of Appeals to reverse a district court ruling disqualifying him. Read his appeal here.
Last week, a district judge affirmed Doña Ana County Clerk Lynn Ellins’ disqualification of Martinez and one other magistrate judge candidate because they aren’t attorneys. The New Mexico Supreme Court did the same.
But Martinez says the Supreme Court’s decision was only to force lower courts to decide the matter and create a record for the high court to consider if the matter came back to it. That’s why he asked the Court of Appeals to intervene.
As of the 2010 Census, the county’s population is over the 200,000 threshold that triggers a state law that requires magistrate judges to be attorneys. Doña Ana County’s official population in 2010 was 209,233.
The Legislature passed a bill in 2011, sponsored by Rep. Andy Nuñez, an independent from Hatch, that would have raised the threshold to 250,000, but Gov. Susana Martinez vetoed it.
Paul Martinez’s argument essentially appears to be that the governor didn’t have the authority to veto the bill because it passed with more than the two-thirds support required to override a veto.