Judge Lopez and Sen. Lopez

That upcoming campaign for the NM Supreme Court seat being vacated by Justice Judy Nakamura has taken an interesting turn.

ABQ District Court Judge Victor Lopez has decided to jump the gun and not wait for MLG to fill the Nakamura vacancy. He is asking some 400 Democratic state Central Committee members to name him as the party's candidate for the November election:

I offer my many years of experience as an attorney, judge, and community leader. . . I also offer my viability as a candidate. In 2014, the Central Committee nominated me for my seat on the District Court Bench. . . My election committee quickly built a winning campaign in the 2014 General Election against Governor Martinez’s appointee. . .  I have decided not to seek the temporary Supreme Court appointment to fill this position through the Judicial Nomination Commission. Rather, I leave the decision solely up to the democratic process. . .  I believe in the principles of democracy and the importance of having freely elected judges by the people they will serve.

That may or may not come as a surprise to the Governor who will make an appointment to the high court in the coming days based on recommendations from the Judicial Nomination Commission. That appointee could be expected to seek the Central Committee's blessing to run for the seat in November.  If MLG's appointee indeed wants to run to fill out the entire Nakamura term that runs through 2022, Lopez is setting up a rare Supreme Court fight before the Central Committee,

Would the Central Committee reject a Guv appointee in favor of Lopez? One of the Legal Beagles games the action:

Lopez is a very long shot, but there has been scuttlebutt that the Governor might like to have Matt Garcia, her general counsel, on the court. If he did get the appointment, Lopez could fault the appointment and press his case before the Central Committee that the appointment process is flawed. 

This will be the third justice MLG has appointed to the five member court and will give her appointees the majority. The other appointees are Democrats Shannon Bacon and David Thomson. Both are seeking election in November.

Lopez is married to fellow attorney and ABQ Dem state Senator Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, an ally of the Guv's. But in the case of the Supreme Court seat, which pays $148,200 a year, one assumes blood is thicker than water.

As for the R's, their Central Committee will also nominate a general election candidate. However, Nakamura was only the second Republican in the past 40 years to win a seat on the court.

MILWAUKEE OR BUST

Well, it looks like a bust for those NM delegates selected to attend the Dem National Convention in Milwaukee in August. Officials have announced that Joe Biden will receive the nomination virtually:

Joe Biden will accept the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination at a nearly all-virtual convention in Milwaukee this August, but delegates were told to stay home because of health concerns.

Delegates pay their own way to the convention so the New Mexicans now benched will save thousands in expenses. Maybe they can spend it on a 90th birthday party for Fred Harris?

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2020