NMPolitics.net (https://nmpolitics.net/index/page/708/)
Though I won’t normally be posting new blog entries on Fridays, I will post links to interesting political sites from time to time. Today I’m suggesting you check out the Web site of a Princeton professor who analyzed the 2004 election results and found that America isn’t red and blue at all. It’s purple.The address is http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/JAVA/election2004/.Have a great weekend. Continue Reading
The Doña Ana County Republican Party isn’t in crisis, says chair Sid Goddard. In fact, he says, it’s in the middle of a reorganization that is making the party stronger.During a meeting I had with party officials Wednesday, Goddard didn’t appear concerned that there are Republicans running in only 10 of 19 local races this year.“This is not a case of finding candidates to fill holes, but to fill the positions well, and if that means we leave the holes unfilled, so be it,” he told me.Goddard has a point. The underdog county Republican Party has run candidates before who had no chance of winning. Why waste resources on such races?Only four of the 19 positions up for grabs are currently held by Republicans, but party officials are optimistic that they might take a few more this year. Democrats, on the other hand, are optimistic they might take those four.Goddard said a stumbling block to finding quality candidates for all races was the continually dwindling confidence in the integrity and competence of the county clerk’s office, which has been plagued by problems in recent times.“There’s a concern about the conduct of the elections,” said Mary Thompson, a Republican Party volunteer who almost won the seat held by State Rep. Andy Nuñez, D-Hatch, two years ago.Goddard said that won’t stop the party.“We are a changed party, a committed party, and it is one that is going to deliver quality candidates,” he said.For now, the focus is on the primary. Continue Reading
“We’re not playing the same game at all.”That’s how Republican Lawrence Joy summed it up when I asked him to help explain why there were no Republicans running for nine of 19 local seats up for grabs this year. Joy, who ran unsuccessfully two years ago against State Rep. Antonio Lujan, D-Las Cruces, is seeking the seat again.Joy was explaining to me that Gov. Bill Richardson gives Democrats an advantage Republicans can’t currently match. He’s a national political figure with grand ambitions, and he brought with him when he returned to New Mexico a national fundraising machine.Republicans essentially gave up an attempt to take the governor’s mansion months ago, but Richardson’s influence in state politics became even more clear Tuesday when candidates filed to run in the June 6 Primary. In Doña Ana County, Republicans failed to find candidates to run against three Democratic state representatives, four magistrate judges, one district judge and for a spot on the Public Education Commission.The trend continued statewide. Republicans are running for only two of 14 district judgeships up for grabs around the state. Continue Reading
State Rep. William “Ed” Boykin, R-Las Cruces, announced Monday that he’s not seeking reelection this year. He stated in a Republican Party news release that he made the decision in December because he has “several projects that I want to get to that I have been putting off and I need to get back to them.”Las Crucen Scott Witt will file today to run for the District 37 seat Boykin is leaving, the release states. The retired Navy captain will face Democrat Jeff Steinborn, who almost beat Boykin in 2004.What the news release didn’t say was that the party asked Boykin last week to collect signatures and get on the June primary ballot, and he was out doing just that, a party insider assured me again Monday. The plan was that Boykin would get on the primary ballot, giving the party more time to find a suitable replacement. That apparently changed after it was reported in Monday’s blog.Boykin will be remembered as a fine legislator who earned the respect of Republicans and Democrats alike.But enough of that. Continue Reading
When the list of candidates running in the June primary is released tomorrow night, you’ll likely see the name of State Rep. William “Ed” Boykin, R-Las Cruces, but that doesn’t begin to tell the story of what’s happening on the Republican side in District 37. Boykin, who turns 74 later this year, had decided he wouldn’t seek reelection, sources tell me.Boykin didn’t show up a few weeks ago when the governor was in town to sign a bill he sponsored that will help make the Southwest Regional Spaceport at Upham a reality.But the Republican Party has searched in vain for someone to replace Boykin on the ballot, and Republicans are worried about losing his seat. Democrat Jeff Steinborn jumped into the 2004 race against Boykin at the last minute after Ray Storment withdrew his name, and he nearly beat the incumbent. Steinborn is running for the seat again.Republicans have asked Boykin to stay in the game, at least for now, a source tells me. Boykin, a retired educator who was first elected in November 2000, was out last week gathering the required signatures to get on the ballot. Continue Reading