{"id":699,"date":"2006-10-10T18:34:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-11T00:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/breaking-news-high-court-rejects-gop-lawsuit\/"},"modified":"2006-10-10T18:34:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-11T00:34:00","slug":"breaking-news-high-court-rejects-gop-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/breaking-news-high-court-rejects-gop-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING NEWS: High court rejects GOP lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justices of the New Mexico Supreme Court have unanimously denied the Republican Party\u2019s challenge to several recent election decisions made by the secretary of state\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

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

The high court announced its decision shortly after 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe ballot remains as it is,\u201d said Sam Thompson, spokeswoman for Attorney General Patricia Madrid.<\/p>\n

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

The Republican Party filed the lawsuit Sept. 27 against Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron and Madrid<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>, whose office advises Vigil-Giron.<\/p>\n

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

At issue was the secretary of state allowing Democrats to place Hector Balderas on the ballot for state auditor and denying Republican attempts to place Roger Gonzales of Mora on the ballot for Balderas\u2019 House seat and Barbara V. Johnson of Albuquerque<\/st1:City> on the ballot for a district judgeship in Albuquerque<\/st1:City><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe had always felt that the Republican Party\u2019s lawsuit was without merit, and the Supreme Court affirmed that,\u201d said Secretary of State spokesman Ray Baray. \u201cWe will continue with the election process.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Nina Martinez, state Republican Party secretary, was disappointed.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThey deferred to the secretary of state and accepted a press statement from Bill Richardson as a withdrawal,\u201d she said. \u201cPress statements now constitute withdrawals in New Mexico<\/st1:State><\/st1:place>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The Democrats\u2019 original candidate for state auditor, Jeff Armijo, announced that he would drop out of the race in late August because of allegations that he made unwanted sexual advances toward a campaign volunteer. Though he claims the allegations are false, Gov. Bill Richardson pressured him to drop out.<\/p>\n

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

Armijo<\/st1:place> changed his mind before the deadline to officially withdraw and announced he would not file the signed, notarized withdrawal letter that had typically been required by the secretary of state\u2019s office. The governor\u2019s office and Democratic Party argued that Armijo\u2019s prior public statements and actions constituted a withdrawal, and the secretary of state took his name off the ballot after Richardson<\/st1:City>\u2019s office provided the secretary of state with Armijo<\/st1:place>\u2019s press statement.<\/p>\n

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

Armijo and his party sued each other in an attempt to resolve the issue, but Armijo<\/st1:place> gave up the fight before a court hearing. The Republican Party then filed its lawsuit.<\/p>\n

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

Martinez<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> said Vigil-Giron has changed precedent to accommodate the Democrats but is \u201cnitpicky\u201d with every detail of Republican attempts to get on the ballot, and said it was wrong of the justices to back Vigil-Giron.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cNow we\u2019re appealing to voters,\u201d Martinez<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> said. \u201cIt\u2019s just blatantly unfair. I think the average person out there will see that. \u2026 The Democratic Party has controlled state government for 75 years. This is the result.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justices of the New Mexico Supreme Court have unanimously denied the Republican Party\u2019s challenge to several recent election decisions made by the secretary of state\u2019s office. The high court announced its decision shortly after 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. \u201cThe ballot remains as it is,\u201d said Sam Thompson, spokeswoman for Attorney General Patricia Madrid. The Republican Party […]<\/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-699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699","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=699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}