NM Democrats get new director

GOP still waiting for Sandoval County delegate list


By Eric Maddy
The SCORE

The first casualty of New Mexico’s Democratic Party presidential preference caucus is executive director Laura E. Sanchez, who has submitted here resignation.

Party chairman Brian Colon named Josh Giese as the interim executive director. Sanchez’s picture and contact information has been taken down from the staff page on the party’s web site and been replaced by Giese’s name and e-mail address.

Geise most recently worked on Gov. Bill Richardson’s presidential campaign as his early states political director. Prior to that he served as the coordinated campaign director for the state party in 2006

“Laura did a tremendous job during my first year as Chairman as we embarked on an unprecedented listening tour around our State to reach out to Democrats in all corners of New Mexico,” Colón said in a prepared statement.  “Laura’s work ethic and dedication to the Democratic Party have never wavered and I wish her the best of luck in the future.”

“As we move forward to November our singular focus is carrying New Mexico for our Democratic Presidential Nominee, electing Tom Udall to the US Senate and winning all three open congressional seats,” Colón said. “This is a historic year in New Mexico and I’m excited to have Josh leading our staff at the Party as we move forward to November.”

Said Geise in the statement: “I am excited to be returning to the Party in what is shaping up to be the most intense campaign cycle in New Mexico history. We have a lot of long days and nights ahead of us and with the leadership of Chairman Colón, I am confident Nov. 4 is going to be a very good night for New Mexico Democrats.”

The Feb. 5 caucus vote on "Super Tuesday" left New Mexico the laughingstock of the country. A record turnout and more than 17,000 provisional ballots prevented a final tally from being compiled until Feb. 14.

The voting station at the Performing Arts Center at Rio Rancho High School didn't close until after 9 p.m., more than two hours after the polls were supposed to close, as voters waited to cast their ballots. Anyone in line before 7 p.m. was allowed to vote.

In the end, Hillary Clinton claimed 14 of 26 delegates to the national convention, with Barak Obama receiving the other 12.

Clinton received 73,105 votes statewide, just ahead of Obama at 71,396. Other candidates receiving votes included John Edwards (2,157), Richardson (1305), Dennis Kucinich (574), Joe Biden (122) and Christopher Dodd (81), even though all had withdrawn by the race before caucus.

Obama won Sandoval County with 3,498 votes, followed by Clinton 3141, Richardson (60), Edwards (43), Dodd (3), Kucinich (15) and Biden (3). There were also 11 write-in votes and six who voted "uncommitted," meaning they made the effort to vote but did not select a candidate.

There were also 14 ballots in the final total of 6,794 votes that did not go to a candidate. Three were "under votes" where ballots were turned in but no mark was made, and 11 were "over votes" where more than one candidate was selected.

Repeated efforts by The SCORE to obtain a breakdown of Sandoval County votes by congressional district have not been successful despite promises from party Colon and a volunteer who worked during the recounting process. Colon provided such a breakdown on Election Night with all precincts except for the station at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Bernalillo.

Colon and the party withheld totals from the Bernalillo site for several days after the caucus, saying they were not confident the totals were correct. Former county commissioner Bill Sapien said he called in the results to party headquarters at 10:10 p.m. on Election Night and did not understand why he results were not available

Three of the voting areas in the county - Corrales, Rio Rancho and Bernalillo - are part of both Congressional District 1 and District 3. The distinction is important because part of the allocation of delegates is determined by vote in each Congressional District.

There were 242 provisional votes in Sandoval County, with Clinton getting 125, Obama 115 and Edwards and Richardson 1 each. There were also 240 absentee votes in the county, with Clinton getting 94 followed by Obama 78, Edwards 51, Richardson 8, Kucinich 7, Uncommitted 1, and under vote 1.

A total of 149,779 votes were counted. The statewide breakdown by congressional district had Obama ahead in congressional districts 1 and 3, while Clinton won CD2.

Obama defeated Clinton 26,530 to 24,904 in CD1 and 26,392 to 24,518 in CD3. Clinton made up the difference with a big victory in CD2, which is most of the southern half of the state. Clinton won there 17,748 to 12,904.

Other results are available at the party's web site, www.nmdemocrats.com.

Meanwhile, the state Republican Party still has not received the list of delegates selected at the Sandoval County convention on Saturday. Party spokesman Scott Darnell said the list must be submitted by the end of the week in order to give the state party enough time to prepare for its convention on March 15.

The county convention was marked by confusion as a record number of Republicans appeared. Of the 30 delegates at stake, Congressman Steve Pearce earned between 18 and 20 delegates to the state convention in his bid to win the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Pete Domenici. Congresswoman Heather Wilson earned 10-12 delegates and members of her campaign are awaiting the official delegate list before considering a possible challenge.

County party chairman Richard Gibbs could not be reached for comment.

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