{"id":2582,"date":"2007-11-30T12:39:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-30T18:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/11\/now-mattiace-says-he-wont-challenge-election-or-sue\/"},"modified":"2007-11-30T12:39:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-30T18:39:00","slug":"now-mattiace-says-he-wont-challenge-election-or-sue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/11\/now-mattiace-says-he-wont-challenge-election-or-sue\/","title":{"rendered":"Now Mattiace says he won’t challenge election or sue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Former Las Cruces Mayor Bill Mattiace<\/a> has decided he won\u2019t contest the results from the election that tossed him from office earlier this month and won\u2019t sue those who made comments about him that he claims may have been defamatory. <\/p>\n

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

At least, that\u2019s what he told the Las Cruces Bulletin<\/a> for an article published today.<\/p>\n

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

It seems likely this is the final chapter in the back-and-forth about whether Mattiace will contest the election. It began when Mattiace called new Mayor Ken Miyagishima<\/a> on election night and conceded the race.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cMayor-elect Miyagishima, congratulations. This is Mayor Mattiace,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cUnofficially, it looks like you are now mayor by a margin of about 74 votes. All of us here say \u2018congratulations.\u2019 We\u2019re one team again, a united city. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Actually, after a few votes were added to the count, Mattiace lost by 80 votes out of more than 11,000 cast.<\/p>\n

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

But Mattiace announced days later that he would challenge the results and would also sue a number of people for defamation related to election campaigning.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI don\u2019t want to sound like sour grapes, but it\u2019s very close,\u201d he said at the time about challenging the results. \u201c\u2026 I think the outcome will probably be the same. \u2026 I think my opponent will be happy to know that there\u2019s no shadows, there\u2019s no rumor, there\u2019s no innuendos.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

About the defamation lawsuits, he said the details would come out later, and added, \u201cBoy do I have a lot to share.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Then, he said days later that he would not challenge the election results, but he would seek a recount of absentee ballots to ensure the integrity of the process. Now he apparently doesn\u2019t even plan to do that.<\/p>\n

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

Mattiace explained his newest decision to the Bulletin by saying there were some problems on Election Day, but the last time a vote was successfully contested, the process took four years.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI don\u2019t have the time or energy for a court battle,\u201d Mattiace said.<\/p>\n

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

Mattiace said that\u2019s the same reason he won\u2019t sue people for defamation, even though he\u2019s upset that some said he\u2019s in the pocket of developers and a Democrat. (He\u2019s a Republican.) The reality is that, if that\u2019s all he has, he probably wouldn\u2019t have won a defamation lawsuit anyway. It\u2019s very, very difficult for a public official to win a defamation suit. While the second comment is factually inaccurate, the first is someone\u2019s opinion, not defamation.<\/p>\n

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

If that\u2019s all he had to share, there was very little to his claim that he was defamed. He would have to prove that a comment was factually inaccurate, that the person making it knew it was inaccurate, that the person intended to damage his reputation in making it and that his reputation was, in fact, damaged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Las Cruces Mayor Bill Mattiace has decided he won\u2019t contest the results from the election that tossed him from office earlier this month and won\u2019t sue those who made comments about him that he claims may have been defamatory. At least, that\u2019s what he told the Las Cruces Bulletin for an article published today. […]<\/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-2582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582","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=2582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}