{"id":2306,"date":"2007-10-02T11:14:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-02T17:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/mercurio-disqualified-from-mayors-race\/"},"modified":"2007-10-02T11:14:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-02T17:14:00","slug":"mercurio-disqualified-from-mayors-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/mercurio-disqualified-from-mayors-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercurio disqualified from mayor’s race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jon. J Mercurio<\/a> didn\u2019t file enough signatures to qualify to run for mayor of Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, so his name won\u2019t appear on the ballot for the Nov. 6 election.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That leaves District 6 City Councilor Ken Miyagishima<\/a> as the only challenger to Mayor Bill Mattiace<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Mercurio needed 150 signatures of registered voters who live in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> to qualify to appear on the ballot, city spokesman Udell Vigil said. He submitted 158 signatures, but only 100 were valid.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause he didn\u2019t meet the 150-signature requirement, his name won\u2019t appear on the ballot,\u201d Vigil said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Mercurio could not be immediately reached for comment.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Vigil didn\u2019t know why 58 signatures Mercurio collected were ruled invalid, but said most often signatures are disqualified because they come from people who live in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> but aren\u2019t registered in the city to vote. City Clerk Esther Martinez couldn\u2019t be immediately reached for comment.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

A representative of Mercurio, who filed his paperwork for him last week, was notified this morning of the disqualification, Vigil said. The clerk plans to announce the official list of candidates later today.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Mercurio, a political newcomer, said in a news release announcing his candidacy that he planned to run on a platform of \u201cfiscal responsibility that stretches across the spectrum from smart growth, participation of the average citizen in their government, open government, infrastructure improvement for the existing community, job creation and quality of life.\u201d He is opposed to public funding for downtown revitalization.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Mercurio\u2019s disqualification most likely benefits Miyagishima. The District 6 councilor has twice run unsuccessfully against Mattiace. Four years ago, Mattiace received 40 percent of the vote to Miyagishima\u2019s 25 percent, and three additional challengers split the other 35 percent. Had the other challengers not been in the race, Miyagishima might have won.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In addition, Miyagishima is running on his most defined platform yet \u2013 that the city\u2019s growth is out of control and needs to be slowed \u2013 and he\u2019s backed by citizens who have been galvanized by their opposition to the approval in April of the gross receipts tax increase to help fund the spaceport and in May of a massive development on the East Mesa. Some of those citizens were torn about whether to support Miyagishima or Mercurio.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 1:20 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

All other candidates who filed last week qualified to be on the ballot, the city announced today. Here is the official list of candidates:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Mayor: William \u201cBill\u201d Mattiace, incumbent, and District 6 Councilor Ken Miyagishima<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 City Council District 1: Jose V. Frietze, incumbent, Conrado M. Guerra, Rondeau M. Gurley and Miguel G. Silva<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 City Council District 2: Dolores Connor, incumbent, and Vincent Boudreau<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 City Council District 4: Steven F. Montano, Isaac E. Chavez and Nathan P. Small. Incumbent Steven Trowbridge is not running for re-election.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Presiding Municipal Court judge: Melissa Miller-Byrnes, incumbent, and Conrad F. Perea<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

At approximately 5:01 p.m. today, the candidates will draw for ballot position in the City Clerk\u2019s office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jon. J Mercurio didn\u2019t file enough signatures to qualify to run for mayor of Las Cruces, so his name won\u2019t appear on the ballot for the Nov. 6 election. That leaves District 6 City Councilor Ken Miyagishima as the only challenger to Mayor Bill Mattiace. Mercurio needed 150 signatures of registered voters who live in […]<\/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-2306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306","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=2306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}