{"id":40505,"date":"2012-06-01T05:52:34","date_gmt":"2012-06-01T11:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=40505"},"modified":"2012-06-01T07:30:39","modified_gmt":"2012-06-01T13:30:39","slug":"judge-orders-sos-to-release-matching-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/06\/judge-orders-sos-to-release-matching-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge orders SOS to release matching funds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Secretary<\/a>

Secretary of State Dianna Duran<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0PRC candidate Cynthia Hall was instructed to return to court today if Duran doesn\u2019t release cash; the status of other candidates\u2019 funding isn\u2019t clear.<\/h4>\n

A district judge in Santa Fe has ordered Secretary of State Dianna Duran<\/a> to release cash to at least one publicly funded candidate who is due matching funds under state law.<\/p>\n

Judge Barbara Vigil issued the order during a hearing on Thursday directing Duran to release $61,066 to Democrat Cynthia Hall<\/a>, who is seeking the District 1 seat on the Public Regulation Commission. Hall is due the money under state law because privately financed opponent Al Park<\/a> has raised almost $139,000.<\/p>\n

Whether the secretary of state will comply with the order isn\u2019t immediately clear. Hall said in a news release that Vigil directed her to return to court Friday and seek a new order if Duran didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

If Duran does comply, it\u2019s not clear whether she\u2019ll also issue matching funds to other candidates who are due cash under state law. Vigil didn\u2019t allow other candidates to intervene in Hall\u2019s lawsuit today and the order only applies to Hall.<\/p>\n

As NMPolitics.net reported Thursday<\/a>, a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling struck down a similar matching-funds law in Arizona\u00a0in 2011<\/a>. Duran\u2019s decision to withhold the funds came early this week and followed two federal court hearings in\u00a0a lawsuit\u00a0filed by the Bernalillo County GOP and others challenging the constitutionality of New Mexico\u2019s matching funds provision.<\/p>\n

A judge denied a request from the plaintiffs \u2013 and Park, who filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit last week \u2013 to issue a temporary restraining order requiring Duran to withhold the funds.<\/p>\n

Duran decided to withhold the funds anyway, saying<\/a> the attorney general advised that the New Mexico law was probably unconstitutional but Duran should issue the matching funds anyway unless a court ordered otherwise.<\/p>\n

Duran rejected that advice, saying she is \u201cfaced with two conflicting legal directives\u201d \u2013 a state law requiring the disbursement of funds and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says such disbursements would violate the constitutional rights of non-publicly financed candidates and their donors.<\/p>\n

Democrat Karen Montoya<\/a>, who is running against Hall and Park, is also due $61,066 under the existing state law. In the Democratic Court of Appeals primary,\u00a0Victor S. Lopez\u00a0<\/a>is due $21,727 because opponent\u00a0M. Monica Zamora\u00a0<\/a>has raised $107,475. And in the PRC District 3 primary,\u00a0Danny Maki\u2019s<\/a> raising of almost $42,000 means his three Democratic primary opponents \u2013\u00a0Valerie Espinoza<\/a>,\u00a0Brad Gallegos<\/a> and\u00a0Virginia Vigil\u00a0<\/a>\u2013 are each due $1,730.90.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Lopez\u2019s campaign manager, Cheryl Harris, applauded Vigil\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudge Lopez has worked hard to qualify for public financing, believes in public financing, and believes the state has an obligation to follow the law,\u201d Harris said. \u201cJudge Lopez hopes to become the first statewide candidate to be elected using public finance under the Voter Action Act.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A district judge in Santa Fe has ordered Secretary of State Dianna Duran to release cash to at least one publicly funded candidate who is due matching funds under state law.<\/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":[156,223,161,217],"class_list":["post-40505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2012-election","tag-campaign-finance","tag-judiciary","tag-prc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40505","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=40505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40505\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}