By MERILEE DANNEMANN
Triple Spaced Again
© 2024 New Mexico News Services
New Mexico’s primary election is a few weeks away, on June 4. As attentive voters know, in New Mexico the primary election is at least as important as the general. Depending on your district, you might have a little work to do researching your choices, and it’s time to get started.
As usual, many counties are dominated by one party or the other and the primary is the decisive race for local positions like county commissioners and county clerk. Chavez and Lea counties, for example, have only Republicans running for county commission. Taos County has only Democrats. Valencia County has three Republicans and one Democrat running for treasurer. Torrance County has only one county race – commissioner of District 3 – with four Republicans running.
A number of legislative seats have contests in the primary. One of them might be the House or Senate seat in your district, so you will want to know who’s who. You might need to read a few websites, attend a community forum or talk to the candidates in person.
If there’s any doubt whether you are registered, you can check at nmvote.org. That’s a section of the Secretary of State website that also links to other information, such as your sample ballot.
To find out who’s running in your district, first look around your neighborhood for yard signs. Then look online for the voters’ guide published by the League of Women Voters, which will be as complete and comprehensive as these dedicated volunteers can make it. It is expected to be completed by May 7, which is also the opening day of early voting and the close of registration by mail or online. Go to centralnmvoterguide.org or to Vote411.org.
The entire list of candidates for this election, from president on down, is on the Secretary of State website here.
In several legislative races there is no contest; I counted 14 Senate seats unopposed (9 Democrats, 5 Republicans) and 24 House seats, with no challenger in either the primary or the general. Almost all are incumbents.
Some people think it’s a problem when a candidate gets a free ride back into office. I don’t – at least, not for our part-time unpaid Legislature. If the community is happy with the legislator’s performance, it’s okay to let him or her back into office without the burden of campaigning. It’s a vote of confidence and a huge relief for the legislator.
On the other hand, a nasty rivalry has arisen between centrist and progressive Democrats, causing some several primary contests among legislators. This accounts for some of the primary challenges to incumbent Democrats.
If you are a constituent in one of these districts, in deciding which candidate to support you may want to do a little research and make up your own mind about the issues in dispute, such as the paid family and medical leave bill that failed this year. I tend to favor the incumbents, in part because they took a sensible position on a badly written bill.
For Congress, the only primary contest is in District 1 between two Republicans running to oppose incumbent Democrat Melanie Stansbury. There is no primary contest in the U.S. Senate race.
As always, because we are so late in the national calendar, New Mexico’s vote for president will not help to pick the nominees, but if you are an anti-Trump Republican and would like to express your feelings by voting for Haley, Christie, DeSantis or another candidate, now’s your chance to do so without affecting the outcome.
Contact Merilee Dannemann through www.triplespacedagain.com.
