It was on June 2 that Maggie Toulouse Oliver won the Democratic Party nomination to be New Mexico’s next Lieutenant Governor in a landslide primary election victory over her opponent State Senator Harold Pope. Toulouse Oliver garnered 80% of the vote (168,109) to  Pope’s 20% (42,127). On June 18  Maggie Toulouse Oliver announced she was suspending her campaign and dropping out of the race due to health concerns.

On June 25, Maggie Toulouse Oliver officially withdrew as the Democratic Party nominee for  Lt. Governor. On the same day the Democratic Party of New Mexico sent out the official call to the Democratic Party State Central Committee to fill the Lieutenant Governor ballot position. Both State Senator Harold Pope and Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard announced almost immediately that they would seek the Democratic Party’s nomination from the Democratic Party State Central Committee.

PROCESS USED TO FILL VACANCY

Under New Mexico primary election laws enacted by the New Mexico legislature, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run independently in the primary. The winners of these races who share the same party affiliation are then paired on a ticket for the general election. Under the state’s election code, when a candidate is elected in by a political party, Democratic or Republican, and then drops out, there is no special election to fill the vacancy.  It is the political party that has the exclusive authority to nominate and select candidates to fill the vacancy.

Within the State Democratic Party, it is the State Central Committee (SCC) that fills the vacancy. SCC membership are elected every two years by individual County Democratic Party Organizations. Registered voters and members of the county party can attend to elect the SCC membership. Any New Mexico Democrat in good standing is a member of their local county party organization and can run or vote for SCC. Currently, there are 480 SCC members statewide.  The 480  SCC members hail from every county in the state and include elected officials, as well as party officials. Approximately 40% of SCC membership are  from Bernalillo County.

ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL GUEST OPINON COLUMNS

The Albuquerque Journal Editorial Opinion pages feature 5 types of opinion columns submitted for publication with a 600 word policy limitation: those by the paper’s Editorial Board, those by the paper’s Community Council, those by Syndicated Columnists, those by Local Columnists and those by Local Voices. According to Journal editors:

“Local Columnists are tasked with carrying a heavy load of responsibility to help readers scrutinize issues impacting them, their community and their country. It is the Journal’s goal to publish columnists from all walks of life and varying political viewpoints to give readers exposure to all sides of local issues.”

NM REPUBLICAN STATE SENATOR DAVID GALLEGOS

David Gallegos is the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor of New Mexico. David Gallegos, R-Eunice, represents District 41 in the New Mexico Senate.  On Sunday, July 26, the  Albuquerque Journal published on its editorial Opinion pages the following Local Columnist article by NM State Senator David Gallegos:

OPINION: “New Mexicans deserve better than a backroom deal for lieutenant governor” By DAVID GALLEGOS

“New Mexicans don’t get a vote on who becomes the other lieutenant governor candidate, one of two people who will compete for election in November. Only about 500 people do.

That’s the reality Democrats are living with this week, as roughly 500 members of the state Democratic Party’s State Central Committee prepare to cast votes between July 25-29 to pick a replacement nominee. Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who won the Democratic primary, dropped out last month. Now, instead of returning to voters, the party is settling the matter internally, and even Democrats are admitting how ugly that process has become.

State Sen. Antonio “Moe” Maestas, a Democrat from Albuquerque, didn’t mince words this week describing his own party’s process. He called it a “power grab by the ultra-left” — his words, not mine — and said it “does not serve the party or the state.” A sitting Democratic state senator, on the record, calling his own party’s selection a power grab.

He’s not wrong.

The two contenders are state Sen. Harold Pope, who lost the Democratic primary to Toulouse Oliver by 60 points last month, and Public Lands Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard, endorsed by gubernatorial nominee Deb Haaland. Pope is backed by the Albuquerque and Santa Fe chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America. Garcia Richard just picked up an endorsement from Jane Fonda, who told supporters it’s time for two women to lead New Mexico.

A candidate who lost his own primary by 60 points. A socialist organization’s hand-picked favorite. A celebrity commie from California. None of that is New Mexico voters deciding who should be one heartbeat away from the Governor’s Office. It’s insiders and activists deciding for them.

Maestas also raised a substantive question: While Pope has been positioning himself, in Maestas’s words, as a “progressive deity,” he hasn’t distributed any of the roughly $4 million a year in discretionary capital outlay funding available to him for his own district’s schools.

I don’t have a preference for which Democrat wins this selection process. I plan to run the best race I can against any of them. But either way, my message is the same: This is what one-party rule looks like up close. No primary voters weighing in. No public debate. A closed vote among 500 insiders, while socialists and Hollywood celebrities fight over who gets to claim the mantle of “grassroots.”

New Mexico’s real economy runs on oil and gas production in the Permian Basin, on ranching families who’ve worked this land for generations, on the law enforcement officers who keep our communities safe, and on innocent and vulnerable people we have a responsibility to protect. It doesn’t run on which candidate the DSA prefers or who gets Jane Fonda’s seal of approval.

I believe leaders should answer to the people who elected them — not to 500 party insiders in a room in Santa Fe. That’s the choice this November: leadership accountable to New Mexico voters, or leadership accountable to whoever wins this week’s backroom fight.

New Mexicans are watching. And they will remember in November who trusted them with a vote — and who didn’t.”

The link to the Albuquerque Journal guest column with photo is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/opinion-new-mexicans-deserve-better-than-a-backroom-deal-for-lieutenant-governor/3087919

REPUBLICAN PARTY GETS  INTO ACT OF BASHING DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S PROCESS FOR FILLING VACANCY

As if not to be outdone by their Lt. Governor nominee Senator David Gallegos, Republican Interim Party Chairman Mike Nelson just had to get into the act of  bashing the Democrat Party’s process used for selecting Stephanie Garcia Richard as their nominee for Lt. Governor by issuing the following press release after she was elected by the State Democratic Pary State Central Committee:

“IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 30, 2026

Albuquerque, NM — The Democratic Party of New Mexico finally selects Stephanie Garcia Richard as their nominee for Lieutenant Governor. The Republican Party of New Mexico releases the following statement:

“With the selection of Stephanie Garcia Richard as the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor, I am even more confident in our ability to flip New Mexico red in 96 days,” said Interim Chairman Mike Nelson. “Our slate of Republican candidates, led by Gregg Hull and David Gallegos, brings more experience than any other Republican ticket in years. Unlike any of the Democratic candidates on the ballot, Gregg Hull and David Gallegos are ready to change the direction of our state on day one.

“As for the selection process by the Democratic Party of New Mexico, this was a complete sham from the beginning. Their ranked-choice voting process ignored more than 42,000 voters who voted for Harold Pope in the primary election and conveniently erased all the work Pope did to obtain enough signatures to file on March 10. Never again can New Mexico Democrats call themselves the party of ‘democracy.’”

https://newmexico.gop/2026/07/30/after-using-ranked-choice-voting-nm-democrats-make-the-selection-for-their-nominee-for-lt-governor/

Senator Harold Pope should seriously think about thanking the Republican Party for going to his defense in their press release seeing as no Republican would ever vote for him.

NM SENATOR ANTONIO “MOE” MAESTAS  

Senator  Ant­o­nio “Moe” Maes­tas, D-Albuquerque, rep­res­ents Dis­trict 26 in the New Mex­ico Sen­ate. On Sunday August 2 , the  Albuquerque Journal published on its editorial Opinion page C1  the below  600 word “Local Columnist” opinion column by New Mexico State Senator Antonio “Moe” Maestas:

OPINION: Setting the record straight on NM’s Democratic process

BY  ANTONIO “MOE” MAESTAS

 

State Sen. David Gal­le­gos, R-Eunice, argues that the Demo­cratic Party sub­ver­ted demo­cracy. The facts tell a dif­fer­ent story. His column (July 26 Sunday Journal) asks read­ers to over­look New Mex­ico law, estab­lished pre­ced­ent and the full con­text sur­round­ing the Demo­cratic Party’s law­ful selec­tion of Stephanie Gar­cia Richard for lieu­ten­ant gov­ernor.

It’s rare but not unpre­ced­en­ted for a primary-win­ning can­did­ate to with­draw from the gen­eral elec­tion bal­lot. When that occurs, New Mex­ico law provides a clear pro­cess: The appro­pri­ate party gov­ern­ing body selects a replace­ment nom­inee.

In 2012, Daniel Ivey-Soto defeated Vanessa Alarid by one vote to replace Demo­crat Tim Eichen­berg in Sen­ate Dis­trict 15. In 2024, Demo­crats in House Dis­trict 53 selec­ted Sarah Silva to replace their nom­inee. The last time the full Demo­cratic State Cent­ral Com­mit­tee (SCC) met for this pur­pose was in 2006, when it selec­ted then-state Rep. Hec­tor Bal­deras as the Demo­cratic nom­inee for state aud­itor.

Last week, Demo­cratic Party Chair Sara Attleson con­vened a meet­ing of the SCC, and the pro­ceed­ings fol­lowed the law in an open and trans­par­ent man­ner. Describ­ing that meet­ing as a “back­room deal” dis­torts the facts. The SCC is com­posed of Demo­crats elec­ted by fel­low Demo­crats, and its votes were cast pub­licly and trans­par­ently — the exact oppos­ite of a back­room deal.

Gal­le­gos also mis­char­ac­ter­ized my com­ments by remov­ing them from their con­text. He wrote that I “didn’t mince words this week describ­ing his own party’s pro­cess,” quot­ing my state­ment that there was a “power grab by the ultra-left” that “does not serve the party or the state.”

As Source NM repor­ted, my com­plete state­ment was:

“It’s just indic­at­ive of the con­tra­dic­tion that sur­rounds his (Albuquerque state Sen. Har­old Pope’s) can­did­acy. When you com­pare their accom­plish­ments, there’s no com­par­ison. So instead of Deb Haa­land and Stephanie Gar­cia Richard barn­storm­ing the state this past month, there’s this power grab by the ultra-left, which does not serve the party or the state.”

The full con­text makes it clear that I was dis­cuss­ing Pope’s can­did­acy and the polit­ical dynam­ics sur­round­ing it — not ques­tion­ing the Demo­cratic Party or the leg­al­ity or legit­im­acy of the nom­in­a­tion pro­cess.

Polit­ical debate should be groun­ded in an accur­ate descrip­tion of the facts. Claims that a law­ful pro­cess was some­how ille­git­im­ate under­mine con­fid­ence in demo­cratic insti­tu­tions.

The Demo­cratic SCC is com­posed of grass­roots Demo­crats from every corner of New Mex­ico who volun­teer their time to organ­ize local activ­it­ies, recruit can­did­ates and ful­fill respons­ib­il­it­ies assigned by state law and party rules. Sug­gest­ing these mem­bers acted improp­erly simply because they car­ried out those respons­ib­il­it­ies mis­rep­res­ents both the pro­cess and the people involved.

The party made the right choice. It chose proven, pro­gress­ive lead­er­ship over a can­did­ate whose appeal res­ted largely on ideo­lo­gical pur­ity rather than a record of res­ults. Too often, pur­ity tests reward ideo­lo­gical con­form­ity over demon­strated lead­er­ship, leav­ing long-stand­ing Demo­crats with proven records of deliv­er­ing res­ults labeled as insuf­fi­ciently pro­gress­ive and sent to the pro­ver­bial guil­lot­ine.

Stephanie Gar­cia Richard has spent years serving New Mex­ic­ans in elec­ted office. As a legis­lator and com­mis­sioner of pub­lic lands, she has demon­strated an abil­ity to gov­ern, build con­sensus and achieve mean­ing­ful res­ults. The SCC recog­nized that exper­i­ence and selec­ted a nom­inee with a proven record of lead­er­ship and the skills to lead on day one.

Adding Stephanie Gar­cia Richard to the Demo­cratic ticket gives voters a clear choice. Ulti­mately, New Mex­ic­ans — not party lead­ers or polit­ical com­ment­at­ors — will decide who is best pre­pared to serve as lieu­ten­ant gov­ernor. They deserve to make that decision based on accur­ate inform­a­tion, not mis­lead­ing char­ac­ter­iz­a­tions of a law­ful and trans­par­ent pro­cess.

The rule of law — not polit­ical rhet­oric — is what pro­tects demo­cracy. The voters deserve an hon­est debate about the future of New Mex­ico.

The link to the Albuquerque Journal guest column with photo is here:

https://www.pressreader.com/usa/albuquerque-journal/20260802/281951729620170

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

Republican State Senator David Gallegos’ opinion column is a disingenuous as it gets. It  is  downright hypocritical, especially coming from and elected official who should know  better and who likely knows the law because he is a legislator, especially when he essentially claims the Democratic Party has engaged in “back room” politics and says in part:

“New Mexicans don’t get a vote on who becomes the other lieutenant governor candidate, one of two people who will compete for election in November. Only about 500 people do. …  I believe leaders should answer to the people who elected them — not to 500 party insiders in a room in Santa Fe.”

Simply put, Republican State Senator David Gallegos and the NM Republican Party are hypocrites condemning the Democratic Party’s process for filling the Lt. Governor candidate vacancy when the Republican Party has relied upon and used the identical process to fill candidate vacancies in the past. In fact, the Republicans  will be using the same process to fill a vacancy for a State Representative position in Albuquerque caused by the Republican candidate dropping out  of the race after being nominated.

STEPHANIE GARCIA RICHARD BEST CANDIDATE FOR LT. GOVERNOR

The 2026 Democratic Party ticket for Governor and Lt. Governor is now set. Deb Haaland is the party nominee for Governor and Stephanie Garcia Richard is the party’s nominee for Lt. Governor. Both have made history with their nominations by being  the very first time that two women have been nominated by the Democratic Party for Governor and Lt. Governor.

When Senator Pope ran against Maggie Toulous Oliver he  lost to her in a landslide 80% to 20% in the primary. The race between Stephanie Garcia Richard and Harold Pope with the State Central committee was  nothing short of a “slugfest” between Garcia Richard and Pope. Senator Harold Pope did far better than he was expected with the State Central Committee coming in a close second securing 46% of the 477 State Central Committee Members who voted.

Deb Haaland’s endorsement of Garcia Richard contributed to the slugfest. Many Democratic Party State Central Party members strenuously objected to the Haaland endorsement saying Haaland should have stayed out of the race and said that Harold Pope deserved to be nominated simply because he ran in the primary. They ignored the fact that Garcia Richard also ran in the primary, raised over $171,000, more than what Pope raised, but dropped out of the race because of her husband’s cancer battle and her need to assist him with his cancer treatment. Pope ran on a highly populous agenda calling it “Pope for the People”. The Pope platform was more of a platform for Governor and not Lt. Governor. Pope relished embracing the far more progressive, some would say socialist, wing of the Democratic Party.

The Pope-Garcia Richard slugfest revealed a nasty, divisive conflict between party regulars and the highly progressive, some would say socialists, wing of the Democratic Party. Pope’s progressive supporters went after Deb Haaland with a vengeance labeling her a “corporate Democrat” to damage her and her endorsement of Garcia Richard. The attacks on Haaland were an embarrassing turn of events given that Haaland was elected to the ABQ congressional seat and in 2018 immediately caucused with the progressive “Squad” in the United State House of Representative.

Pope’s supporters ignored the fact that Haaland herself was elected in the primary in a landslide victory garnering  72.3% (156,861 votes) of the votes to Sam Bregman’s 27.7% (60,189) cast around New Mexico. Deb Haaland had every right to endorse a candidate given that she is the Democratic Party’s nominee for Governor and the two candidates must run as a ticket. Deb Haaland needed to make her thoughts known as to who she wanted as her running mate for Lt. Governor and especially who she feels she can trust. She needs a team player, something Harold Pope is not known to be in the New Mexico Senate because of his independence. With her endorsement of Stephanie Garcia Richard, Deb Haaland made her feelings known as to who she believes is the most compatible with her, who she feels she can trust and who she will be able to work with once they are elected as a ticket.

Stephanie Garcia Richard is clearly the most qualified candidate to be Lt. Governor, including being far more qualified than Republican David Gallego.  She will bring a sense of stability and full cooperation and communication with Deb Haaland to the table that will ensure the election of the Democratic Party ticket for Governor and Lt. Governor come November 4. Stephanie Garcia Richard is more than capable and will perform the duties and responsibilities of Lt. Governor. More importantly, she is far more qualified than Harold Pope and she can assume the office of Governor should Haaland for some reason leave office before her term ends.

A difficult question that must be answered is given the slugfest between Stephanie Garcia Richard and Harold Pope and the divide it created, will Pope supporters and the extreme progressives within the Democratic Party simply decide not to vote at all in the general election and abandon the Democratic Party? This would be reminiscent of what happened to Hillary Clinton when Bernie Sanders supporters refused to support Clinton for President after Sanders lost to her and they simply stayed home.

At this point, both Deb Haaland and Stephanie Garcia Richard running as a team, need to immediately reach out to all factions of the Democratic Party, especially the most progressive Democrats. They need to reunite the party once again and make assurances they will work with them on Democratic core values and on hot topic areas such as Universal Child Care, reforming the Children’s Youth and Family Department, dealing with solutions for the unhouse crisis, addressing affordability issue and housing shortages and  addressing health care and opposing Trump and all of his policies.