GOP Poised for House History

Republicans claimed a 37-33 majority to gain control of the New Mexico's House of Representatives, according to early, unofficial election results.

And the 131 candidates spent more than $4.2 million collectively in the contests, making it historic spending for a historic match for party control of a lower chamber that hasn't been red since the 1950s.

The $4.3 million only represents direct spending by candidates and doesn't account for the cash spent by outside groups in amounts not limited by campaign finance caps.

All 70 seats were up for grabs for a two-year term in the Roundhouse.

A Republican House would give the reelected GOP Gov. Susana Martinez more power in implementing her agenda. In the Senate, Democrats hold power by 25-17 but sometimes differ on party issues. 

Republicans still struggled to carve seats out of the heavily Democratic northern New Mexico counties. Three incumbent Democrats—Jim Trujillo, Carl Trujillo and Brian Egolf Jr.—sailed to reelection without facing opponents.

But the GOP put up stiff challenges in the north, too.

Democrat Matthew McQueen took back House District 50 after ousting Republican Gov. Susana Martinez' appointee Vickie Perea, who took over for Stephen Easely, a Democrat who passed away while he still held office.

McQueen, an environmental attorney, says he might encounter a steep learning curve during his rookie session.

His campaign focused on raising the minimum wage and fighting to get excessive testing out of schools.

"I think we need to pull back from quote reforms," he says about education.

Full election results from the state's largest counties—including Santa Fe, Bernalillo, Doña Ana, San Juan—were still not available by midnight.  Bernalillo's numbers showed up on the secretary of state's website just before 2 am.

Democrat Stephanie Garcia Richard outspent her Republican challenger Geoff Rogers by nearly $122,000 to represent the conservative-tilting District 43 that encompass Los Alamos County, where outside groups barraged voters with false attacks against both candidates. Chairs of both county parties there observed high voter participation.

Incumbent Garcia Richard hung on to her strong 12.5 point lead over Rogers by 6:30 am Wednesday. With just two precincts yet to report, she claimed 56.7 percent of votes.

Other narrow Republican victories went to Sarah Barnes over Emily Kane in Albuquerque's District 15 and Jim Dines over Josh Anderson for District 20. Nate Gentry kept his seat with 54 percent of votes over Robert Coffey Jr., and Andy Nunez, a former Democrat who's now in the GOP fold, beat Phillip Archuleta with 54 percent to reclaim a seat he once held in the Doña Ana County District 36.

Santa Fe Reporter