Candidates File Court Challenges Against Opponents Ahead of Primary

‘Tis the season … to try to elbow your opponent off the June 5 primary election ballot. Today is the deadline for court challenges, and some are already in the pipeline.

Rep.Thomas Garcia, D-Ocate, filed Thursday in state District Court, complaining that his primary opponent, Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas, failed to put his Senate District 8 number on his nominating petitions despite a state law requiring it.

Campos is among a dozen candidates in the same boat. Secretary of State Dianna Duran allowed them to remain on the ballot, after getting legal advice from Attorney General Gary King’s office.

In Silver City, Democrat Terry Fortenberry challenged the petitions of two other candidates who didn’t list their districts: his primary opponent, Democrat Guadalupe Cano, and Rep. Dianne Hamilton, the only Republican candidate in the race. Fortenberry also alleged other irregularities in their House District 38 petitions.

And in Las Cruces, three voters challenged Republican Rep. Ricky Little of Chaparral, saying half his petition pages lacked the District 53 number and therefore he doesn’t have enough valid signatures. Little is the only GOP candidate; tossing him off the ballot would leave only Democrat Nate Cote, whom Little defeated two years ago.

Other election-related developments:

⋄  In the high-stakes, two-man Senate District 26 race on Albuquerque’s West Side -where the Democratic primary winner gets the seat because there’s no GOP opponent – there’s been a challenge of a different sort. Carlos Villanueva went to the secretary of state this week with allegations that Jacob Candelaria’s petitions contained forgeries. The secretary of state turned the matter over to the State Police; they took the complaint and will review it and decide whether to investigate further. Candelaria’s camp says it doesn’t know anything about the alleged problem signatures but is happy to help in any investigation.

⋄  Another complaint of allegedly forged or fraudulent signatures was filed Thursday with the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office by Michael Padilla, a candidate in the four-way Democratic primary for Albuquerque’s Senate District 14. Padilla says that among the irregularities are seven people whose names are on Democratic Rep. Eleanor Chavez’s petitions but who deny signing them. The Clerk’s Office forwarded the complaint to the county’s legal department, which will forward it to the Sheriff’s Office. Chavez says she stands by her petition signatures.

⋄  One of the Republicans running in state Senate District 9 has dropped out. Placitas psychiatrist Charles Mellon says he met with the other GOP candidate, state Rep. David Doyle, and concluded Doyle was in a better position to defeat the incumbent, Democratic Sen. John Sapien.

Doyle will be the only Republican on the ballot; Sapien is being challenged in the Democratic primary by Ben Rodefer, who served a term in the state House before Doyle beat him in 2010.
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal