Candidates File for SF County Government Seats

A dozen candidates will vie for a seat in Santa Fe county government in the primary election in June.

Contenders include a former Santa Fe city councilor, several county employees and the nephew of a longtime Santa Fe politician.

The office of county clerk is the most crowded field. County clerk Public Information Coordinator Geraldine Salazar, political activist Tara Lujan, business owner Letitia Montoya and Gilbert Garcia have thrown their hats in the ring.

Former Santa Fe City Councilor Miguel Chavez, who vacated his municipal seat two weeks ago after deciding against seeking re-election, is competing for the District 2 County Commission seat. He’ll face lawyer Maria DeAnda Hay and former county employee Gilbert Hernandez, who retired in 2008 as a supervisor in the Property Control Services Division.

County Commissioner Kathy Holian will also face a former Santa Fe County employee in the District 4 race. Victor Baca retired in 2010 as the county’s deputy assessor and now runs a realty business.

Baca, who also worked for the state of New Mexico and Los Alamos County, said “there’s a lot of big issues” the county is facing and he wants to see more oversight of the county manager and other administration officials, among other things.

Holian said she decided to run for a second term because there are more things she wants to accomplish.

District 5 County Commissioner Liz Stefanics will run for re-election unopposed.

The race for county treasurer pits deputy treasurer Oliver Garcia against state Department of Transportation physical plant manager Patrick Varela. Varela is the nephew of state Rep. Luciano “Lucky” Varela, D-Santa Fe.

Also, Santa Fe Mayor David Coss filed, as expected, for the State House District 46  spot. He’ll compete against Carl Trujillo.

All the candidates who filed papers Tuesday are Democrats, meaning the contests will essentially be decided in June’s primary elections