{"id":38507,"date":"2012-03-30T09:45:04","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T15:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=38507"},"modified":"2012-03-30T09:50:59","modified_gmt":"2012-03-30T15:50:59","slug":"at-least-four-lawmakers-candidacies-challenged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/03\/at-least-four-lawmakers-candidacies-challenged\/","title":{"rendered":"At least four lawmakers\u2019 candidacies challenged"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Roundhouse in Santa Fe (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

At least four sitting lawmakers are among candidates who will have their candidacies challenged in court because they incorrectly filled out nominating petitions.<\/p>\n

The Albuquerque Journal reported today on three of the four<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cRep. Thomas Garcia<\/a>, D-Ocate, filed Thursday in state District Court, complaining that his primary opponent, Sen. Pete Campos<\/a>, D-Las Vegas, failed to put his Senate District 8 number on his nominating petitions despite a state law requiring it.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026In Silver City, Democrat Terry Fortenberry challenged the petitions of two other candidates who didn\u2019t list their districts: his primary opponent, Democrat Guadalupe Cano, and Rep. Dianne Hamilton<\/a>, the only Republican candidate in the race. Fortenberry also alleged other irregularities in their House District 38 petitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in Las Cruces, three voters challenged Republican Rep. Ricky Little<\/a> of Chaparral, saying half his petition pages lacked the District 53 number and therefore he doesn\u2019t have enough valid signatures. Little is the only GOP candidate; tossing him off the ballot would leave only Democrat Nate Cote<\/a>, whom Little defeated two years ago.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

In addition, NMPolitics.net has learned, Republicans will file a challenge today to the candidacy of Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings<\/a>, D-Roswell. As the Journal reported<\/a>, it won\u2019t come from one of two Republicans seeking to unseat Jennings this year, but it will come. Any qualified voter in the district can file such a challenge.<\/p>\n

As NMPolitics.net has reported, at least 12 candidates who filed to run in the June 5 primary\u00a0failed to comply<\/a>\u00a0with a new law that requires that district or division numbers be listed on their nominating petitions.<\/p>\n

Secretary of State\u00a0Dianna Duran<\/a> still certified their candidacies<\/a> after Assistant Attorney General Tania Maestas advised her to do so. Maestas sent Duran a letter advising that,<\/a>\u00a0\u201cIn the absence of any evidence of fraud or bad faith, it is unlikely that a court would require strict adherence to the statutory requirements at the cost of denying a significant number of voters their constitutional right to participate in the election process.\u201d<\/p>\n

That left it to individuals to challenge their candidacies in court. Today is the deadline to file such challenges.<\/p>\n

Update, 9:50 p.m.<\/h3>\n

NMPolitics.net has learned that Third Judicial District Attorney Amy Orlando, a Republican, has filed a lawsuit challenging the candidacy of her Democratic opponent, Mark D\u2019Antonio, who left the district number off his petitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED: At least four sitting lawmakers are among candidates who will have their candidacies challenged in court because they incorrectly filled out nominating petitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[156,107],"class_list":["post-38507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2012-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38507","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=38507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38507\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}