Walt Rubel Commentary: Did partisan politics influence Dow decision?

There are two positions on this year’s ballot that I don’t think should be selected by the voters, judges and election officials.

Dona Ana County voters will choose between Isabel Jerabek and Dania Gardea in the Democratic primary to replace Rebecca Duffin as the Division 4 judge. I doubt if most voters have ever heard of any of those three people.

The more interesting race is in San Juan County, where Democrat Brenna Clani-Washinawator will face Republican Brian Decker. I know the difference between a Republican and Democratic legislator, but I’m not sure what role party politics plays in interpreting the law.

Instead of running for office, I’d like to see the best and brightest attorneys appointed to be judges by their peers. 

The same is true for election officials, where the need to distance the job from party politics is even greater. When election officials act in a way that clearly benefits their party, it raises suspicion.

Take the recent decision to remove Republican candidate Rebecca Dow from the ballot in the race for state House District 38.

Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, argued that Dow should be removed from the ballot because she had submitted screenshots of the signatures of district residents needed to qualify instead of the actual paperwork. 

Earlier this month, the state Supreme Court voted unanimously to overturn a ruling by the district court in Las Cruces to remove Dow from the ballot. After the verdict, Dow predictably alleged that politics had influenced the original decision to have her removed.

“The party in power, when they can not win a seat they feel entitled to … are looking at technicalities to remove a candidate,” Dow told the Albuquerque Journal.

In describing the decision to remove Dow, Justice David K Thompson said, “it just seems like a gotcha.”

The question that none of us can answer with certainty is, would Toulouse Oliver have made the same decision if the screenshots had been submitted by a Democrat and the objection raised by a Republican. But it is fair to say that she and other Democratic secretaries of state have argued for leniency in the past when it comes to accepting absentee ballots with omissions or errors.

You can’t be an umpire and a player in the same game. And, you can’t referee the game while wearing the uniform of one of the teams. As long as we have a partisan process for fulfilling the bureaucratic duties of conducting elections, there will always be doubt and suspicion.

In Hawaii and Ohio, elections are overseen by boards with an equal number of members from both parties, and an unaffiliated member to break ties if needed.  We should consider something like that.

District 38 is a rarity in New Mexico politics, a competitive seat where candidates from both parties have a fighting chance. I think that’s a good thing. Of the 70 House districts, only 32 of them have candidates representing both parties. More than half of the state’s voters, including me, live in districts where we won’t have a choice on election day.

Dow will be challenged by write-in candidate David Mooney in the general election. Both will now have to make their case to the voters, who will get to render the final decision. Just as intended.


Walt Rubel can be reached at [email protected]

Listen​ to the audio version