Marquardt accepts defeat, plans for future

State Rep. Terry Marquardt, R-Alamogordo, has gained a couple of votes in Otero County, but it won’t help him win re-election, and he has already accepted defeat.

Otero and Doña Ana counties are still sorting through and counting provisional ballots. As it stands now, Marquardt received 2,454 votes, or 48.3 percent. Democratic challenger Nate Cote has 2,632 votes, or 51.7 percent.

Provisional ballots already counted in Otero County have given Cote an additional vote and Marquardt and additional three votes over the previously released totals.

According to the Alamogordo Daily News, Otero County is still counting some ballots, most of them provisionals. The total number, the clerk’s office told me, is fewer than 100, and some of them have already been counted.

There are 714 provisional ballots being sorted through in Doña Ana County.

In a separate article, Marquardt told the Daily News he has seen a loss as a possibility since redistricting in 2000 made his district 65 percent Democrat.

It’s also 19 percent independent, which doesn’t leave much room for Republicans.

“Ever since that redistricting… I’ve known what the numbers are,” he told the newspaper.

In a statement to the newspaper, Marquardt said the district is “not a district that favors Republican candidates” and said this year’s election “featured a very strong headwind” in Gov. Bill Richardson, Speaker of the House Ben Lujan and the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, all of which Marquardt said were “working in unison to oppose me.”

Marquardt told the newspaper he plans to rest for a few days, then begin making plans for “future political endeavors.”