Sep. 24—Keep your eye on the third-party candidate and watch very, very closely.
Earlier this year, Chris Luchini of White Rock and Phillip Mach of Los Alamos went head-to-head for the Libertarian nomination to run for New Mexico’s House District 43 in November.
The opponent: Rep. Christine Chandler, a Democrat and former Los Alamos National Laboratory attorney who is running for reelection in the district that spans Los Alamos, parts of Santa Fe County and a northern area of Sandoval County.
Luchini, who runs a software company and serves as the state chair for the Libertarian Party of New Mexico, won the primary.
He decided to step aside and let Mach — whom he described as both a friend and a “younger and much more energetic candidate” — do the Libertarian honors in the general election.
But, both men learned in recent weeks, there was a paperwork snafu, and the Secretary of State’s Office has officially disqualified Mach from the ballot, leaving Chandler unopposed.
Now you see him, now you don’t.
BC Nguyen, the elections outreach coordinator for the secretary of state, wrote in an email Mach was disqualified because the party nomination vacancy form for his candidacy was dated July 23 — three days before the date on Luchini’s statement of withdrawal, which was July 26.
“By the plain meaning of the language in NMSA 1978 Section 1-8-8, a vacancy must have occurred before it may be filled,” Nguyen wrote in an email, referencing a section in state statute. “Therefore, the Secretary of State found that party central committee nomination was premature and not valid for purposes of the Election Code.”
Luchini said he’s both frustrated and disappointed at the news, which he attributed to no more than “a typo I made.”
“I put down the wrong resignation date,” he said.
Luchini said it took the state two and a half months to notify them of the error, and by then it was too late to take any action.
Mach said in an email earlier this month he hadn’t heard of his disqualification until being contacted by The New Mexican, and said he was working with Luchini to figure out what went wrong.
“I am disappointed in the process thus far,” he wrote. “I always think elections should be contested and am saddened I will not be able to run in District 43 this year it seems.”
Luchini said he’s suspicious there were political motivations in Mach’s disqualification and plans to file public records requests of state officials’ emails related to the situation.
Incumbent Chandler said she empathizes with her former opponents, but the state statute is clear.
“It’s disappointing, I’m sure, for the Libertarian Party to have that happen to them, but elections are a collection of rules and laws and policies,” Chandler said. “That’s kind of the reality of it all. … We in the Democratic Party have lost candidates because of glitches and inattention to certain details.”
Chandler said the change-up won’t significantly affect how she runs her campaign in the weeks to come.
“I was planning on being engaged with the voters with an opponent, and I plan to be engaged with the voters without an opponent,” she said. “So it’s pretty much going to be the same.”
As to what advice Luchini would offer other would-be candidates for office?
“Check your paperwork,” he said.
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