Martinez, shown here outside her campaign office in Mesilla. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)

One thing is sure after Tuesday’s primary election: New Mexico will elect its first woman governor in November.

Doña Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez set up an all-female contest with Democratic Lt. Gov. Diane Denish on Tuesday after easily dispatching state GOP chairman Allen Weh in the GOP gubernatorial primary.

“We are one step closer to taking New Mexico back,” Martinez said in a late Tuesday speech before enthusiastic supporters. “We are saying no to the status quo. We are saying no to the corruption that has deprived New Mexico of the integrity it deserves.”

Denish immediately congratulated Martinez on her victory and then signaled that the governor’s race was entering the next stage — the general election season.

“This is going to be a competitive election and I am going to need all the help I can get,” Denish said in a news release. “My opponent has shown she will do anything to win – even take $450,000 from the man behind the disgraceful Swiftboaters.”

Martinez definitely showed she had electoral muscles to flex Tuesday, easily besting Weh, her closest competitor, by nearly 19 percentage points and out-performing the expectations that many had for her campaign.

Martinez’s victory Tuesday belied the difficulties she confronted in the waning days of the primary election season when she and Weh engaged in a two-person battle, ignoring the other three GOP gubernatorial competitors. Negative attack ads by both candidates ramped up the tension in an increasingly heated electoral contest that, at times, veered toward the personal.

Leaders say GOP must unify

The back-and-forth between the two candidates left some bruised feelings in its wake – a situation seemingly exacerbated by New Mexico GOP Chairman Harvey E. Yates a week ago, when he stepped into the middle of the battle between Martinez and Weh.

Yates defended Martinez against attack ads from Weh that claimed she didn’t pay taxes while saying Martinez’s attack ads against Weh on illegal immigration were fair.

“I did it because of an issue of honesty,” Yates said Tuesday when asked about his decision to get involved. “How can we win and clean up this state and base the campaign on things that are less than honest.”

Former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici Sr., acknowledged that the 2010 GOP gubernatorial race was more divisive than usual. “We’ve never had five candidates before,” he told The Independent. “It’s hard to keep five candidates in check.” Domenici’s son, Pete Jr., was one of the GOP gubernatorial candidates.

But the 36-year veteran of the U.S. Senate said there’s plenty of time for the party to get ready for the general election in November.

Noting the five months between the primary and general elections, the former U.S. senator said “There’s a lot of time to heal.”

The day’s events point to November

Martinez’s victory capped a primary election day in which both major political parties selected nominees to represent them in numerous contests during the November general election.

But as closely watched as Tuesday’s primaries were there were reminders that Tuesday was only a prologue.

Steve Pearce, the former 2nd District congressman, greeted voters in Lea County on Tuesday, reminding them that he and U.S. Rep. Democrat Harry Teague are vying in what is shaping up to be one of the closely watched congressional elections in November. Teague won the 2nd Congressional District.

A round up of races

The GOP gubernatorial contest may have been the headliner of Tuesday’s primary election, but nominees for a number of down-ballot races were picked Tuesday by both major political parties.

Brian Colon edged out Lawrence Rael in a six-person field of Democrats that included House Rep. Jose Campos, state senators Linda Lopez and Jerry Ortiz y Pino to become the party’s Lieutenant Governor nominee.

On the Republican side, John Sanchez won his party’s nomination despite a four-person field, including Sen. Kent Cravens and former House Rep. Brian Moore.

Democrat Ray Powell bested Sandy Jones and Harry Montoya to win his party’s nomination for state Land Commissioner. He will run against Republican Matt Rush who bested Bob Cornelius on the GOP side.

Republicans selected Tom Mullins over Ron Paul acolyte Adam Kokesh to run against 3^rd Congressional District U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan.

Things are still early — and much can change — but Martinez took the first battle.

Doug Turner had 9.92 percent of the early and absentee votes, Pete Domenici Jr. had 4.89 percent and Janice Arnold Jones had 2.99 percent of the early and absentee votes.

In the Democratic Lt. Gov. primary, Brian Colón took a narrow lead in early and absentee ballots in the state’s most populous county over Lawrence Rael – 32.15 percent to 30.30 percent.

On the Republican side, Kent Cravens and John Sanchez were in a very close race, which Cravens leading Sanchez 42.56 percent to 41.67 percent in Bernalillo County.

Afterward “The Line” guest panelists Phil Marquez of KIVA AM 1550 and UNM law professor Antoinette Sedillo Lopez will discuss the race.

Executive director of the Mid-Region Council of Governments Lawrence Rael had 13.5 percent of the vote, State Rep. Joe Campos had 12.9 percent, State Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino came in with 9.6 percent and State Sen. Linda Lopez was the pick of 8.9 percent of respondents.

“Brian has a seven point lead and unless the trend we are seeing in this survey is interrupted, he is positioned to win,” Republican political analyst Bruce Donisthorpe told Monahan.

Primary races are notoriously had to poll and more than a third of respondents were undecided in this poll. This could reflect that a primary for Lt. Gov. is a lower-tier race and does not have as much media attention on the race.

The poll does, however, have a somewhat high margin of error. Dialing Services, LLC surveyed 356 likely Democratic voters between 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm on May 12. The margin of error is 5.19 percent.

The primary election will be held on June 1.

Democratic Lt. Gov. candidate Brian Colón launched his second TV ad today. According to a press release by his campaign, the ad will be airing on network and cable TV statewide.

The ad focuses on education and Colón says, “As our children grow up, I want to make sure they’re learning everything they’re supposed to learn.”

The transcript is below:

GIRL: In kindergarten I learned how to read!

FIRST GRADE BOY: How to add and subtract…

SECOND GRADE GIRL: Computers…

THIRD GRADE BOY: Fractions…

FOURTH GRADE GIRL: New Mexico history…

FIFTH GRADE GIRL: Composition writing…

SIXTH GRADE BOY: Geography…

SEVENTH GRADE GIRL: Biology…

EIGHTH GRADE BOY: Algebra…

NINTH GRADE BOY: Literature…

TENTH GRADE GIRL: Chemistry…

ELEVENTH GRADE BOY: Trigonometry…

TWELFTH GRADE GIRL: I learned I’m going to college.

BRIAN COLÓN: I’m Brian Colón. And as our children grow up, I want to make sure they’re learning everything they’re supposed to learn. That’s how they get a good job and how we bring good jobs to New Mexico.

As lieutenant governor, I’ll make that my job. Por sus hijos también.

Democratic Lt. Gov. candidate Brian Colón has released his first TV ad, a month before the primary election. The ad will air statewide, according to the campaign.

Colón’s first ad talks about schools and he pledges to “fight to stop the Republicans who are hurting our public schools.”

The ad features Colón standing in a flea market that his father bought when Colón was a kid.

COLÓN: When I was young, I never knew I was poor. I’m Brian Colón and I realized when it took my father’s life savings to open this flea market. The first thing he and I did was build all these tables. I worked here every weekend starting when I was 10.

It taught me the important of going to college. It’s why I’ve worked to increase teacher pay and reduce class sizes. As lieutenant governor, I’ll fight to stop the Republicans who are hurting our public schools. I have a stake in it too. Por sus hijos tambien.

Totals in the statewide races for the fundraising period from October to April 5 are posted, by race, after the jump.

Attorney General:

Matthew Chandler, Republican: Chandler began the reporting period with $3,548.41 in the bank and raised $67,883.43 throughout the fundraising period. Chandler spent $8,711.57 and has $62,720.27 cash on hand.

Commissioner of Public Lands:

Mike Anaya, Democrat: Anaya began with no money in the bank and raised $15,655.22 throughout the fundraising period. Anaya’s campaign spent $15,586.97 and now has $68.25 cash on hand.

Errol Chavez, Republican: Chavez began with no money and raised $2,364.64 throughout the fundraising period. Chavez’s campaign spent $883.80 and now has $1,480.84 cash on hand. The campaign also reported $314.64 in loans to the campaign and $1,045.10 in in-kind donations.

Spiro Vassilopoulos, Republican: Vassilopoulos dropped his bid for public lands commissioner earlier this month. He reported raising $25,800.00, including $25,750.00 in loans. Vassilopoulos reported no cash in hand.

Lieutenant Governor:

Brian Colón, Democrat: Colón began the filing period with $251,049.01 and raised $156,489.80 throughout the filing period. His campaign spent $201,651.91 and finished with $205,886.90 cash on hand. Colón also reported $14,427.62 in in-kind donations.

Kent Cravens, Republican: Cravens began the filing period with no money and raised $57,990. Cravens’ campaign spent $34,583.91 and finished the period with $23,406.09 cash on hand. Cravens reported $1,525.00 in in-kind donations.

J.R. Damron, Republican: Damron also dropped his bid for elected office. He reported raising $24,975 in the filing period, spending $24,451 and finished the fundraising period with $524 cash on hand. Damron reported $7,000 in loans and $2,555 in in-kind donations.

Secretary of State:

Mary Herrera, Democrat, incumbent: Herrera began the fundraising period with $33,459.03 and raised $17,086. Herrera reported spending $7,634.28 and finished the fundraising period with $42,910.75 cash on hand. Herrera also reported $9,590 in in-kind donations.

Dianna Duran, Republican: Duran began the fundraising period with $2,867.44 and spent $1,525.37. This left Duran with $1,342.07 cash on hand.

State Auditor:

Hector Balderas, Democrat, incumbent: Balderas began the fundraising period with $110,182.02 and raised $24,379.80 in the fundraising period. Balderas spent $8,330.33 and finished the fundraising period with cash on hand $126,231.49. Balderas reported $1,080.70 in in-kind donations.

Errol Chavez, Republican: Chavez began the fundraising period with no money and raised $5,764.84 in the period. Chavez spent $1,086.20 in the period and had $4,678.64 cash on hand. Chavez reported $3,239.00 in loans.

State Treasurer:

James Lewis, Democrat, incumbent: Lewis began the fundraising period with $31,028.28 and raised $8,590 in the period. Lewis reported $11,081.67 in expenditures and finished the fundraising period with $28,536.61 cash on hand.

Update, 5:25 p.m.: The fundraising totals for Lt. Gov. candidate Lawrence Rael, a Democrat, are now available.

Rael had $105,283.08 coming into the fundraising period and raised $183,000, but $105,000 of that was money he loaned himself. Rael’s campaign spent $162,175.43 in the period and finished the fundraising period with $126,195.42 cash on hand.

“Brian Colon’s campaign has begun, according to reports he personally confirmed to me, making telephone calls to Democratic voters using the questionable technique known as ‘push/pull’ polling,” a fundraising e-mail to supporters from Ortiz y Pino read.

But Sena told The Independent, “At no time have we push polled. …We never have and never will push poll.”

In 2007, during the campaign for the presidential caucuses in Iowa and primary in New Hampshire, the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) discussed push polling.

AAPOR defines a push poll as unethical political telemarketing, calls disguised as research that are designed to persuade large numbers of voters — not to measure opinion.

“Negative or disturbing information about a candidate does not automatically make a survey a push poll,” said AAPOR President Nancy Mathiowetz. “Message testing, when campaigns test the effectiveness of possible messages about opponents and even themselves, is very different; and it is a legitimate form of surveying.”

Sena declined to say if the Colon campaign was using message testing or even any polling.

Ortiz y Pino described push polling as “a technique that Republicans have honed into almost surgical precision for swaying votes away from Democrats.”

The Democratic primary will be held on June 1.

Joe Campos (Photo by Heath Haussamen)

Joe Campos qualified to appear on the primary ballot for lieutenant governor on Saturday after all, the Democratic Party of New Mexico has decided.

The party says it’s required by state law to round up Campos’ 19.69 percent of delegate votes from the preprimary nominating convention to 20 percent – the threshold for qualifying for the ballot at the convention.

The ruling to reverse course and round up was made today by Party Chairman Javier Gonzales following a unanimous vote of the party’s judicial council in support of qualifying Campos for the ballot. That means the party will ask the Secretary of State’s Office to certify three lieutenant governor candidates as having qualified at Saturday’s convention – Campos, Brian Colón and Lawrence Rael.

“We’re back to work, rather us having to look for petition signatures, so obviously this is a lot better,” Campos said in an interview. “We’re going to keep pushing forward.”

Today’s ruling from the party is significant because, by law, those who fail to get 20 percent at the convention have to collect twice as many signatures as those who do get 20 percent if they want to appear on the ballot. And no candidate who has failed the organizational test of getting 20 percent at the convention has gone on to win the primary.

The statute the party cited in reversing courses states that, at any place in the election code “requiring counting or computation of numbers, any fraction or decimal greater than one-half of a whole number shall be counted as a whole number.”

“This is exactly why the Democratic Party of New Mexico waits three days before certifying, so everyone can thoroughly review the rules and make the right call,” attorney John Wertheim, a former state party chairman who was involved in the ruling, said. “In this case, the law is clear.”

The party originally announced Saturday that Colón had 34.3 percent of the vote, Rael had 21.9 percent, Campos had 19.9 percent, Jerry Ortiz y Pino had 18.86 percent and Linda Lopez had 5 percent. After a recount, Colón had 34.54 percent, Rael had 22.15 percent, Campos had 19.69 percent, Ortiz y Pino had 18.87 percent and Lopez had 4.73 percent.

Though Campos’ support fell slightly with the recount, it’s still above the 19.5 threshold at which the party would have rounded up.

Campos says he’ll keep leaping over ‘hurdles’

Campos said the new challenge to the party’s interpretation of the rules came only after a number of county party chairs complained. He said the original interpretation of the election code was an attempt to keep him off the ballot.

“It’s just tough running against the Richardson machine putting up hurdles,” he said. “We just have to keep leaping over them.”

Asked who was putting hurdles in his campaign’s path, Campos declined to specify. Richardson has not endorsed any candidate in the race, and he did not specifically accuse Richardson.

“What I’m saying is that there’s been hurdles. A lot of my supporters have been strong-armed. Donors have been threatened. It’s one after another,” he said.

Ortiz y Pino has said, though he didn’t qualify for the ballot Saturday, that he’s staying in the race.

What about Kokesh?

There’s another candidate, on the Republican side, who might be interested in the Democratic Party’s ruling. Republican 3rd Congressional District candidate Adam Kokesh won the support of 19.5 percent of delegates at his party’s preprimary convention on Saturday.

The GOP decided after considering the situation that the number should not be rounded up, citing the provision in the election code stating that “every candidate receiving twenty percent or more of the votes” at the convention qualified for the ballot.

Kokesh has said he’s staying in the race even though the party ruled that he didn’t qualify for the ballot at the preprimary convention.

The state GOP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Update, 8:30 p.m.

Gonzales, the Democratic Party chairman, responded to Campos’ comments about “hurdles” and donors being “threatened” by saying that the state party has done nothing to try to keep Campos off the ballot.

“To the contrary,” Gonzales said, he made the decision earlier today to qualify Campos for the ballot “prior to any county party chair involvement” – despite what Campos claimed – and prior to the meeting of the judicial council. Gonzales said the council’s vote was simply to ratify his decision.

“I’m proud of the fact that we had a successful convention,” Gonzales said. “… At the end of the day, I’m glad that we were able to cite a law that allowed a candidate (Campos) access to the ballot.”

Meanwhile, state GOP spokeswoman Janel Causey said the party is “currently reviewing this matter” as it relates to Kokesh “to ensure that the party is in strict adherence with the law, and where applicable, rules, which determine when a candidate has reached the 20 percent threshold of delegate votes necessary to earn a place on the primary ballot.”

“The delegate voting shows we have a tight race among the top candidates. In the weeks leading to the June 1 primary, any one of the top candidates has the opportunity to break away from the pack and win the election,” he wrote in an e-mail to supporters. “My campaign team has shifted into high gear and we aim to take the lead.”

“I’ve competed in some tough elections in the past. I have challenges ahead in the upcoming campaign, but my whole career as a public servant is about meeting challenges head-on and with gusto,” he said.

Brian Colón finished first at the convention with the votes of 34.54 percent of delegates. Lawrence Rael finished second at 22.15 percent, while Campos finished with 19.69 percent, Jerry Ortiz y Pino finished with 18.87 percent, and Linda Lopez finished with 4.73 percent.

By law, those who fail to get 20 percent at the convention have to collect twice as many signatures as those who do get 20 percent if they want to appear on the ballot. And no candidate who has failed the organizational test of getting 20 percent at the convention has gone on to win the primary.

Ortiz y Pino said yesterday that he’s also staying in the race. Lopez hasn’t responded to an e-mail asking whether she’s staying in the race.