June 6th Primaries: NM, MS, CA, IA, AL, NJ, MT, SD

[WMS]

New Mexico:
GOP Gubernatorial Primary (Damron vs. Bailey)
GOP Senatorial Primary (Carraro vs. Pfeffer)

Take both off watchlist since none of them'll stand a chance in the general.

Absoutely. All the excitement in these races ends the second the primary winner is declared. It's like the 1984 Democratic or 1996 Republican Presidential primaries.

NM

The primary to watch here is the Dem primaries for statewide office.  The AG primary, in particular, should be interesting with Gubernatorial scion and '04 NM-02 Congressional nominee Gary King facing off against Geno Zamora an ex-aide to Gov. Richardson.  King had an early advantage because of name ID but I expect Zamora to win.

There are also contested Democratic primaries for secretary of state, auditor and land comissioner.  I expect Democrats are favored in all of these races in November.

Yup. And don't forget about Lemuel Martinez in the AG race. Actually, as long as lapdog-to-Richardson-in-waiting Zamora doesn't win I'd be satisfied. The Republican will probably end up losing this one.

Secretary of State is a spectacularly bloody 4-way brawl, and no clear frontrunner. My old boss is running...and I hope she loses. The Republicans have a rather appealing candidate for this race so while the Dems are still favored they have a better shot.

Auditor...*yawn* Armijo has gotten some splashes from the Vigil corruption scandal, and his opponent Buckner has gotten all the newspaper endorsements. Sadly, the Hispanic-vote-bloc will probably elect Armijo anyway. Oddly enough, this is usually such a low-key race that it could be competitive - the Republicans ran someone who was borderline insane last time around and got 48%.

Land Commissioner will be fun. In the big upset of 2002 now-incumbent Patrick Lyons won a narrow victory over ubercorrupt Art Trujillo, and has done pretty well in the job. Both Powell and Baca are envirolefties, so this could be quite a pitched battle both in the primary and in the general. As in 2002, expect Bernalillo County to decide this one.

[WMS]

Yup. And don't forget about Lemuel Martinez in the AG race.

I like that name. I've always thought it sounds cool when Spaniards or Frenchmen have Old Testament names - don't know why actually.

Agreed and Lemuel has done a good job as District Attorney for the Thirteenth Judicial District. Pity he's almost certainly not going to win, but NM Dems have been consistently electing people I don't like in primaries for quite some time

Auditor...*yawn* Armijo has gotten some splashes from the Vigil corruption scandal, and his opponent Buckner has gotten all the newspaper endorsements. Sadly, the Hispanic-vote-bloc will probably elect Armijo anyway. Oddly enough, this is usually such a low-key race that it could be competitive - the Republicans ran someone who was borderline insane last time around and got 48%.

It's so low-key that everyone just votes their party affiliation?

Exactly. The County map for the 2002 Auditor race was very striking, actually, in almost-entirely showing the basic partisanship of every county in NM.

[WMS]

Yup. And don't forget about Lemuel Martinez in the AG race.

I like that name. I've always thought it sounds cool when Spaniards or Frenchmen have Old Testament names - don't know why actually.

Agreed and Lemuel has done a good job as District Attorney for the Thirteenth Judicial District. Pity he's almost certainly not going to win, but NM Dems have been consistently electing people I don't like in primaries for quite some time

Per information I received from a very reliable source...Lemuel actually doesn't do anything involving legal actions, and has his staff do all the work. So now I'm rooting for Gary King to win this one...

[WMS]

Yup. And don't forget about Lemuel Martinez in the AG race.

I like that name. I've always thought it sounds cool when Spaniards or Frenchmen have Old Testament names - don't know why actually.

Agreed and Lemuel has done a good job as District Attorney for the Thirteenth Judicial District. Pity he's almost certainly not going to win, but NM Dems have been consistently electing people I don't like in primaries for quite some time

Per information I received from a very reliable source...Lemuel actually doesn't do anything involving legal actions, and has his staff do all the work. So now I'm rooting for Gary King to win this one...

So? He's good at delegating work. (shrugs) If the office of District Attorney has done a good job, he has done a good job.

Trust me, this comes from a very good source - Lemuel is basically a do-nothing politician with no legal experience or knowledge.

[WMS]

Yup. And don't forget about Lemuel Martinez in the AG race.

I like that name. I've always thought it sounds cool when Spaniards or Frenchmen have Old Testament names - don't know why actually.

Agreed and Lemuel has done a good job as District Attorney for the Thirteenth Judicial District. Pity he's almost certainly not going to win, but NM Dems have been consistently electing people I don't like in primaries for quite some time

Per information I received from a very reliable source...Lemuel actually doesn't do anything involving legal actions, and has his staff do all the work. So now I'm rooting for Gary King to win this one...

So? He's good at delegating work. (shrugs) If the office of District Attorney has done a good job, he has done a good job.

Trust me, this comes from a very good source - Lemuel is basically a do-nothing politician with no legal experience or knowledge.

Okay... either the people working in that office are such a good team that it doesn't matter who their elected figurehead is, or your initial impression "that he has been doing a good job" was completely misguided - and I mean completely... or your normally very good source has a reason not to be honest with you on this one.

Both of the reasons in bold are accurate.

[WMS]

BTW, good to see Riley beat Moore.

Now, since no one else said anything, here's NM
In general, the primary voters of both parties lived down to my expectations and picked the candidates I don't support.

Contested races only that I have comments on...and some precincts outstanding, but not many...
Democrats:
Secretary of State:
Mary Herrera - 39.1%
Stephanie V. Gonzales - 30.2%
Shirley Hooper - 18.6%
Letitia Montoya - 12.2%

*facepalms* Goddamnit, the candidate I don't want to win did, and unfortunately is favored in the general.
Effect on WMS' vote: From lean Republican to definite Republican. Not that it will make a damn bit of difference

State Auditor:
Jeff Armijo - 63.1%
Thomas R. Buckner - 36.9%
*sigh* Pick the less-qualified candidate based on his surname, why don't ya?
Effect on WMS' vote: From Undecided to lean Republican. Not that it will make any difference here, either.

State Treasurer:
James B. Lewis - 100.0%
I know, it was uncontested but this guy rocks and I will happily vote for him in the general. Highly qualified, very nice in person (yes, I've met him), and for you trivia buffs this will be the second statewide race won in NM by a black candidate...he won the first one, for the same job, last decade. He is just what we need to clean out the Treasurer's Office from the horrific taint of corruption the last two Treasurer's, Dems Montoya and Vigil, left there.
Effect on WMS' vote: He had my vote when he declared for the office. Definite Democrat.

Attorney General:
Gary K. King - 45.0%
Geno Zamora - 32.8%
Lemuel L. Martinez - 22.3%.
Thank. God. SOMETHING. Went. Right.
Effect on WMS' vote: From Undecided to Likely Democrat.

Commisioner of Public Lands:
Jim Baca - 52.7%
Ray Powell - 47.3%
You bloody primary voting idiots! Argh! My area's old nemesis returns! Yes, this is the ex-Mayor of Albuquerque I have mentioned before although I simply must add that he lost the vote to Powell in Bernalillo County. That's not exactly a good sign for Baca, given that Bernalillo County is ostensibly his base.
Effect on WMS' vote: From Lean Republican to Definite, Cast-It-In-Stone Republican. Unlike other downballot races, this time my vote could likely make a difference. I will predict now that, barring some unexpected event, we'll see a reprise of the 2002 race and Lyons will win another close race, with Bernalillo County once more providing his margin of victory...especially once the West Side of Albuquerque finishes sending our old enemy down in flames again.

Public Regulation Commissioner - District 5:
Sandy R. Jones - 54.4%
E. Shirley Baca - 45.6%
HURRAH! Good to see one of the corrupt ones go down. Also, She Who Was Dumb Enough To Get Caught At An Airport With Pot In Her Luggage.
Effect This isn't my district.

State Representative - District 16:
Antonio "Moe" Maestas - 34.1%
Pat Baca, Jr. - 27.0%
Dan Serrano - 20.2%
Dominic J. Aragon - 18.6%
Lower Westside District, definitely leans D in general elections. Not my preferred candidate - too left-wing, and runs with the wing of the local Dems I oppose (geez, Eric Griego and Miguel Gomez? Blah. ) but hopefully he'll vote the right way on infrastructure issues...not that it matters - I'm not in this district either.

Republicans:
U.S. Senator:
Allen W. McCulloch - 50.4%
Joseph J. Carraro - 32.6%
David Pfeffer - 17.0%
Let's pick the most boring mainstream conservative possible, NM Reps.
Effect on WMS' vote: Stays at Lean Republican. After all, I voted against Domenici last time around in one of his landslides, so I'll return the favor by voting against Bingaman (who has spent his time in the Senate getting very wealthy, for the most part ) in one of his landslides. I may yawn my way through this election.

State Representative District 29:
Thomas A. Anderson - 64.0%
James M. Barnett - 36.0%
Not my district, but I'm glad to see my old State Rep win this race.

State Representative District 56:
Dub Williams - 65.6%
Leo Martinez - 34.4%
Still not my district, but I met ol' Dub back in 2000 in my time working for the Legislature and he's a very nice guy, so I'm glad to see him win this race as well.

And now you have more information on NM races than you ever wanted to know.

[WMS]

BTW, good to see Riley beat Moore.
Now, since no one else said anything, here's NM

That's your job.

True enough.

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And that's their job.

Also quite true

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What's so bad about her?

She's evil. Talented, but evil. She treats her employees rather badly. Are you familiar with Catbert from the Dilbert comic strip? That's her to the core. And she's for machines and against paper ballots, for those of you interested in that.

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Unless his opponent was from the area as well... that is pretty astonishing.

Actually, he is, which I wasn't aware of...but Powell hasn't been a politician here for a while, whereas Baca was here more recently. Read the blog link in my sig - there's some analysis there in the past few entries of why the fact that Baca couldn't win this county is important. Pity Powell lost...he might have been able to sway my vote.

Now, since no one else said anything, here's NM ...
And now you have more information on NM races than you ever wanted to know.

Thanks, WMS! As a previous Albuquerque resident I appreciate the update.

You're quite welcome NewFed. Anyone in particular you want to me to check on?

[WMS]

Is Richard Romero still in politics?

Not that I'm aware of...there's only so many times he can get undermined by the South Valley Democratic machine before he decides to stop running. He might try again in 2 years, but I don't know for certain.

And I forgot about this gem:
Democrats, Bernalillo County:
County Sheriff:
Jose E. Chavez - 59.22%
Geraldine Amato - 40.78%

Why is this a gem? Read this. As a Democrat in my office said...it's frightening that someone like Geraldine Amato got 40% of the primary vote.

[WMS]

Thanks for the update, WMS. I really appreciate it.

You're quite welcome even though nothing ever much changes here

[WMS]

Thanks for the update, WMS. I really appreciate it.

You're quite welcome even though nothing ever much changes here

You know, you're right. I have been gone since 2000 and yet most of the players are the same. I suspect the Greens have faded a bunch since I left, however.

Yes, they have. I don't even know if they're going to run anyone this year...

[WMS]

Is Richard Romero still in politics?

Not that I'm aware of...there's only so many times he can get undermined by the South Valley Democratic machine before he decides to stop running. He might try again in 2 years, but I don't know for certain.

And I forgot about this gem:
Democrats, Bernalillo County:
County Sheriff:
Jose E. Chavez - 59.22%
Geraldine Amato - 40.78%

Why is this a gem? Read this. As a Democrat in my office said...it's frightening that someone like Geraldine Amato got 40% of the primary vote.

Okay. Based on this I change my opinion. Bandit could get nominated in Eastern Kentucky.

Yup. Amato's even crazier in person.

[WMS]

*bump*

Well, the Reps got a different candidate to go against Richardson...John Dendahl, conservative/libertarian firebrand, more than a little controversial, and definitely an attack dog. Kind of our version of Keystone Phil.

Richardson is still gonna win...but the entertainment level of this campaign just went up by quite a lot.

For more details, click on the link to the NM political blog in my signature.