Primary Primer

Election 101: Local races depend on turnout in major party contests

As a megalomaniacal Oompa Loompa perches comfortably atop the GOP ticket, and the nation’s former top robot diplomat firmly grasps the Democratic torch, it might be tempting to sit the primaries out and save your energy for The Big One in November. Don’t do that. All politics is local, as the saying goes, and there’s a lot at stake on Santa Fe County’s June 7 ballots.

New Mexico's closed-primary system means that voters can only weigh in here if they're registered with one of the two major parties. Democrats will decide the winner of four area races, including Santa Fe County clerk, two county commission seats and a spot in the New Mexico House of Representatives currently held by Luciano "Lucky" Varela, who is retiring after this term. No Republicans are running in those races. Santa Feans will also cast their vote for contests in reliably blue jurisdictions, including races for district attorney and the state Senate seat formerly held by real estate beneficiary Phil Griego.

Polls are open from 7 am to 7 pm on June 7. Not sure where to vote? Check voterview.state.nm.us to view your polling place.

Early voting runs from May 21 through June 4. Times and locations can be found on the county clerk’s website, or call 986-6280.

If democracy is not enough to get you to the polls, perhaps money will do the trick. Okay, so you're not getting paid to vote (that's called bribery), but consider all the cash that's been raised in these politicians' names. Area candidates in contested races collected nearly $400,000, according to our calculations based on reports to the secretary of state. Granted, a healthy chunk of that cash will go to general election campaigns, but still, you could buy 20,000 Plato Sabrosos at Horseman's Haven with that dough!

"For me, it's about representing the people. ... It doesn't matter if you have a D or an R after your name," said Ted Barela, upon his appointment last year to Senate District 39, Griego's old seat, a long stretch of land that includes parts of Santa Fe, Torrance, Lincoln, San Miguel, Valencia and Bernalillo counties. Barela, a Republican, is likely to change his tune when he faces one of four Democratic hopefuls in the general election.

Three of those candidates—Liz Stefanics, Mike Anaya and Hugh Ley—tout their public service experience. A fourth, Ambrose Castellano, works for an emergency home restoration company. Together, they've collected more than any other state or local race on our ballots, about $150,000 in total. Stefanics, who held District 39 for one term nearly two decades ago, and Ley, a former San Miguel County commissioner, carry most of that weight. Notably, Ley has raised more money than any of the candidates running for state Senate this cycle; 43 percent of that cash came from out of state, a sizable portion of which can be traced to summer homeowners, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

House District 48, south of the Santa Fe River, is also up for grabs. Three Democrats with public service experience are running to fill the seat, for decades the province of Lucky Varela. His son, Jeff Varela, will take on Santa Fe school board member Linda Trujillo and former county commissioner Paul Campos.

Earlier this month, the Santa Fe New Mexican questioned whether Varela actually lives in the district for which he is running, as required by state law. Varela signed onto his father's deed just 11 days before announcing his candidacy. He has owned a house in Rio Rancho for 21 years, where he says his wife and daughter live.

And then there are the prosecutors. Incumbent Jennifer Padgett will attempt to fend off two challengers for district attorney for the 1st Judicial District, which comprises Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and Los Alamos counties. Marco Serna, who most recently prosecuted Medicaid abuse in the attorney general's office, raised nearly twice as much as his two opponents combined. Maria Sanchez-Gagne, a longtime prosecutor who led the attorney general's Border Violence Division for 10 years, is the other contender. (None of them have ever sought office before.)

Padgett, who was appointed by Gov. Susana Martinez to replace Angela Pacheco after she retired, has come under fire for a policy of using special grand juries to investigate police shootings, a procedure that rarely ever leads to indictments. Both of her opponents have stated they would end the practice, and during a candidate forum last month, Padgett announced that she would not present any more police shooting cases to investigative grand juries, a reversal of her previous position. The winning Democratic prosecutor will go on to face Yvonne Chicoine, the unopposed Republican candidate, in the general election.

On the county level, voters will decide three races next month in Democratic primaries for seats without any Republican candidates. A race for county clerk between incumbent Geraldine Salazar and perennial candidate Letitia Montoya is a near repeat of the primary in 2012, which included one more candidate and in which Salazar took 46 percent of the votes. County Commissioner Miguel Chavez will be defending his District 2 seat from Anna Hansen, an avid Google-user (see the Pop Quiz from our April 27 issue). Finally, Edward Moreno, a former Associated Press reporter, and Charles Dalton, a veteran police officer, are running to replace Stefanics in District 5.

WHAT DID THEY SPEND IT ON?

SFR analyzed the spending reports for Senate District 39, one of the most expensive state-level races this election cycle. These charts show where the money went. Everyone still has money in the bank.

Top o’the Ticket to You

Donald Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee now that the competition has thrown in the towel, but New Mexico Republican voters will see some other familiar names: Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina and John Kasich. These five fallen candidates missed the deadline to withdraw from the ballot. Democrats can choose from Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

Not that it matters. At least in this election cycle, our state’s late primary all but guarantees our irrelevance in the nomination process. It hasn’t always been like this. We twice flirted with a February Democratic caucus in the 2000s, but it didn’t go so well the second time around, so we’re back to June. Happy voting!

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