By MILAN SIMONICH
The Santa Fe New Mexican
Maybe one of the bigger messes in state government can be cleaned up without Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham again having to summon the residency police.
The McKinley County commissioners on Tuesday unanimously nominated 78-year-old Martha Garcia to fill the vacant seat in District 6 of the state House of Representatives.
She lists her hometown as Pinehill in Cibola County. Barring any doubt about her residency, Garcia looks like the new front-runner to belatedly take office in District 6.
An appointment can’t come soon enough. The district’s 30,000 residents have not had representation during the first two weeks of New Mexico’s 60-day legislative session.
The seat in House District 6 opened on Nov. 23, when Rep. Eliseo Alcon resigned because he was ill with liver cancer. Alcon died in January, a month filled with political turmoil in what should have been a straightforward process to choose his successor.
Most of the Cibola and McKinley County commissioners bear the blame. The majority of each panel nominated former state Rep. Harry Garcia to fill the vacant seat, despite his imaginary residency in the district.
In fact, Martha Garcia, then a Cibola County commissioner, spoke glowingly of Harry (no relation). She said Harry would be a fine choice because he knew his way around the Capitol. He had represented House District 69 for almost eight years.
But Harry Garcia, 75, had more baggage than political smarts.
He’d lost his bid for reelection in District 69 in last spring’s Democratic primary. Harry planned to remain in office until his term expired in January.
But when Alcon resigned, Harry swiftly changed his voter registration record to claim he lived in a trailer park he owned in the middle of Grants, heart of District 6. Harry also remained the sitting representative in District 69. He finally stepped down from that seat on Dec. 26, realizing it didn’t seem right to claim he lived in one district while he was representing another.
Harry Garcia was the only nominee for the governor to choose from, or so it seemed. Lujan Grisham, though, declined to appoint Harry without an investigation. She asked the state attorney general to determine where Harry lived, as opposed to what he listed as his address.
Former state Sen. Clemente Sanchez, another applicant to fill the vacancy, liked the governor’s decision. Sanchez, 66, called Harry “a total fraud” for claiming he’d moved out of his house to live in a trailer park.
Agents from the attorney general’s staff inspected the trailer park. It was unfurnished and uninhabited. Harry’s comeback bid fizzled in a whimper, not a bang.
At that moment, Sanchez’s attempt to claim the District 6 House seat zoomed into higher gear. But Sanchez has almost as many residency issues as Harry did.
Sanchez moved from Grants to his wife’s family home in Acomita so he could run for an open Senate seat last year. In doing so, Sanchez also became a resident of House District 69.
He lost the Democratic Senate primary in a landslide. Just like Harry, Sanchez abruptly changed his voter registration when Rep. Alcon resigned from his House seat.
Sanchez told me he had already moved back to Grants, and therefore qualified for the legislative appointment. He said his wife of 49 years, Georgia Routzen Sanchez, a first-year Cibola County commissioner, continues living in Acomita.
Cibola County’s commissioners didn’t let one mammoth controversy over residency laws deter them from a second.
With Harry Garcia disqualified, Clemente Sanchez in January renewed his attempt to return to the statehouse. He again asked the Cibola commissioners to nominate him as Alcon’s successor.
By this time, Martha Garcia no longer was a county commissioner, her term having expired. Sanchez’s wife abstained from voting on her spouse’s nomination. The other commissioners backed Clemente Sanchez.
McKinley County’s commissioners probably headed off another residency investigation by nominating Martha Garcia. Their decision at least gives Lujan Grisham a choice.
“We put up a competent, viable option,” McKinley Commissioner Walt Eddy told me. “We bailed out McKinley and Cibola counties.”
That’s a generous assessment. Eddy voted for Harry Garcia in the first round, contributing to an unnecessary logjam in the appointment process.
Residency scams are a persistent part of politics in New Mexico. Rent a room to nullify a boundary problem. Claim you’re living with mom and dad because their house is in a district where there’s an opening.
These maneuvers fail only occasionally. This might be one of those times.
Harry’s hopes were dashed. Sanchez’s are on life support.
Editor’s note: Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505.986.3080.