{"id":182,"date":"2006-03-21T01:24:00","date_gmt":"2006-03-21T07:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/03\/boykin-drops-out-but-republicans-have-bigger-problems-and-apodaca%e2%80%99s-out-too\/"},"modified":"2006-03-21T01:24:00","modified_gmt":"2006-03-21T07:24:00","slug":"boykin-drops-out-but-republicans-have-bigger-problems-and-apodaca%e2%80%99s-out-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/03\/boykin-drops-out-but-republicans-have-bigger-problems-and-apodaca%e2%80%99s-out-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Boykin drops out but Republicans have bigger problems, and Apodaca\u2019s out, too"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>State Rep. William \u201cEd\u201d Boykin, R-Las Cruces, announced Monday that he\u2019s not seeking reelection this year. He stated in a Republican Party news release that he made the decision in December because he has \u201cseveral projects that I want to get to that I have been putting off and I need to get back to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

What the news release didn\u2019t 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\u2019s blog.<\/p>\n

Boykin will be remembered as a fine legislator who earned the respect of Republicans and Democrats alike.<\/p>\n

But enough of that. Do\u00f1a Ana County Republican Party Chairman Sid Goddard has bigger challenges, now that he has found someone to run in District 37. As many as eight other Democrat incumbents in the county \u2013 including state representatives and magistrate judges \u2013 were without Republican challengers on Monday. The party might find candidates before today\u2019s filing deadline, but officials didn\u2019t sound optimistic.<\/p>\n

In the 2004 election there were only three unopposed Democrats, and there were two unopposed Republicans. It doesn\u2019t appear there will be any unopposed Republicans this year.<\/p>\n

The Republican Party is also dealing with the resignations last week of its two members of the Mesilla Board of Trustees, Paul E. Pirtle and Ernest Wesley Dixon. The two were apparently frustrated after Republican candidates who might have given them a majority on the board lost in the recent town elections. Republicans and Democrats have been locked in a battle over whether to open up the town to more development.<\/p>\n

The resignations frustrate many Republicans. One party source I spoke with called the actions \u201cjust stupid.\u201d The source said the move benefits the Democrats, not the Republicans, since the three Democrats left on the board will appoint the replacements.<\/p>\n

The news gets even worse for the Republican Party. Boykin is one of several Republican legislators statewide who won\u2019t be filing to run for reelection today, a source says.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s going on? Republicans were tight-lipped and frustrated when I asked. Democrats didn\u2019t seem to have an answer either.<\/p>\n

On the other side of things\u2026<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Someone whose name you apparently won\u2019t see on the June primary ballot is former Do\u00f1a Ana County Commission Chairman Gilbert Apodaca, a Democrat. The notorious politico announced when he left the commission at the end of 2004 that he was considering running against Public Regulation Commissioner E. Shirley Baca this year. Then Gov. Bill Richardson appointed Apodaca to the New Mexico Border Authority. Do\u00f1a Ana County\u2019s Democratic legislators had a fit and paid a visit en masse to Richardson to protest.<\/p>\n

They were upset because Apodaca alienated his party with dictator-like leadership of county government, a pro-life stance and allegations against him of bribery and other misdeeds. (There were investigations, but Apodaca was never charged.)<\/p>\n

Shortly after the legislators\u2019 meeting with the governor, Apodaca announced that he didn\u2019t want the seat, and said he was reconsidering running for the PRC.<\/p>\n

I ran into Apodaca last week and asked about his future plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m done with politics,\u201d he said when I asked whether he\u2019ll run for PRC. I asked whether he might try to retake his commission seat from Democrat Bill McCamley in two years and he said it again.<\/p>\n

According to sources, Apodaca hasn\u2019t been out collecting signatures, so I guess you won\u2019t see his name on the candidate list that will be released tonight. But most Democrats I\u2019ve spoken with have a hard time believing he\u2019ll never run for another public office. Apodaca recently showed up at the New Mexico Association of Counties convention, a source tells me. He\u2019s at least maintaining his political connections.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Candidates file today to run in the June 6 primary. Tomorrow I\u2019ll tell you about who\u2019s running. By the way, for those of you who have entered an e-mail address in the box on the right to subscribe to my site, I\u2019m having some problems getting that to work. Thanks for your patience with me while I sort through the technical difficulties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State Rep. William \u201cEd\u201d Boykin, R-Las Cruces, announced Monday that he\u2019s not seeking reelection this year. He stated in a Republican Party news release that he made the decision in December because he has \u201cseveral projects that I want to get to that I have been putting off and I need to get back to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}