2012 Election Special, Part 3

the amount because of his age at all, you know, all I can say is that that district is, you know, it wants to be, you know, it wants to be a Republican district, and all that the voters needed was a choice essentially. A reason is they say, yeah, absolutely. Lieutenant Governor, let's go ahead. If you look at Heather's numbers there and Pierce's number there, you're going to see that they probably have the coattails in that, and you know, they'll be down ballot races that will all be Republicans. So I don't think anybody will be shocked if at the end of the night that Senator Jennings does lose that race. We have some updated numbers from that very race. We're talking about the Jennings-Pertal race. There they are. Tim Jennings at 48% in Mr. Pertal at 52% the challenger we're talking about. With a lot of precincts reporting as Whitney, you just heard her say, go ahead, Whitney. I was going to say too, you know, a lot of this is kind of insider political stuff. And a lot of it goes back to Joe Monahan's blogging. I mean, he has been blogging nonstop about the inability of Cliff Pertal to put anything together. He's been basically knocking the governor and her, you know, her ability to have coattails and influence in this race for months and months and months.

And to see this, you know, this spread the way it is, I mean, I wonder how he justifies what he did ever say almost every single morning when he got up and blogged on this race. What is that? There's a lot of money spread against it, though. I think Whitney's off base on that because this is going to be the governor's one thing that she can point to in this, who she was really after was Michael Sanchez. Sure. She wanted to depose Michael Sanchez and she has not done that. Sure. And Joe Monahan actually, towards the last few days, has said very frankly, Senator Jennings was in a lot of trouble. He hadn't gotten up every day and said that Cliff Pertal hadn't put anything together. Sure. In fairness to him, I think he's done his job. Fair enough. Yeah, let's go back to the phone and Maggie to lose Oliver, our county clerk for Bertolio County. Maggie, can you hear me? Yes, I can. You may not be able to hear me. What's your sense of how things are going or precincts coming in in a timely manner for you? Are you hearing from your folks in an efficient way at this point?

Yes. Everything is starting to roll in here. You know, I think the first results came in tonight, maybe about 10 minutes later than I expected them to. And after that kind of, you know, the field was broken and we started to see them roll in quite consistently. We're continuously uploading cartridges that starting to look and feel a lot more like the system that we had in the past, or we had those results coming in slowly and steadily throughout the course of the night. You have a sense that it's a little early, but do you have a sense of when you might be able to say things or put to bed this evening? Are you anticipating being there in the wee hours? I don't anticipate being here in the wee hours. The one site that was at the longest line when it closed down has finally wrapped up its activities for the night. Once back up, shut down, which will take about half an hour. Those cartridges should be down here. So I would expect to be getting the final cartridges in probably about 10-30 tonight. Maybe just try of 11.

And that, you know, that for me is an early night here at once at the club. That actually for around these parts, if that in fact holds. We appreciate that. Have there been problems any reported problems that now that 7 o'clock is long past us? Any precincts that were problematic for you that you had not anticipated? We did not have any problematic precincts. And for me, a problematic precinct is one where our systems don't function the way they're supposed to. Of course, we always have the standard issues with, you know, a voting machine here and there that we're able to replace, you know, a printer here and there that we have to troubleshoot. But our systems worked excellently today. Everything went well. You know, the one X factor with this sort of rush that we got at the end of the night at a handful of our sites. But, you know, again, by and large, everything went really smoothly today. My vote centers worked out. Is there a chance that you'll look at this situation and expand the amount of votes? My vote centers, do you have a plan in place given what you've seen tonight or you're going to think about that a little bit?

Well, you know, we are all really happy with how this worked. I mean, we're happy with it from an election administration perspective. We're happy with it from, you know, the positive feedback that we've received has been overwhelming. And, you know, like everything, you know, whether we continue to do vote centers or if we were to go back to traditional three things, even if we did that, we're always looking for ways to improve the election process. So I have no doubt that we'll continue to do that. But I definitely think that by and large, this has been a very successful experiment. And I think we'll try to carry it forward. Oliver Bernalio County clerk, thank you for spending some time with us. Appreciate it. You're welcome. Thank you. So if you have some information about what's happening with voting in Rio Rancho. So, yes, the prediction at this point is that voting in Rio Rancho could go on as late as 11 o'clock tonight. Rio Rancho is opposed to Bernalio County. That county, in Rio Rancho, in particular, very few voting centers. Here in Bernalio, we had 69, something like that.

Five in Rio Rancho. And the lines have been insane out there. So right now, the prediction is 11 o'clock tonight for some of those precincts. Sure. We had lines in Chaparrala as a matter of fact earlier today. There was quite a long line. Well, this earlier this evening, I spoke to some of the people in Rio Rancho. Some of the people had been waiting two to three hours to vote. And so everybody, including the governor, were out there passing out, you know, carbohydrates and water and all kinds of things to ask people to please stay in line. What races will that affect? Maybe some of those legislative races? We won't know. Sure. So we have you here. We've got to ask you about national stuff. President Obama seems to be hanging in there as we sit here. We don't have any of the latest numbers. However, are you, you know, your sense of it at the end there? Was there ever a point we thought, wow, Mr. Romney might be problematic here. We had that late surge and things were starting to tighten up. Not at the end.

Okay. After the first debate, I was a little bit worried. But let me just say on the, on the national friend, I think that the exciting thing for me and his one, Claire McCaskill, maintained her seat. And I heard some of your discussion earlier. And one of the things I'll say, you know, this all, the women's health reproductive all started with Susan G. Coleman in the early part of the year. That was the beginning of what I thought was the snowball. And then it was compounded by some, not some ill time to remarks on behalf of Republicans. And it was, I don't believe it was about abortion. I believe it was about privacy, women's health. And what women expected to be able to, what choices they could make for themselves. So it's been an interesting season. Michelle Luangrisham embraced the women's health issues. That's why she's winning today. That's why she won a primary. Because she embraced those issues. Interesting. We're going to go back to the phones here real quick. Back to the lost cruises, son, managing editor John Stubel. John, can you hear me?

A lot of people coming in and out, my fault. Walt, can you hear me? Yeah, I can, sorry. I had a call on the other line there. Latest on John Arthur Smith. What are you seeing? What are you hearing? I'm sorry. Was that to me? Hello? Well, we may have a cross connection as they used to say in the old days of AT&T. Can you hear me now? Yeah, I'm with you. Do you have anything latest on the John Arthur Smith race that you can report? Okay, let me see. We've got 12 in now at 39, so that's still not a whole lot better. And I have not looked in, I'm sorry, in Loona County yet on that race. But in Dona County, he is, I'm sorry. He is as close as it can be. 924 votes for John Arthur. 947 for Russell Allen. So once again, I really think John Arthur will do a whole lot better in Loona County. So I suspect he's going to hold on there.

We're seeing those numbers as you're speaking. How about Senate District 36? Mary Jane Garcia and Mr. Carter. What's your sense of the momentum there? We're seeing about 30% just over the precincts reporting. And Carter with 56% and Mary Jane Garcia, surprisingly with 44%. Are you seeing similar numbers there? That is similar to what I'm seeing. And I really think that's a result of the campaign finance violations that were leveled against her right before the election night. I don't think there's any way in the world that this is the third time that Lee Carter's run against her. He's lost badly at each of the last two. And there's no other reason to explain this vote this time other than that violation. We talked earlier in case some viewers missed it about those troubles from Ms. Garcia. We were wondering if in fact it could have been that impactful and clearly it hasn't some sense. But is there something else in that race for Carter that's working in your view besides the headlines stuff about Ms. Garcia? I know that she took a strong stance on the driver's license bill and certainly that's unpopular with I think a majority of people here in the county overall in the district.

I don't know how much that bill heard her in the district. That's really all I can think of. I mean she has been a champion for that district and you know one of the few legislative leaders that we have here from southern to Mexico. Typically when we get somebody in a leadership position we don't turn them out because we don't get that many of them. So I can't think of any other reason for that result. Questions for you from our election table starting with Rob Nicalesky? Well I guess maybe my question for you would just be about the Jennings race. The latest numbers we have is Jennings losing to Pearl. Is just your thoughts about that? Is that coming as a surprise to you? It does. I mean obviously Roswell is in that district is a conservative area of the state. Jennings has always been a conservative Democrat.

But I think this year with the governor's money you know behind his opponent that I think that area of the state it's not shocking to me that they would turn out a Democrat in favor of a fairly conservative Republican. I'm going to be sorry to see Tim go just sort of out of personal. He always liven things up when I was down there covering the legislature. One more colorful personality gone from Santa Fe I guess if that holds up. Another colorful personality is Andy Nunez and that race. What are you seeing down in that three way of race with Nunez trying to be the first decline to state legislature to win election? Yeah he's got a tough go there. Let's see the latest we've got on that one has him. Behind you know almost by half as much as Mr. Archuleta who is a Democrat and I think he and Mike Teyes are going to be very close and I just think Andy will be the third place finisher there. Right another very colorful personality and a guy who always voted what his conscious was and what he thought was best first constituents and not necessarily the party so.

Another one that I'm going to be sorry to see go if he ends up losing. What numbers do you see in that race you have the breakdown. Yeah I do. It is Archuleta with 1778. Teyes with 1595 and Andy with 886. So it looks like not having that party infrastructure behind him really really hurt him in this race kind of getting getting it from both sides. Yeah absolutely. Is that out there that might keep you up late tonight? We've got a lot of close ones but we're coming up on our deadline here so we'll wrap it up and we'll be watching it I'm sure well past midnight but. One of the ones that I think is kind of interesting is we have a new open senate seat with Steve Fishman stepping down this year and that race between William souls and Kathy Joe Albertson is another one that is going right down to the wire it looks like right now separated by less than 300 votes.

We'll let you get back to your deadline try to get that those stories out whatever we can and we'll go back to we'll throw back to Jane thanks for joining us. Thanks well thanks Rob thanks Matt appreciate that Lieutenant Governor Dion Dennis is here Whitney wait. Why don't we forget your name I haven't so be more and of course it is I'm just teasing and Tom Garrett is here with us tonight. Lieutenant Governor why we still get you for a little bit of time what you just heard from want reporting down there you did a lot of work down there in your race for governor certainly and just a sense of those districts down there we talked about the overlay of Republican performing districts. You did what you had to do down there to get votes what is it about it for Democrats it's going to make it really really difficult to work down there specifically you know even from Pierce on down in that district. I you know I think that that Las Cruces really is isolated from our media market so if you're running in a statewide race especially but there's a lot of they're really shuffling the deck down there.

William souls a few wins Joanne Ferrari is running a very competitive race if she's still in the game if Mary Jane Garcia loses so they're changing electorate I think down there and it's not necessarily they're going more Democrat or more Republican. They just seem to be really interested in shuffling the deck one of some of the bellwethers will be whether some of the people that Susanna Martinez appointed her deputy I understand her deputy DA who's the DA is behind in the DA's race tonight. I don't know how our judge appointees are doing but I think that's going to be an indicator of some things down in Las Cruces so it's an interesting environment. Yeah part of the state but it is hard to reach after by the Texas media market if you're running statewide which is very expensive because it includes the El Paso district so it's a tough place to reach unless you have a great mail and walk program and have a district that actually can be walked. Some of those are pretty darn big and what do you've learned campaigns that have concerned parts of that state as well for campaign manager what are the challenges in certain areas down there so obviously some are very well you know performing Republican areas don't worry about that but some of the others are tricky like we've talked about the inner part of Cruces student areas things like that how do you strategize as a campaign manager.

Well I think the lieutenant governor is absolutely correct because the media market issue is a problem but it also forms a disconnect a lot of times with campaigns they so rarely actually put a good well-funded operation in Donia and a county so so many times you're dealing with the back and forth the staffers materials it is it's a logistical challenge as well as a media challenge so but I do agree it's going to be there's going to be some changes in Donia and a county in terms of their leadership I mean the Zimmerman race down there is going you know is looking closer than I would have anticipated I think the Republican candidate is up by 59% the last I saw that's going to make a difference so it's going to be interesting to watch Bill McCammley I'll be back though I guess looks like there's a name on the phone we have Nate gentry from House District 30 Nate can you hear me yeah you're spending some time with us. Could I ask you the obvious question how you feeling about things. I think I can probably anticipate that you know generally Republicans win on election day so of course we're watching you know the race in 15 with Christophe Stato and Conrad James is very very closely so you know they came in a little behind on you know the combined AP and EV returns but we're hopeful to make it up on you know the election day both.

When you saw this early vote returns and this stuff coming in early what was your sense of of the result were you happy with where you were or was there something else going on yeah I was happy where I was where I was personally but yeah you know we always knew. Yeah this is going to be within a couple hundred all these you know particularly you know the races within about you know 50 to 51 52 performance you know it's going to be a couple hundred vote race so you know again we're just going to be up late making sure you know hopefully that you know we make up the difference on election day both so. When you walk the district what were you hearing what were the issues that people were concerned about there what was the the ringing thread that you heard the common thread.

Normally it was it was job I think there's a lot of opposition to the current law that you know a lot of people in this country are legally to get drivers license I heard a lot about that a lot of discussions about education so those were those are the predominant issues. Satisfied with your work I always have to ask folks this did you leave anything on the table you feeling like you had done everything you could at this point. You know I did you know it's important note that I've been listening to your show and a lot of people have mentioned all the money spent these races and you know the the picture of the majority of these super PACs spent you know at least a hundred thousand dollars you know on TV against me and by other Republican faith you know legislative candidate. You know my opponent I'm estimating between what she spent personally on you know money she raised almost exclusively through you know democratic packs as well as you know what the picture of majority contributed to mail that that combined total of you know another hundred thousand dollars in mail so you know considering that I raised all my money I didn't get any super PAC money you know I think we didn't I'm very pleased with the outcome. Are you pleased with the support that you received in your pieces against Ms. Broderick are you are you did you do enough did you have enough outside helping your view.

Yeah I didn't know I've outside out all the money I spend Jean was you know money I raised there was you know a little bit of PAC money but it was you know no super PAC money you know I wish the race to shape up a little different way you know I use the first one to go negative I kept it you know all on on the issues or. You know her positions on issues I'm various items and you know the you know there's a lot of negativity early on from campus you know we respect to the issues and that you know prevailed I think you know when you walk your district I walked every house in the district including my new precincts I picked up the redistricting at least two times the old precincts now total of five times so you know that that I think carnage you a lot of a lot of support with with your constituents and I think it really allows you to deflect from that negativity so representative gentry thanks for your time really appreciate you calling in thank you absolutely so for your thoughts on this race we talked about this

earlier in the in our cycle tonight Marilyn Broderick was a new candidate but she had a lot of community support she had been an activist for quite a long time around that the area and the district and are you surprised by the result it was always going to be a push for her but are you surprised what's happening always going to be as you said it was always going to be a real effort for her to overcome I think each gentry's great name recognition his his experience in that district the fact that folks knew him there and also you know the tremendous support that I I think that he's gotten from within his party has been you know he's one of those people who's identified as kind of a rising star as well or I should say a shining light whichever whichever metaphor I'm going to use there and for Broderick it's you know this was her first pain her first effort on her own behalf and I think in light of that she did a fantastic job she's got to be disappointed with the numbers as they stand right now even though it is not all precincts aren't in she's got to be

worried about where that sitting right we should we should mention in fairness to Mary Ellen certainly she lost her partner of a many years not that long ago it was really they were just an amazing couple and barb would be pleased with the effort that's true when I go to house 24 and get some numbers there I'm going to go to Tom Garrett some for some reaction on that race but let's take a look at house 24 and see what we've got going on and you can see there we had talked earlier about Conrad James the up and coming Republican at 49% in house district 24 with Elizabeth Thompson Democrat just a bit ahead not quite sure how many precincts are reporting on that Whitney what's your hold there Tom for you on the Conrad James what's your sense on this one tightening up a bit since we last to look yeah you know I knew coming in that all of these races were going to be very difficult I mean the Republicans had to hold on to a lot of tough seats based on what we did in 2010 and with the amount of money that's been spent in here it's going to be extremely difficult it's interesting both Conrad James and Nate Gentry's districts to me are kind of Bellweather ones they kind of got caught in the fundraising mix you know

everybody sort of had the perception that because they were incumbents and because they were such strong legislators and they were reasonably somewhat safer districts they probably had a more difficult time raising money because you know wasn't really exciting to get out help them is like both of them should be able to get across line so I think that they probably had different challenges from some of these other candidates like like Nate Gentry said I don't know what the Super PAC involvement was specifically in his race he says it wasn't there I believe that and I think that what you're seeing if that's the case is the result of that that he had to kind of haul his own water in this race and I'm hoping that he's able to pull it out because I know that his opponent had plenty of outside funding sure Tom there Tom Garrity there was a lot of negativity in this race but a lot of negativity came towards Ms. Brotterrick goes well wasn't all one-sided and there was some very hurt feelings about this in that district well and you know that that's the district that I live in so yeah so you know as I saw this just flood of mail coming in you know I saw a couple of things when I saw a lot of negativity I mean whoever went first doesn't matter everybody jumped in

you know water was fine everybody came on in but you know what was interesting is is that you know in the Brotterrick race her there was a lot of effort but their overall organization was not quite there right case in point people coming to the door and asking if the person who was there who hadn't lived there for seven years so you know they're working with some in some respects outdated lists yeah but a lot of effort you know and then the other race that I'm watching because it's also kind of a bell weather there is New Mexico Senate district 15 and right now Daniel IV Soto is up appears to be up right now over a former incumbent state senator Diane Snyder so I find that to be very fascinating as well because you know that's an area that really changes so you have a Republican in the house and a potentially Democrat in the Senate it's interesting these overlay districts we've been talking about on the show for some weeks so if you are Tom's point right there you know sometimes it's a co-tail effect sometimes it's not sometimes you just on your own really doesn't matter the Senate doesn't sometimes you stump together it works out yeah but in this case it looks like for Mary Ellen it's not going to work out in this case

I think that that's true you know one of the things that we haven't touched on so much today that I think is this evening that I think it's really going to be interesting to look at afterwards if we're able to drill down and really look at these numbers the effect that the end of straight party voting the straight ticket voting is going to have on some of these down ticket races where we see folks especially where we see folks voting in the top ticket you know the Senate house and then national and then obviously the president but not making their way down we'll see a lot I anticipate we're going to see a lot of under votes and that's going to have an impact probably my guess is more with the Democratic Party than with the Republican. That's an interesting point there because Mary Ellen speaking of her was a strong Obama supporter absolutely and I think could anticipate that the success of the president within her district would would then were down to her as well but but if people aren't making it all the way down in the absence of straight ticket voting I think that that's going to tend to

to hurt our Democrats as opposed to appreciate that point that could be one of those day after little things to look at that could be very interesting. I think when I see we were talking about this before when you see how long it's taking to get voters through the polls how difficult it is especially in reorientio I wonder how much the loss of straight ticket is part of that that you sort of have to stop you can't do the single and then it's just dragging it out for for a lot of voters. Let's take a look at Senate district 29 that's the Michael Sanchez district and of course you see the light blue at the bottom left of your screen there kind of a funny funky looking district there we've got some numbers coming in Michael Sanchez now at 56% David Chavez at 44% the Republican challenger who has been getting a lot of help from the Republican party as well as our governor and her machine Al Park is back with us Al we talked earlier when you were here about this Michael Sanchez race any change in your thinking about this with these numbers? Now Michael is going to put this thing away and he's going to put it away handily I think he handled himself very well you know you talked a lot about the negativity

in these races and I think you're going to see that for years to come and I think what was very effective for Michael was the television commercial he and his wife did together. I was about to ask you that and I thought it was great I mean and it really I think mirrored the perception you know the feelings of a lot of us that were frustrated from getting the mail the TV I mean I got a four year old thank God we don't watch TV at night I mean right I mean it's just and so so when it was someone his wife Linca just do what we do and she picked up it and it went to static I can't tell you there's probably a good solid two million Mexicans there's maybe a hundred thousand political junkies who want to see those ads but two two million of them don't want any part of them I mean they're exhausting and I think it added a human face to him and it was as easy going as they come it was political ads it was and I think it I think it resonated perfectly with this race having his wife on there I mean you know this is this is a couple that have been married for 40 years or 35 years I mean you know they've raised three kids I mean they've done their great family

I mean they're really committed to it and it didn't it didn't address any of the negativity it just talked about out of state interest about what he wanted to do I thought it was I thought it was frankly I thought it was the most effective commercial of the entire 2012 cycle Whitney wait David Chava has certainly had his help support financial and otherwise boots on the ground I'm going to imagine as well and again we have to say this every time it was a bit of a push but he was vulnerable Mr. Sanchez was vulnerable if one was to believe things going in what's your sense of where this could be or could have been rather could something a little bit different could have been done here? Well I think if you're going to go into a knife fight of an election you better have a pretty clean record you know I you know it's I don't know if David Chava you know if Michael Sanchez won or David Chava's lost on this and you know Valencia County is a very close-knit you know most areas in Valencia County close-knit they know who their neighbors are they know a lot about them and I just think unfortunately in David Chava's case

it wasn't about his position on policies it was you know more personal things and I you know I agree with Al I think that the you know that that ad that Michael Sanchez did was fantastic in in the scope of that race I think it pretty much clenched it for Michael he remains vulnerable I mean that district is is always going to be one that a good solid Republican that's well-funded could take and I think depending on what happens with the governor's agenda I wouldn't be surprised if you see another challenger you know for him you know again you know you just maybe a different year Sure sometimes it takes a couple of wax at the mole so to speak and that'll game the whackable game Michael Michael Sanchez of course his position in the Senate is no trifling matter so getting that removed of course would have served the governor into great form here but it didn't happen so my question is what happens from this point on meeting the legislature legislative session coming up are we really going to see any cooperation here? It's not like they were handed glove to begin with. Do you know what I mean?

It's not like oh our friendship is done you know that she she targeted him for that for what I think are really valid political reasons for herself so I don't I don't anticipate it's going to get that much worse how much worse can it get? I think that in some ways what the government what this gives the governor right is the opportunity to spend another two years saying like look we got to clear this out we got to we got to make it a change the problem for her is that if she wants in her reelection to say here's what I've done here's what I've accomplished she's got a significant road box sitting there and so that's going to be hard whether new Mexicans are going to be responsive during her reelection to well I couldn't get anything through this you know this democratic leadership I couldn't get anything through the legislature whether that's going to be helpful to her in the race I kind of doubt it. Sure let's take a take a look excuse me at house district four we have some numbers coming in do you see them rabie gay at 35% the incumbent Democrat

and Sharon I always mess up her name Clotcha Shalich Clotcha Shalich I was close at 65% and Whitney I'll start with you that is an amazing number for a challenger I want to know where those votes come from though because if you are in the area closer to Farmington it can mean one thing if you're out closer to the farther north western side closer to the Navajo area you know those numbers depends on where they're coming in from but I expect her to do very well I think that this might be the year that a Republican takes that district but and you know both her being a good candidate and rabie gay having issues but I think that that number may be reflective of with the precincts. How same sort of theory we asked our friend from from the Las Cruces and he said when you have troubles with your money management does a candidate or as an elected official you better said it used to be maybe in the old days people would kind of look aside at that you kind of messed up get some better help get a better but

it seems like people are not having it anymore if you're messing around with the money and things are not working well there's going to be a consequence it seems like. Well I think that's right and I think that's a by-part of the fact that if the citizens of New Mexico have to do more with less then they expect their elected officials to do more with less as well and when you have situations that create the appearance of the personal gain or the self-aggrandizement I think for a community in a state that is still suffering eight and a half, nine percent unemployment you know difficulties in education you know it's an easy reason to get rid of someone. Sure let's take a look at some more results now and update our friends on Channel 5. Welcome to our election night 2012 coverage

and here in New Mexico the early and absent he votes are in and we're now starting to see day of results from the polls today I'm Gene Grant in the New Mexico PBS studios let's get straight to some results let's go to House 4 and we were just starting to take a look at that and talk about Ray Bege and his challenger Whitney wait was making a very good point about potentially how this could be the time for a change to a Republican in that district would you agree from what you've seen? I think it's possible and as we start getting later into the evening and start talking about these house races what's going to overshadow every single one of them is redistricting and the court battle that occurred so when we went into redistricting the Republicans had one goal to create competitive districts and that's what they accomplished so that's why as we get later into the night the only issue that is going to be really uncertain for the next hour and a half is who's going to control the House of Representatives

you're going to see a lot of tough races and Ray Bege who had a district that was a good 60% Democratic performing district went down to 52 which really narrows your margin of error you can't make big mistakes and I think that's what you see happening here sure Tom Garedi of one of our regulars that come in and out during this season on the line on the Mexico and focus again on that on that map we're seeing on our screens in the upper left corner there for Mr. Bege I appreciate Representative Park's point there when you go from a performing district that's that safe you have to be a different candidate when the margin is that that much smaller irregardless of any problems you might be having so perhaps it was setup with redistricting all along you never know not setup in a nefarious way it's a difficulty you know I think what we're seeing tonight is the setup for lack of better term for 2014 and what's going to happen with the governor's race you know the Republicans are really getting you know a lot of unique wins question is what are they going to do with it there you go we're going to go to senate 32 and look for some results right now let's see what's happening there there you see it Tim Jennings at 48% they can come and democratic

and Cliff Pertle the Republican show challenger 52% a quick thought Tom what you see from those numbers that's tightening up a little bit from our last reporting yeah it is unfortunately senate senate pro-tempts and Jennings isn't a bit of trouble you know and that's going to be a very interesting district to see what happens you know very conservative area Cliff Pertle you know obviously a lot of support from the governor but I think the governor loses somebody who's a potential ally and could have helped her you know accomplish maybe a few small things in the senate sure so for your thoughts on that people just reporting but but still a difference of about 300 votes so you know I do think that it does not look for good for Jennings but we will be back in a moment got to go New Mexico PBS election coverage is presented in part by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network Urenco USA welcome back to our New Mexico PBS election headquarters I'm Gene Grant the results

are coming fast and furious as you know where to get back to some results from around the state we've had some interesting races Michael Sanchez is hanging in there Tim Jennings is not we've got senate nine race we're going to take a 20 some my fault again senate 29 that Michael Sanchez race we're going to take a look at here real quick and get some thoughts and comments let's start with some thoughts and comments Whitney Michael Sanchez and David Chavez you mentioned just a bit ago on our on our broadcast that perhaps the candidate and David Chavez could have been a different kind of candidate and I'm asking to throw anybody under the bus here certainly but what does it say about next time Tom Garrity had made the point to be the last challenger for this man certainly so is there a different archetype a different type of challenger some a little more moderate a little more red meat what's your sense of that well I think a more competitive presidential race in the next election might help a Republican candidate that's running in there I mean that's one of the things that's making it so difficult right now for Republican candidates is there really was not a Romney campaign so all of the Republican get out the vote efforts that usually

come along with you know the victory operations we're just not here for these candidates plus the other thing and I'll go back to the campaign finance reform money used to flow through the state party and into county parties and they were part of that was party building they were doing voter registration programs they were doing more grassroots get out the vote type work when the now that the parties have to are limited in funds like the candidates are all the money came into these independent expenditure groups they don't care about party building they don't care about voter registration they don't care about neighbor to neighbor they just care about you know more money on TV and in the mailbox so I think what you're going to see is and you know continue to affect on these down ticket races especially for candidates that live in areas where raising money is difficult I mean sure you know one thing to try to raise money in a contested district in Bernalio County you know try it in Luna and Grant you know it's going to be much more difficult so excellent point absolutely Tom let's talk about money in these races what's shaping up in the narrative so far for you when has where has the money been spent well not been spent effectively what's been going on in your sense of this you know

I think there's a lot of money I mean obviously it will show that this is the most expensive race ever was it was it money well spent sure you know I think the debate can be made you know probably not you know the governor obviously is not getting a great return on her investment in you know Senate 29 and other areas she is so it's you know pretty much hit and miss you know hopefully I think we'll see smarter campaigning as a result of this you know and and also I think that the of that last minute blitz you know by the Republican Party to go ahead and try and you know turn the tables you know shortly after the hurricane I thought that was a very interesting play because it got a lot of people concerned in the Democratic Party and the Democrats I think need to do some soul searching as far as what is it that the Democrats want to accomplish over the next two years you know I mean I think they have a shot to you know really define their own type of economic development because that's really going to be the thing that really determines I think success and failure of different elected officers in our state over the next six months to a year to year and a half

that's an interesting point I appreciate that you know we don't have the kind of crazy ballot issues a lot of other states have going on do we medical marijuana is out there a lot of places same sex marriage but we do have minimum wage here locally and we're going to get to some stuff on that but so if you want to start with you well there it is we've got four 66% against 34% with almost half precincts reporting not terribly far off the journal poll that that took a look at this about two weeks ago this is where we were polling so I will say I remember when minimum wage came up and Martin Heinrich was part of sort of a push to change that what he was in city council and I will just say that I that I helped out on that campaign and it seemed like such an uphill battle I think we're seeing in part the impact of the recession on our local economy and people realizing no minimum wage now that I'm working for minimum wage minimum wage is not enough and and so I think that that's been some of the force behind that but I also think it took a little time for people to kind of come around on that

issue I'm not entirely surprised to see that change and I look forward to a lot of people getting reason really soon the other side of this thought we had the Albuquerque Chamber out heavily opposed other business groups heavily opposed seeing a lot of things we're going to trickle down a consumer higher prices and you know compare this to what we saw in Santa Fe which has a very aggressive minimum wage which is going to get challenged probably here at some point in the near future but on the political side of this what does it mean for anybody that's either opposed or against this because I think particularly about Mayor Barry he didn't really come out strongly either one way or the other on this did he well it's a difficult you know when he's looking at possibly running for re-election and you see that so much of the electorate was in support of it it's a difficult position for him to be and though I would say that to me I see that and it's so discouraging because that's a good signal to me that Bernalio County just is moving towards a direction where they're just preferring government intervention in business and I mean I think we're seeing that philosophy in our elections it's why Michelle Luhon

Grisham is going to escape to victory in Bernalio County it's just there's an overall changing philosophy people are scared about the economy they're liking and feeling like the government is going to be the one to save them and the end result of this higher minimum wage is going to keep people losing jobs and businesses shutting down and you know I don't know what else to it's that I find it discouraging on the state with you on this you know that case was made in half-page ads I'm not sure if there was television or not on anti minimum wage but there was a lot of money spent but the message you're talking about didn't stick so perhaps it was something else beyond preference for government intervention perhaps it was something else that people were saying I think you have an electorate that's suffering I think that you have an electorate that is not able to pay their bills get their medication put gas in their car their energy prices are too high and you know from a conservative standpoint I would say it's because taxes are too high and business can't do what it needs to do it's not going to be helped in any way shape reform by raising the minimum wage by a dollar or two it's just not going to do sure how what do you think of that I mean this has been this has been around for a

long time in albuquerque this idea of raising the minimum wage I think I think it's a much more personal issue so when people are going to the movies and it's ten or eleven dollars to go to the movies and the minimum wage is seven dollars and twenty five cents sure you shouldn't have to work two hours to go to a movie you know when you're driving around town and it costs you three fifty to fill up your gas tank you shouldn't have to work you know two hours or more four hours to fill up your gas tank. Now your movie tickets is going to cost fifteen bucks instead of twelve. Well I'll go to the movies but I mean you know I'm on the table now. No we got cable now. But you know but I think I think that's what was coming down to your folks is that inflation continues to go up wages are stagnant the economy is stagnant and I think it was a feeling for not just for people who are on the lower level but also a feeling that if you raise even the lowest wages all wages will go up and that will trickle frankly trickle all we saw on Santa Fe. Well you know I'm not

an expert on what your own Santa Fe I think we have to be a little careful in albuquerque with Santa Fe because I think some of the unintended circumstances that they found in Santa Fe are that the cost of consumer goods did skyrocket a little too much and they've got a pretty aggressive escalator and they're at eleven eleven and a half dollars an hour. I think we want to be a little careful. Sure. So this is great. So we're in the middle. I mean you just heard the voice he is back but I'm going to hold him off just a quick second because I want to check another ballot issue and that is the Paseo issue this time for the albuquerque for against as you see four sixty six percent again a big number it's thirty four percent that named in for the reason he is happy to mention Rio Rancho he has to get back and forth from Rio Rancho into albuquerque in Paseo is a big issue in your life that Bernalillo County there's the numbers there for the same thing sixty seven percent almost nearly the same thing but as being asked for many millions of dollars Dan to do so at a time where budgets are tight monies tight with people understand it costs people money out of their own pockets to sit in traffic. It does and I think this plays

well for I think this plays well for the Exodus the jobs that are going to happen to come to Rio Rancho I think now you got the opportunity it's interesting how folks will tell you my good colleague Al park will tell you that you know it's all about getting people this better quality of life and yet a dollar an hour seems to do that you know it I mean if we're really going to talk about living wages get the living wages up to where they need to be if you're going to do this as a government entity raising someone's pay a dollar an hour didn't do anything to help them it's a dollar in their pocket by the time they're done paying taxes and the cost escalator doesn't help them I think this is going to be good for for sand of all county because now you're going to have a lot of jobs a lot of people that are paying that lower wage whether they're call centers whether they're restaurants fast food things like that they're going to move five minutes you think of all the people on the west side that can just jump across the road now they don't have to pay this money and when you're a struggling pizza guy when you're a struggling restaurant overwhelmingly the small businesses in this community the service industry this could be the difference between hiring four more people or laying off for people because they just don't have those margins we've

seen in Santa Fe it's been a disaster Al's right it's a different story there but the university can talk you did a huge study and it is a disaster so what is what is Mayor Barry go from here I think mayor just spoken and this is going to happen now the business community has to figure this out it seems to me this is a leadership opportunity for this mayor to talk about well we'll see I mean because I'm not sure you know we talk about the people have spoken there's more people working than there are out there that are on the businesses I'm sure that a huge percentage of these folks that voted for this are not people are going to ever vote for RJ Barry that's not his base but I think at the end of the day it's the law now so you got to figure out how to implement this correctly you got to figure out how to make this I think what RJ Barry has to do is figure out a way as mayor of Albuquerque how do you keep the west side of Albuquerque from moving further to the west side now becoming citizens of Rio Rancho got you a constitutional constitutional amendments next I love that word let's run through a few now see what we've got going on the ballot amendment number

one two more seats for the judicial standards commission actually the journal I believe was for this it looks like the voters are two at this point Al what do you think about this one 58% actually the general came out in opposition to this one you know of the constitutional amendments it's not a big deal it's right all you're doing is putting on a municipal judge and another member of the public you have to do that to maintain the balance of the voting I've made this for judges have had a great record you look at our Yankee County and I think that's part of the reason what you're saying is why they want to have a municipal judge on the Judicial Standards Commission is because municipal judges they're not lawyers they've had real problems and to bring that perspective on to the commission to help them get training and make sure that they're up to speed on what they need to do so I don't think that was frankly I mean you see it's passing overwhelmingly almost 60% I don't think it was it wasn't a huge deal it's certainly not as important as items two three four and five that's right we'll get to that in a second but Sophie interesting I think you brought up

that same point Al brought oh similar point to what Al just brought up a little bit ago about expanding that commission bringing in other voices other points of view that whole thing yeah you know I'm one of the things that I think that that many people don't realize about the municipal judges is that they don't not only do they not have to be attorneys they don't really have to receive training right to be in those positions and so to have somebody on that panel who can speak for that community there is the possibility fingers crossed that that person then becomes an advocate for sort of sort of better systems around that you know like we can see that there are problems let's try and fix them as opposed to the status quo which is can be a little bit iffy sure let's take a look at constitutional amendment number two Al just mentioned two three and four were interesting and there it is that's the PRC qualifications amazingly four and I've got to go 80 percent I mean this is unheard of you know numbers but it's an amendment so what can you say Al obviously you just came through a pretty tough race for PRC that seat one of the things we talked about

this table during that time was this idea of having better qualifications but put up against that some folks were feeling like you don't have to have qualifications to be president or other things they don't quite jive what was your sense of this because the people have spoken again I mean I think the fact that it's passing with over 80 percent of the vote says that the PRC is one and dire need of reform and two it's a recognition that the public regulation commission is a specialized elected position it's not running for the legislature it's like running to be a judge it's a very quasi judicial type of regulatory body it requires people who have some expertise either advanced degrees training law degrees and I think that part of the problem that we've seen frankly over the last 12 years at the public regulation commission is having commissioners who are not well versed not adequately trained to deal with the enormously complex issues that are before the commission and if we start to create minimum standards I think you will see the commission will

start to have less and less problems and quite frankly I think you can see the vast majority of New Mexico and really what that vote to me is it's a cry from the citizenry that this PRC needs to be cleaned up or needs to go over and so I think it's important to say that all this constitutional amendment did was it delegated to the legislature to create that criteria in this coming session that's going to be the battle of the legislative that's going to be interesting because this is not over yet let's take a look at constitutional amendment number three and see where that stands and that is as it stands close that is corporations from PRC to the Secretary of State and what's interesting about this one Daniel is one can you know make an assumption like Al did it perhaps it's a little Byzantine inside baseball PRC it's very specialized I'm not saying folks didn't or do know what they're voting for here but what accounts for that kind of closeness when you see a number like that well I think what what accounts for is I think the electric don't really

understand what this is going to do they file at the Secretary of State's office now she's in charge of everything else to do with them she ought to have the ability to do that you know and I'll make a great point you know we used to joke in legislature Alan I used to joke all the time the most powerful place in New Mexico is the PRC if they ever figured out right and you know you look at you look at what they've done over the last 12 years I mean I don't think that there's been anything the PRC has done that the pot the voters Republican Democrat liberal conservative would say great job PRC I think overwhelmingly it's literally been a place for political careers almost to go and die but I think that the reason yeah I would staff that makes it hard I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think the PRC I think moving that over to the Secretary of State's office is the right place to put your 30 filing all their paperwork there they're already doing all of that stuff we'll see in a minute what they think of the insurance folks I think if we're going to really get the PRC to do their job we got to narrow their focus is

what we got let's take a look now that Dan mentions the constitutional amendment number four on the move the insurance department from the PRC over to somewhere else Whitney let me start with you this is actually very very close a lot closer here because if you again go with the popular wisdom or whatever the popularism that cracks out there on the surface people were dying to get insurance out of the PRC purview absolutely dying to get out of there it doesn't look like it so far but they've raised this close I absolutely agree with what Dan said I don't think that the general electorate understood with a lot of what these these propositions were about and to me I just like I see the trend on them and right now Albuquerque just wants to vote for something it's like if they vote for it something's going to get better so if they're asked yes or no they're like yes I want this yes I want this yes I want this and I think again I'm coming back to the fact that we're suffering economy we are hurting in the jobs department we're paying too much for energy we're paying too much for taxes somebody puts a ballot in front of us and they're like do you want this this isn't this and everybody's saying yes yes yes yes that's what you go speaking of yes constitutional amendment

number five we have yeses for 61 percent of folks independent public defender and against 38 percent at this point I got to go to our our budding lawyer here and there are our practicing lawyer here I mean Sophie first this was a big deal for people in the public people on the defense side of of lawyering so to speak this is a big deal right this is a big deal and these numbers are very promising I don't see you know percentage reporting etc but but essentially what what has happened in New Mexico and this is not the case in other states is that the public defenders office to the person if you are in trouble with the law and you're entitled to an attorney you get an attorney you know that whole Miranda warning thing was under and I'm saying was because I think that we're seeing the change there in those numbers under the governor's office so reporting to the same so you know through the same system as the state police as the prosecutors as the you know all of that and so there's at least the appearance of a conflict there and there may in fact have been some conflict and you know one of the things I really hope to see

is an increase in the budget for the public defenders because that's the big one for people and that's the big conflict I think you know you got someone that has to go to the governor's office and say I've got death penalty cases out there I've got to have this money I've got to do with the losses I have to do and the governor says nope I'm cutting everybody ten you know there was a when I was a big battle between the public defenders and the governor Richardson governor Richardson said we're not going to increase we're going to go this one legislative session where we're going to have a we're going to cut remember governor just said oh I'm going to be a cutter you're cutting sure the public defenders came in and said hey we got some kid I don't care we're cutting sure and so you've got you know then you have friends like my good friend Al that you know they know this stuff on the inside and the poor head of the public defender who was appointed by the governor is coming to committee in the committee saying you need more money the guy's going on the ladies going on no I really don't need more money yeah we don't need more money let's check out some bond issues and let's have the guys over at rob and Matt handle that for us Rob let's talk about that geobahn Matt between the decided whether or not to fund a little bit extra money for higher education looks like the folks

in Bernalio County and across the across the state like it 61 to 38 yeah this the one that failed before actually but I think this time they're really aggressively pushed there's not going to be any taxes yeah it's not going to be anything else coming out of your pocket book but this is going to help the crumbling infrastructure and some of our universities yeah for some of the fiscal conservatives out there they weren't crazy about this because they think that the the state has already spent enough money on higher education some of that money has kind of gone down the drain but I think the the big thing on bond C was the fact that it wasn't going to cost any extra money bond B for libraries who's against libraries I guess nobody because it's 62 to 37 they're winning that one handily so that's another bond issue that seems to be going in favor of the of the of the people that were favor of it and then in bond a the senior centers again 63 to 36 and like Dan and the rest of the panel were talking about I think there's there's just a general feeling out there that you know let's go ahead and vote for

something and let's try to see if we can get things better well and then you also know the old saying seniors vote yeah for senior centers if you want if you ever been to those you know they're not exactly the most fun places to be but maybe this will help them build those up a little bit better for right now higher education libraries and senior centers are looking pretty good gene guys are going to stick with you up there for a quick sec what are you seeing as you're doing you're reporting up there on state Senate races what's jumping out Rob let me start with you yeah the thing that jumped out with me is I'm looking at some of the numbers and it looks like even though Mitt Romney has is having a rough night that the Republicans are doing pretty well in the Senate I've got them if the numbers hold I'm looking all across the state the numbers hold the Republicans pick up four seats in the Senate Eric Diego's seat goes to a Republican who's leading right now Mark Morris in that seat that Kent Cravens previously held Cliff Purdle if he hangs on it feeds Tim Jennings Lee Caughters defeating Mary Jane Garcia down in the southern part of the state the Democrats have been able to hold a few

seats and we've got the last last number I saw John Arthur Smith had a rather comfortable lead would 65% of the vote in Republicans held a few other seats as well but I think that the takeaway there is four pickups for the for the Republicans in the Senate of course he talked about the holds there's the one big hold Michael Sanchez looks like he's on his way to victory that's that was the most expensive Senate race ever the most one of the nastiest Senate races we've seen in maybe a maybe ever as well and that's that's the guy that they really wanted to take out so that these other four that's big it's going to make it a little bit closer but Michael Sanchez with 56% of the vote right now versus David Chavis is 44% that's the one they really wanted to get out because he's been a thorn in the side of governor Martinez over these past two years and looks like he's gonna still be a thorn in her side yeah four years I guess if you're looking at from from the governor standpoint she's hitting 500 she she wanted to get Sanchez and Jennings out looks like she's going to get Jennings out and but that Sanchez lead right now seems pretty seems pretty wide so going into tonight the Democrats had a

28-14 lead in the Senate and if the numbers hold that'll drop to 24 to 18 if my math is correct and just like that another hold that they had was the was the Sapien district yeah that's what we think but there's still 150 people online in one precinct in Rio Rancho yeah the last the last number I saw on the Sapien Doyle race was Sapien up 51 49 with 53% of the vote in so that's that can go either way we'll probably see tomorrow on that since we'll be counting votes for quite some time it's true thanks guys we'll check back in with you and just a little bit Lieutenant Governor Diane Dennis is back with us good to see you again let's talk about some bond votes the guys just talked about let's start with bond see that was probably the most well-known one most controversial this was for our higher education places to get some badly needed upgrades on facilities on buildings on all kinds of things and there was a thought in the southern part of the state around cruises that with the problems with Miss Couture the president leaving sort of abruptly that might have an impact on the vote doesn't feel like it at this point what's your

sense of I think that's right I think voters understand that bonds are about infrastructure and they're about buildings and they're about jobs and when bond money comes through that creates jobs I do think there wasn't a campaign against the bonds which in the past when bonds have failed there's been either an undercurrent there really wasn't that this time even though there was some chatter there really wasn't any people needed we want the money back in the economy want that bond money in the economy some news for you Martin Heinrich is speaking right now that can only mean one thing I would think and that's where you're seeing it right there Martin Heinrich at 51% and Heather Wilson at 46% it has tightened up a little bit and we have some more to go here we've got quite a few precincts left to go you still feeling okay about Mr. Heinrich's chances here with this with this kind of spread I do I've always thought this was going to be a tighter race in those polls predicted yeah because there's a shrewd campaigner and and she got a lot of

credit nationally for running a smart campaign but I think the wind is at Martin's back and he'll win this race sure in the bad news of course Whitney for you is that hella did not pull this off and I'm curious not to be presumptive here let's assume for a second that Mr. Heinrich pulls us off just go with it what's next for her after this would you think I mean you're talking about a couple of state-wide ones somebody calling the race president of New Mexico state president of Mexico state you know Heather Wilson can do anything at any point she's a road scholar she's she can do anything that she wants I my assumption would be that she would continue working in the national defense sector you know sector of you know consulting whatever it is but I am not giving up on this race you know everybody at this table is except for them fully I you know I think that there's still a long way to go on the boat count sure no question we've got some precincts out there

Dan certainly people are still voting sure absolutely real rancho and real rancho is going to be I think that I perform better for Heather Wilson than it's a Martin Heinrich so I mean but I don't know if it can make up that number sure it'd be interesting to see where what is still outstanding you know the big winner so far tonight I think has to be governor Martinez I mean two of the three Senate Democrat leaders are gone she beat two of them she beat Tim Jennings she beat Mary Helen Garza Mary Jane Garcia both of them look like they're gonna be gone so you know I think that I think the message going forward from here is you know what I think is good for governor Martinez is she didn't play any backroom games she put her name on everything she mailed she went out in campaign she openly took ownership of this stuff you know she went seven for eight in the primaries and she supported five Democrats they won you know now it looks like two of the three leaders in the the Democrats in the Senate are going to be gone and as I said before in the show and I think lieutenant governor I don't know if she'd agree with me or not the only thing elected officials hate worse than bad press is a well-funded opponent I mean that's

you hate that and if you've got someone like Susanna Martinez raising the money she's raising keep in mind over the years what has been a huge escalator besides the voting difference for Democrats has been the national union money that comes to New Mexico not a penny of it helps Republicans this election cycle Susanna Martinez was able to low level the playing field and I think that really puts her in a strong position I think that folks are going to come back sure Michael Sanchez is going to be emboldened some might say by winning but I think he's also had to work quite a bit I'm not sure that he wants to do that I also think we're going to take a quick look you just out the same time we did that's why he stopped Senate nine we're getting some information from some poll watchers down there about 150 folks at the Pustadale Soul location still in line but as it stands currently there you see at John Sapien the Democrat at 52% and David Doyle at 48% of I remember this correctly I see it as early as early an absentee we may have some actual numbers in there as well from this evening but something let me start with you

irregardless if things are tightening up a little bit for Mr. Sapien is that still okay is he still no one I mean is it anticipated to finish tight you know I don't think that's surprising I think that's surprising I guess this this number that we just saw is a little bit confusing we don't know that would be like 30,000 people voting in that race I'm not sure that's yeah I'm so let's I'm sure we'll see an update on that I I wanted to throw in here when we talk about the packs and the money that's coming in just briefly governor Martinez the pack that she had spent 1.4 million last last month as of last month Patriot majority New Mexico which is sort of the more progressive union aligned spent 1.3 it's been a phenomenal amount of money that come out of the packs both from the governor and the other side and bullsides love to complain about how toxic that is bullsides hate it and they both absolutely let's take a look let's go look at some more fifth-set at district 15 Daniel

Ivy Soto we've been tracking all night at 52% and the income of Diane Snyder of the public and 42 I'm sorry 48% as we see it here Lieutenant Governor we talked spoke a little bit earlier about this particular race in Miss Snyder specifically but is there something in her district that tells you that this is going to be okay for her by the end of it all or is this a problem point here and when you have a spread this like this well I think Daniel Ivy Soto is going to be the senator but you know this was a resignation from a Democrat and then a very slim margin 14 to 13 decided who the Democratic candidate would be but then Daniel Ivy Soto got out there and worked and walked and and I'm not sure I would just say I'm not sure that Diane Snyder's heart was in it this time to come back and really work hard to win this race that's a real thing isn't it yeah so even though she was probably the most logical Republican candidate I think that that that was probably a problem in terms of

enthusiasm for own personal enthusiasm to get out there and work on with me is this another case of not having up ticket energy you mentioned earlier some races no Romney appearances know this you know I mean is this one of those situations yeah yeah a little familiar with the race and it seems like both candidates did your sort of average job I you know maybe they both you know say they worked really really hard I don't I mean you didn't have the kind of advertising that you did like in the Sanchez Chavez race it was more of an average type Senate race I would call it both think that they did a good job both probably worked equally as hard both had about as much exposure it's a you know it's a pretty pretty close district and to that spread if it remains that way because we don't know how many precincts are reporting if it remains that way I would say that that's a result to turn out yeah and I think it's a little bit because of the minimum wage this is a very blue collar district that that they're running in and I've been in that district before and and it's a blue collar district so I think the minimum wage vote actually

probably help Daniel obviously an interesting pick up here I appreciate that by the way I should let the viewers know and all you guys here at the table that Secretary of State's office is not updating us or anybody at this point on percentages of precincts so we're flying just a little bit blind here so we apologize let's go to House District 7 down in Valencia County Andrew Barreras they're hanging in there at 50% Kelly for Hardo 50% you know two vote difference whatever the case may be whether we that's updated or not we're not sure Dan Daniel Foley your sense of this one for the Republican where's where's the opportunity as they say well you know Andrew Barreras I serve to them he's a great guy nice guy but had some serious baggage I thought that they did a great job of tying him to Governor Richardson they did a great job of pointing out that they you know they claim that he got the sweetheart deal on Elise you know he he's had some issues in the past Kelly for Hardo is a rising star on the Republican Party she attended the Heritage Foundation all five or six of their candidate schools over the course of time I mean she's she's definitely on the on the rise there you know she's she's out

performing you know what she should be doing in that district I think was very interesting as we talked earlier is if you look at what's going on take away Michael Sanchez we talked about this at the table earlier you got to take Michael Sanchez away because what you had was two people running with records and so it kind of muddies the water for the voters but I think it's interesting it looks like Valencia County could wind up with Michael Sanchez serving with a bunch of Republicans or Michael Sanchez and maybe one House D Vicki Paray is winning pretty big Alonzo Baldonato is winning big so I think it's going to be interesting to see how this is gonna work out as as Valencia County sure we've talked about it's it really is sort of ground zero for New Mexico because that there's a lot of growth happening there that's going to help persuade help move some of that vote up into the Albuquerque area it it really speaks I think well for Republicans how Kelly and everybody's doing down there sure let's flash back to what you saw on your screen a second ago that was House District eight we've got some results coming in now of course we've had them all night Alonzo Baldonato the Republican 52% in Franco-Tiro the Democratic 47%

47% Rob Nicolaski I'd love to get your thoughts on this one yeah Alonzo Baldonato I was talking to a Democrat who probably prefers to be a name but who was saying telling me yesterday that this might be a race to watch Baldonato is the incumbent and this Democrat said Franco-Tiro might give him a run for his money seems to be doing that right now but I think Baldonato might be able to hang on in that district race but just glancing since last time I talked to you glancing at some of the numbers it's amazing how many races are just right down the middle 50-50 Kelly for Hardow against Andrew Bararras in in District seven Emily Cain Chris I'll say it was 51-49 according to the latest numbers Marcy Blaze and Paul Pachico 50-50 as well Terry McMillan and Joanne Ferrari the last numbers I saw there was a 23 vote difference there Conrad James is losing to Elizabeth Thompson 51-49 there's one two three four five six

six races I count it's either 50-50 or 51-49 and we all know what that means recounts because if it's then a half percent then we could see a lot of recounts coming here and we might not know who controls the house for a couple days a couple weeks even I know which and that as I said at the very beginning of our broadcast at seven o'clock that that does not surprise me in the least I'll remind you Rob you said long before seven o'clock you said two or three weeks ago some of these races at least yeah eight or ten of them we're gonna go right down to the wide yeah you could cover a blanket over them and that's the that's the odd thing we're going to tonight 36 Democrats 33 Republicans won independent and the range is so vast where you know on the Democrat side if you win the five coin flips and which essentially which is it looks like it's coming down to you could pick up you can go from 36 to 41

if you're the Republicans and you win the five coin flips you could conceivably go from 33 to 38 so you know the range is is is is remarkable and I wouldn't be at all surprised if if we just don't know by tomorrow morning who's got control of the house that's a very good point let's take a look at a house district 36 right from top to bottom Andy Nunez the independent the person that is you know when you think about the legislature is so impactful that independent seat at at 22% Philip Archie let a 41% the Democrat and Mike Mark Telez Republican at 37% Whitney when I asked you about this the last time we were looking let's take a look at district 37 as as we're seeing it Terry Macmillan Robert mentioned the Republican at 50% and there's that split again the Ferrari at eight votes difference 50% that's I mean that's Lieutenant Governor we were kind of musing over here that's within the trigger so to speak right I can't remember the trigger half a percent is that a half a percent is the automatic trigger so we're seeing a lot of

those races absolutely that are a half a percent but then made the point that Michael was going to be serving he's already serving with a bunch of Republicans Alonzo Balanado and David Chavez it's not going to be so different from him but but it is a bell whether it's an interesting showing an interesting split in the vote down there and who people support if Andrew prevails you know it'll be a pick that for the day you're surprised particularly by Andrew's performance tonight is there something you're expecting a little better than just kind of hanging in there at 50%. I'm not at all surprised because Kelly is she's a rising star in the Republican side and and it's a redistricting it has had an impact on a lot of these races but Andrew didn't have a lot of umph behind him on any particular policy issue so I don't think I'm not at all surprised it's a very close race. Sure let's take a look at House District 38 that Diane Hamilton Republican at 49% and just as Rob mentioned there's a closeness here 22 vote difference with Terry Fortenbury at the Democrat at

50% you know Whitney when you think about this and I can't help but think in the echo of what you've been saying all night is that for Republicans this late in the game to be hanging in there anything could happen at this point if you are you confident in some of these races what you're seeing. I'm amazed at the difference in in the districts the ones that I would have thought in certain cases would have been safer and I wonder if Representative Hamilton kind of falls into the mix of Conrad James and Nate Gentry which maybe we took him for granted a little bit maybe the Republicans took him for granted but then again I would say that by the look of the the Clemente Sanchez and Vicki Perez Senate race I think maybe the Democrats took Clemente Sanchez's race for granted because I don't think that there was a whole lot of activity in that particular race so you know again I was looking at the returns on the Nunez race and it looks like the vote count is still fairly low so I'm guessing there's still quite a bit of votes that are out and unfortunately we don't know because the state hasn't put that up yet but soon soon hopefully soon so for your thoughts again on the closeness of all these races who should be nervous

who should be happy. Okay so wait the most exciting thing if you ask me about close races in New Mexico is that if there is literally a tie it is decided by a game of chance so yeah cutting of cards dice maybe yeah flip of a cool rock paper scissors. I love that and so I'm really pulling for some of these 50-50s to come down. I'll hold you there. I want to get some last words before you get out of here on anything that you're seeing are you seeing a trend of something here for Democrats statewide that feels good in your goal. In the first CD I think we're we're solidifying the first CD the minimum wage vote I think is incredible. The election of Michelle Longrisham the vote for Martin Heinrich but it just reinforces that money can't buy you love. Some of these races that are changing had no money at all in them. Some some people won some people lost. New Mexicans like to shuffle the deck. I disagree with Whitney on term limits. These are the term limits they're happening

tonight and that's what voters do. Interesting thank you for coming. You bet. Really appreciate when you come down and spend some time with. Yeah good to see you. Thank you. We're gonna we're gonna talk about some more catch up on some more races here and 20 so let's go to 27 and then we'll do 29 after that we'll see what's going on there. So Senate District 27 Michael sent 29 for excuse me Michael Sanchez at the number you see there 55% David Chavez at 44% Dan your initial thought when you see that number. Not that big of a surprise it's really not I mean I you know Michael Sanchez has been a long standing member of that community so as David Chavez they both have a history. I think I think what this is telling you is that if you're gonna take on a big time incumbent find a young person. I disagreed with Lieutenant Governor when she says Purdles 27 years old I was 28 when I got elected. Right. You know I don't think that just because your your older makes you smarter. Sure. In some cases it hurts. Some people tell you that I've got a camera. It's gone on. I think you know you you asked Lieutenant Governor before she left sure what the trends are. Right. I would tell you it seems you know and this

is you know I'm probably gonna hear from my Republican colleagues when I say this looks like Republicans nationally aren't like we look at the higher office in New Mexico they're voting for the D's but then it translates down to the state offices you look at the way the votes are set up legislature things like that it's so much closer than everything else is and I think you know it seems to me again and I'm not just shooting her horn but I think this is kudos to the governor. I think that the governor's been able to change the message into Mexico for legislative races and people in Mexico are buying that story they're not buying it for Congress they're not buying it for the U.S. Senate they're not buying it for president but they're buying it for House and Senate races and I think it just makes this governor stronger going into the next session sure let's take a look at Senate 35 down in John Arthur Smith territory and that is the bump I think a lot of folks were anticipating that there are friends in Las Cruces told us we were interviewing them as well there is a 68% in Russell Allen at 31% Al Park is back with us and checking things over on his smartphone getting the latest word as they say still using a black

burry but that's okay that's okay if you were high billing clients at the law firm John Arthur Smith looks like he's doing pretty well and not unanticipated certainly but in the scheme of things we talked earlier about his expertise the things that are used in his committee you know the things he brings to media in fact when he explains in a camera his position on things on financial issues he does it with clarity he does it with forcefulness sometimes those things can mean something after a while so but since there you know I mean John John Smith is bar none one of the top five legislators we've got in the state regardless of political affiliation I think he represents his district very very well I think he's reflective of that community socially tolerant but very fiscally conservative and I think he has carved himself out a niche in the state legislature he's one of those people when John speaks people listen and

I mean he's a voice that is trusted with respect to the budget he's very conservative he's the first guy that's going to tell you we've been having tough times we've got a nice little surplus let's hold little something reserved let's put something in the bank and make sure that we're not just going out and he almost talks like the the patrician father of a household saying to the family let's let's slow down on the money that kind of things you know he's done a very good job also let's talk about he you know he's you know I'll hold you there because I do want to the viewers are looking at the numbers we're looking at here and that's in a district thirty-six that marriage anger see a race about 46 percent for her she is the incumbent Democrat Lee Carter 54 percent that's a pretty pretty interesting mix there now as the numbers as we have them we have to say again the Secretary of State's office is not giving us the updated percentages on precincts it could be a lot more than that they can't be third they can't be that can't be 30 percent of them precincts reported it's almost all of them that's right that's right you know I but I think what what John Arthur Smith has also done a very

good job of he he has he's very astute politically when a lot of people in the Senate were taken on Susanna Martinez John Arthur Smith hasn't taken around so matter of fact John Arthur Smith has been in a lot of ribbon cuttings and a lot of bill signings with Susanna Martinez so you know where I think the Jennings and the Sanchez is of the world the Mary Jane Garcia is I mean remember the whole problem Mary Jane Garcia she was in favor of a bill and she got invited to a press conference and then spring it on the governor of the press conference I'm not for the bill anymore it was a snafu on all levels but I think that one of the other things that that John Arthur Smith has done you know he's from down in that area you know Beth Susanna Martinez still has very high favorables in the Las Cruces Deming Lordsburg area she's a home girl and he hasn't ruffled her feathers he's done a good job of working with her of not really going after her in public and I think that the message that's gonna come back that I think a lot of these are gonna see is again you know you can still vote the way you want to vote you can still do the things you want to do just don't pick a fight with

her sure sure let's check out Senate 37 see what's going on there that you see it of well as us the Democrat William I always get his last name pronounced souls souls I hear it's so many different ways in Kathy Joel Albertson at 48% there interesting Whitney your thoughts there for Kathy Joel Albertson it's interesting that's that's close we don't again we don't know the percentages we don't know the precincts reporting a little bit raw for us right here but your initial thought I don't know a lot of what went on specifically in that campaign I think that there was a lot of messaging that went on you know I I still think that it's gonna close a little bit more sure but it probably was not one of the more likely of the Republican pickups what was that as a performance performing district I don't recall the top let me look okay interesting yes you know let me disagree with Whitney for just a second this is one way guys that was with 77% reporting so this is one of the seats the Republicans were banking on picking up in the state Senate I mean this is a

seat that used to be held by Senator Rossin Senator Fishman held it for one term one term only the Senate the Republicans were looking to pick up three four or five seats they're gonna clearly pick up the Mark Morris seat did I get the seat wrong no no so you know more about what the Republicans are doing because we hoped we could win the seat and it was a 50-50 seat and and and what the the the voter turnout I mean you look at the mid you look at the McCain's you look at the pierces this is a district where Pierce performed at 42.46 percent I mean so I'm not sure the Republicans are running out they're saying we got the seat in the bag I mean what I really mean to say is that this is one of the seats that they were counting on to try to increase you know their numbers and to bring a little more equality into the state they might have been they might have been hopeful in there but I I still think that most of the money that came in independent expenditures ended up going to try to defend our hold that we already had on our house seats there was not I mean we were trying to make