{"id":554,"date":"2006-09-08T09:03:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-08T15:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/09\/democrats-place-huge-bets-on-beating-armijo\/"},"modified":"2006-09-08T09:03:00","modified_gmt":"2006-09-08T15:03:00","slug":"democrats-place-huge-bets-on-beating-armijo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/09\/democrats-place-huge-bets-on-beating-armijo\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats place huge bets on beating Armijo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Democratic Party leaders fighting Jeff Armijo\u2019s attempt to remain on the ballot are gambling with their political futures. <\/p>\n

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

Those four are Gov. Bill Richardson, Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, Attorney General Patricia Madrid and Democratic Party Chair John Wertheim.<\/p>\n

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

They\u2019re all on board with the decision to take Democrat Armijo\u2019s name off the ballot in the state auditor race, which has resulted in one of the biggest political messes we\u2019ve seen around here in a long time.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Though they have a legal argument to back up Vigil-Giron\u2019s decision, there\u2019s no certainty it will hold up in court when Armijo<\/st1:place> files a lawsuit, which will likely happen today. Many sources in the Democratic and Republican parties have told me they believe Armijo<\/st1:place> will prevail in court.<\/p>\n

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

Their legal argument for taking Armijo<\/st1:place> off the ballot is this: Though it\u2019s been the practice for decades that candidates could only withdraw from races with signed, notarized letters, nothing in state law requires a letter. Armijo<\/st1:place> made his party believe he was withdrawing by sending out a news release announcing he would drop out of the race, so he effectively did withdraw, they say.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>There are two potential problems with their argument, sources in both parties say:<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 Though state law doesn\u2019t require a letter, it\u2019s been the practice of the secretary of state\u2019s office for decades. It\u2019s also been the practice that the candidate, not his or her party, has to make the request to the secretary of state. In this instance, Richardson<\/st1:city>\u2019s office, not Armijo<\/st1:place>, faxed the news release and other materials to Vigil-Giron.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 Even if the legal argument of Armijo<\/st1:place>\u2019s opponents holds up in court, there\u2019s another precedent that must be considered. Lorenzo Garcia is currently the Republican on the ballot in the auditor race, but his predecessor, Dan Alvarez, filed not only a signed, notarized letter withdrawing from the race, but later another letter withdrawing his withdrawal, which was also accepted by Vigil-Giron\u2019s office. He later withdrew again and was replaced by Garcia.<\/p>\n

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

If he could withdraw his withdrawal in the same manner that he originally withdrew, why couldn\u2019t Armijo<\/st1:place> do the same? Armijo<\/st1:place> sent out a news release to announce he was dropping out of the race, and did the same, before Tuesday\u2019s 5 p.m. deadline to withdraw, to announce he was changing his mind.<\/p>\n

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

In addition to Armijo<\/st1:place>\u2019s candidacy, here\u2019s what\u2019s at stake:<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> wants more than 60 percent of the vote in November. That would be a springboard for a presidential run. He wants Democrats to vote straight-ticket, and fears having Armijo<\/st1:place> on the ballot might discourage that.<\/p>\n

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

Strong-arming Armijo<\/st1:place> off the ticket is a gamble. If the Supreme Court or, even worse, a federal judge overturns Vigil-Giron\u2019s decision, Richardson\u2019s attorneys, who dreamed up the legal argument accepted by Vigil-Giron, look incompetent, and Richardson looks like big, bad Goliath losing to little David.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 Madrid is seeking to unseat U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., and has a shot at winning, but she\u2019s been plagued by allegations that she failed to investigate the scandal in the treasurer\u2019s office and has become a rubber stamp for Richardson. If Armijo\u2019s opponents lose this one, Madrid<\/st1:state> could be seen as the rubber stamp for Goliath, and it will be one more reason for Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> to hammer her.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 Some members of the party already wanted Wertheim out before this mess. If he loses, the once rising star in the Democratic Party might also be on his way out.<\/p>\n

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

Stay tuned. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Democratic Party leaders fighting Jeff Armijo\u2019s attempt to remain on the ballot are gambling with their political futures. Those four are Gov. Bill Richardson, Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, Attorney General Patricia Madrid and Democratic Party Chair John Wertheim. They\u2019re all on board with the decision to take Democrat Armijo\u2019s name off the ballot […]<\/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-554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554","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=554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}