Public Financing Ruled Out for Judge Candidate

A state Court of Appeals judge candidate has been told by the secretary of state he doesn’t qualify for public financing, but he’s fighting that ruling.

Albuquerque lawyer Dennis W. Montoya was notified in a letter from Mary Herrera dated Friday that he had failed to comply with the “seed money” requirements of the public financing law.

According to the letter, the Democrat gave his campaign $8,887, exceeding a $5,000 cap for “seed money” in the law.

Herrera also cited another section of the law that says candidates who take contributions totaling $500 or more, or who spend a total of $500 or more, don’t qualify for public financing.

Spokesman Santiago Juarez said Montoya had complied with the law and planned to appeal to Herrera.

Juarez said Montoya’s report included expenditures that were not “seed money” but rather were expenses related to campaigning for votes at the party’s pre-primary convention to secure a spot on the ballot.

Juarez claimed the public financing law has a glitch, in that it doesn’t take into account such spending by statewide candidates nor give them a way to report it.

– Deborah Baker

MORE POLLING: Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, the expected Democratic nominee for governor, led each of the five Republican candidates in head-to-head matchups in a March poll from the Asbury Park, N.J., firm Rasmussen Reports.

The poll, which included 500 likely New Mexico voters surveyed with automated phone calls on March 24, showed Denish’s closest prospective competitor to be Albuquerque public relations firm owner Doug Turner.

In the head-to-head matchups, Denish led Turner by 9 percentage points, former state GOP chairman Allen Weh by 10 percentage points, Albuquerque lawyer Pete Domenici Jr. by 17 percentage points, Las Cruces-based District Attorney Susana Martinez by 19 percentage points and Albuquerque state Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones by 22 percentage points.

Rasmussen, an independent company that picks its own polls and charges a fee for in-depth results and analysis, reported a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points for the survey.

– Sean Olson

Deborah Baker reports from the Journal’s Capitol Bureau. Sean Olson is the Albuquerque-based Journal politics writer. Baker can be reached at dbaker@abqjournal.com   or 505-992-6267. Olson can be reached at solson@abqjournal.com   or 505-823-3563.