{"id":3025,"date":"2008-03-26T11:29:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-26T17:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/03\/clerk-candidate-discloses-drunken-driving-arrest\/"},"modified":"2008-03-26T11:29:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-26T17:29:00","slug":"clerk-candidate-discloses-drunken-driving-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/03\/clerk-candidate-discloses-drunken-driving-arrest\/","title":{"rendered":"Clerk candidate discloses drunken-driving arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Do\u00f1a Ana County Elections Supervisor Lynn Ellins, one of five people running for county clerk this year, was arrested for drunken driving in November 2006. <\/p>\n

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

Ellins\u2019 blood-alcohol level was 0.14 at the time of his arrest in Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> \u2013 well above the legal limit of 0.08. He pleaded no contest to the charge of drunken driving and received a deferred sentence.<\/p>\n

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

After paying a fine, having an ignition interlock device installed in his vehicle for a year and completing the other terms of the deferred sentence, the charge against Ellins is on its way to being dismissed, he said in an interview. Assuming that happens, that means the incident won\u2019t appear on his permanent record.<\/p>\n

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

Ellins called me on Tuesday to disclose the arrest and ask me to write about it. He\u2019s bringing it up as he begins his run for county clerk, he said, so that there\u2019s no appearance that he\u2019s trying to hide anything.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI basically wanted to get this out in the open because I want my candidacy to be as transparent as the office I run,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

Ellins was in Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> for work but wasn\u2019t on county time when he was arrested at about 8 p.m. on that night in 2006, he said. He had dinner at a friend\u2019s house and was pulled over after he left.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI thought I was OK. I wasn\u2019t,\u201d Ellins said. \u201c\u2026 It was a very psychologically devastating thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Ellins said he spent a couple of hours in jail before a friend bailed him out. He said this was his first drunken driving offense. He hasn\u2019t driven after drinking since, and doesn\u2019t intend to again.<\/p>\n

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

Ellins was hired by the county on a temporary basis to run the Elections Bureau<\/a> a few months before his arrest. He said the county was aware of his arrest but Clerk Rita Torres<\/a> chose to make him the permanent elections supervisor in early 2007 in spite of the drunken-driving incident.<\/p>\n

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

Ellins said he believes many will react to news of his arrest by thinking about times when they might have had too much to drink before driving.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI think a lot of people are going to think, \u2018There but for the grace of God go I,\u2019\u201d Ellins said.<\/p>\n

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

Ellins is a former committee counsel to the New York State Legislature, a former Regent for the University<\/st1:placetype> of Colorado<\/st1:placename> and a former Deputy Secretary of State in Colorado<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. Since he was hired to run the county\u2019s elections, Democrats and Republicans alike have praised the elections staff, under his leadership, for professionalism and competence.<\/p>\n

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

The Democrat has three opponents in the June primary \u2013 Torres, former Mesilla town Clerk Yolanda Lucero and Martha Lucero, another employee of the county clerk\u2019s office. The winner will face former county Republican Party Chair Sid Goddard in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do\u00f1a Ana County Elections Supervisor Lynn Ellins, one of five people running for county clerk this year, was arrested for drunken driving in November 2006. Ellins\u2019 blood-alcohol level was 0.14 at the time of his arrest in Santa Fe \u2013 well above the legal limit of 0.08. He pleaded no contest to the charge of […]<\/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-3025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3025","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=3025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3025\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}