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Carl Trujillo announced Monday afternoon that he will not seek a recount in his race against Speaker of the House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe.
“Because the race was so close, it was important for the many people who supported Carl’s campaign that we step through the official process to help them have confidence in the results, but we do not believe a recount would change the results and we view the closeness of our improbable campaign as a success as is,” Trujillo’s campaign manager Faith McKenna told The Independent.
In recent days Lujan’s lead has expanded slightly, giving him an edge of more than 80 votes over Trujillo as the Santa Fe County Clerk’s office has counted provisionals.
On Election night, when the race appeared much closer than many had expected, Trujillo said “Most certainly I would ask for a recount. We have worked too hard, my staff and my volunteers. The people have been ready for change. We’re not stunned.”
As of Monday Trujillo was down by about 1.9 percent.
Here’s Trujillo’s statement:
Many of our supporters expressed concern that, in such a close race, every vote be counted. As such, I felt an obligation to all who stood up courageously in our Campaign for Change to wait for every last vote to be counted before releasing a final statement. Today, the County Clerk finished its canvassing and counting of provisional ballots in the District 46 race.
While the final vote count shows Ben Lujan Sr. as the winner of a very close race, myself and everyone on our team agrees that the results are a victory for everyone who wants a more open and responsive state government. Although our $100 campaign contribution limit meant that we were outspent more than 5 to 1, and every pundit and news outlet claimed it was impossible to run a competitive campaign against an incumbent who has held the seat for 36 years, we proved conclusively that a campaign that makes it a priority to reflect the voices of the people can be competitive. That’s an accomplishment that we’re very proud of.
Our success did not happen magically or by accident, as is often thought when political success stories like this occur. Much of our extraordinary showing is due to the skill of our strategist and campaign manager, Faith McKenna, who took our campaign to the professional level required to be competitive against Mr. Lujan, as well as John Alford, our field director and
David Cortez, our deputy field director, who turned our group of enthusiastic volunteers into a first-rate field organization. And, of course, the extraordinary success we had was also due to the commitment and enthusiasm of our many campaign volunteers, who tirelessly spent every weekday evening and every weekend knocking on doors, stuffing envelopes and making phone calls to support our Campaign for Change.
Thank you to everyone who supported our campaign. This is just the first step in our continuing campaign to represent the voices of the people in District 46.
