I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The Green Party logo.
Green Party activists are suing Secretary of State Mary Herrera to win spots on this November’s election ballot after a would-be candidate was turned away from registering for a congressional race last month.
According to a complaint to be filed in the state’s 2nd Judicial District Court, the activists and the Green Party itself are suing after the state agency turned away the would-be candidate, Alan Woodruff, June 22, 2010, saying the Green Party is not a qualified party in New Mexico and doesn’t have a spot on the election ballot.
Woodruff told the Independent on Friday that the state never informed the Green Party that it had lost its status as a minor party after the 2008 elections, and thus had not satisfied the statutory threshold for disqualifying the party.
“She never informed us,” Woodruff said.
Deputy Secretary of State Don Francisco Trujillo II responded Friday, saying that he turned away Woodruff last month because the Green Party had not met the requirements to register as a minor party in New Mexico.
“The only party that submitted the proper paperwork according to statute, and that was verified by the Secretary of State and qualified to be a minor party (in 2010), is the Libertarian Party of New Mexico,” Trujillo said.
Candidates for the Green Party failed to win enough votes in 2008 election races to automatically keep the party on the ballot for 2010 and had not submitted signatures this spring to petition to win a spot on the ballot, Trujillo said.
“The Libertarian Party was the only party that did that,” Trujillo said.
Woodruff described as flawed the process by which the state requires a minor party to collect signatures to petition for a spot on the ballot.
Woodruff is part of an ongoing 2009 lawsuit in federal court that charges that the state unfairly restricts ballot access for minor parties like the Green Party.
Woodruff is seeking to run as a Green Party candidate for the District 1 U.S. Representative seat, currently held by Democrat Martin Heinrich.
