Some interesting tidbits about where support came from for the  Dem Guv finishers at last Saturday's preprimary convention.

Howie Morales finished first and had nearly 90 percent wins in the counties of Eddy, Otero and Socorro. A 51% win by second place preprimary finisher Alan Webber in San Miguel County was a surprise. Morales carried Dona Ana County with 41 percent. Webber narrowly won Bernalillo County over Sen. Linda Lopez who finished fourth at the convention. Webber also took his home county of Santa Fe. Gary King--who finished last at the preprimary--did win one county--Mora. Lawrence Rael's wins included Sandoval, Sierra, and Cibola counties. Rael finished third at the convention. Lopez, who finished fourth, won Quay, Luna, Chavez and Rio Arriba counties.

(An earlier version we posted of the county preprimary results had some incorrect info).

The two Guv hopefuls who did not get at least 20% of the preprimary vote will now submit petition signatures to get onto the June 3 primary ballot. It's a subject we explored on the blog this week and reader Catherine Sherwood writes:

Concerning the additional signatures that Gary King and Linda Lopez need to get on the ballot. The secretary of state's manual says that the petition signatures submitted the first time around count towards the final tally needed 10 days after the pre-primary convention. (Page 15, paragraph 4) If Gary had 4,372 good signatures on the first filing date, he is good to go. If Linda had 3,000 good signatures on the first filing date, she just needs 1,372 more...

King submitted some 10,000 signatures when first filing and now those will be applied to the new total required. Lopez did not submit enough signatures prior to the convention to meet the new requirement. She says she is now collecting them. . .

TOO MANY

Reader Preciliano Martin writes from Raton that he is not looking forward to choosing among five Dem candidates:

I am not in favor of 5 Democrats running in the primary. It's entirely too much intraparty conflict  generated with this many candidates. Historically, Democrats have been unable to come together in time for the general election after having primaries with large number of candidates. That is one reason I try to get elected as a preprimary delegate--to trim the number of candidates to where Democrats have a chance of coming back together before the November election.

Democratic Party efforts ought to be on defeating Susana Martinez. I do not see value in a primary with so many candidates, especially when a candidate was unable to garner sufficient delegate votes at the Democratic preprimary to make the June ballot.. I would hope that King and Lopez would reconsider this effort at getting on the primary ballot.

ABOUT JOHN SANCHEZ

On the Republican side, a reader writes of our statement that Lt. Governor John Sanchez has in the past have trouble running campaigns:

I read with interest your Wednesday blog, regarding Governor Martinez moving up to either the VP or a cabinet position if the GOP re-gains the White House in 2016. Your comments about Lt. Governor John Sanchez were also interesting, mostly accurate as usual, with one exception. Your assessment that he has “had trouble running campaigns” is not the case.

In 1998, he defeated a former mayor to take a seat on the Los Ranchos Village Council. In 2000, he beat the biggest Democrat in New Mexico, House Speaker Raymond Sanchez in House District 15. In 2002, he won the GOP nomination for Governor. Bill Richardson gave Sanchez his only loss, by outspending him 3 to 1. In 2010, he had a 10 point victory over 2 popular Republican legislators to win the nomination for Lt. Governor.

Remember, that in 2012 John Sanchez never filed for the U.S. Senate race, but instead, saved the GOP a huge mess by endorsing Heather Wilson for the nomination. He has raised over $4 million as a candidate, and he may be the most popular Republican across the state. As a long time supporter and observer of John Sanchez, I believe that he is our best hope of holding the Governor’s office in the future.

Thanks for stopping by this week.

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