6-04-2024 8:19am

Primary Day 2024 Get Out and Vote

Chris Edwards Editor

The primary election for New Mexico is upon us this Tuesday, June 4. This time around, while Republicans are looking a few intraparty contests, there are far more contested races inside the Democratic Party across the state.

Not one of the 70 seats in the New Mexico House of Representatives is a district in which both Democrats and Republicans fielded more than one candidate for the primary.

It’s a similar story in the Senate, where three of 42 seats have more than one contestant. This is the first election with new maps for senate districts. Some state senators and representatives announced they would not be seeking reelection this year.

These included Albuquerque Senators Jerry Ortiz y Pino, Brenda McKenna, Bill Tallman and Mark Moores; Alamogordo Senate Republicans Ron Griggs and Bill Burt; Sen. Stephen Neville of Aztec, Gregg Schmedes of Tijeras and Cliff Pirtle of Roswell.

In the House, Reps. Jim Townsend, Candy Spence Ezell and Natalie Figueroa are seeking seats in the Senate while Rep. Bill Rehm of Albuquerque, Anthony Allison of Fruitland, and House Majority Leader Gail Chasey of Albuquerque, all announced their retirements.

The two local races to watch are Senate Distict 33 where Alamogordo City Commissioner Nick Paul is competing against two other Republicans in the primary Rhonda Romack and Lynne D Crawford.

The dirtiest race this election cycle is for Otero County Treasurer where candidate Karl Melton supported by his domestic partner Rep John Block went all in and dirty sending out multiple attack pieces against 16 year veteran of the treasurers office Rachael Black. Ms. Black has served as assistant treasurer for Otero County for 7 years. Melton has no experience and has run a mud slinging campaign funded by John Block and out of area supporters attempting to influence the local election. The treasurers race is a position that is technical and has no political significance whatsoever thus the mud slinging by the Block/Melton duo is an act of desperation displayed or a lack of experience verses experience per campaign representatives.

We will be posting election results as they are released around 7:30 p.m. for the first count by the Secretary of States office.