By DIANE DENISH
Corner To Corner
diane@dianedenish.com
Politics is nothing if not both hilarious and shocking.
There has been a lot going on lately regarding lieutenant governor nominees in New Mexico. On the Democratic side, primary winner Maggie Toulouse Oliver withdrew for personal reasons, requiring the Democratic Party to choose a replacement before general election ballots are printed in August. (I wrote about this in an earlier column, describing the governor and lieutenant governor ticket as something of an arranged marriage because the two nominees win separate primaries before being paired together.)
That was certainly a shock for Democrats. But recently, Sen. David Gallegos, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor on Gregg Hull’s ticket, did something that at first struck me as hilarious. The more I looked at it, however, the more shocking it became.
Gallegos wrote an op-ed, published on the Republican Party of New Mexico’s Facebook page and in the Albuquerque Journal, criticizing Democrats for the process they are using to fill the vacancy.
The irony is hard to miss. The Republican Party of New Mexico has been unable to elect a state chair because it cannot muster a quorum. Meanwhile, its party treasurer—who has also been a candidate for office in Doña Ana County—remains in jail facing multiple felony charges, including leaving the scene of a fatal accident and tampering with evidence.
Apparently, all that turmoil has left the party with little time to fact-check Sen. Gallegos’ claims about how vacancies on a general election ballot are filled. Or perhaps this is simply another example of the misinformation that has become all too common in election debates, both in New Mexico and nationally.
I’m also surprised the Journal’s opinion editors did not question the legal assertions in the piece, as they have sometimes done with other submissions.
The problem is straightforward: Sen. Gallegos is wrong. As a native of Lea County (which Gallegos represents) and a former lieutenant governor, I find that embarrassing. Voters should expect candidates for statewide office to know the rules governing the offices they seek. At the very least, they should expect candidates to accurately describe the law as it exists—not as they wish it existed.
Gallegos claims Democrats are engineering a “backroom deal” to replace Toulouse Oliver. Nothing could be further from the truth. Democrats are following the procedure established in New Mexico law. He should read it: Section 1-8-8 NMSA 1978. The statute clearly explains how vacancies on the general election ballot occurring after a primary election are filled.
Even if Gallegos is a long-shot candidate, it would serve him well to fact-check his own claims before accusing others of undermining the electoral process. Instead, he relies on familiar national talking points while ignoring the statute that governs the situation. Gallegos has served in either the House or the Senate since 2013. He is hardly a newcomer to state government. Let’s assume he knows how to read and interpret a statute. To my knowledge, he has never objected to this process before. While the Legislature has amended Section 1-8-8 over the years by adjusting deadlines and language, the basic process for filling a vacancy after the primary has remained the same. In fact, Gallegos likely voted on some of those amendments without objecting to the very provision he now characterizes as a “backroom deal.”
If Gallegos or Gregg Hull were to resign or die before the general election, their party would follow the same law. Under Section 1-8-8, the appropriate Republican Party central committee would choose the replacement nominee.
That is, of course, assuming the party can assemble a quorum, elect a chair, and conduct the meeting.
