Kanye West no factor in New Mexico; new Rep. Tara Lujan faces old criticism

“Mr. West missed the deadline to be placed on New Mexico’s General Election ballot,” said Alex Curtas, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office.

Too bad for West. He had solid credentials as the ultimate political outsider. At 43, he says he’s never voted.

West, though, claimed he was emotionally involved in the 2016 presidential election. He wore one of those red caps to show his moral support for Republican Donald Trump.

Now West says he’s abandoned Trump in hopes of taking the presidency for himself.

Along with Trump and Biden, three other candidates for president have qualified for New Mexico’s November ballot.

Jade Simmons is running as an independent. Sheila “Samm” Tittle is the Constitution Party’s nominee in New Mexico, but it has a different candidate in other states.

The final presidential candidate in New Mexico is Libertarian Jo Jorgensen. She has a tough act to follow.

Gary Johnson, who was a two-term governor of New Mexico as a Republican, was the Libertarian presidential candidate in 2012 and 2016. Johnson in the last presidential election received 75,000 votes in New Mexico, or more than 9 percent.

Though he finished a distant third behind Democrat Hillary Clinton and Trump, Johnson’s vote total gave Libertarians major-party status in the state.

As for West and his Birthday Party, it will be a while before voters in New Mexico hear more from them. A long while, I hope.

New Democratic state Rep. Tara Lujan is a smoother navigator of political waters than West.

In the midst of a controversy over where she lives, Lujan was sworn in last week as the representative in House District 48 in Santa Fe. The county commissioners appointed Lujan on a 4-1 vote.

Lujan’s critics, operating anonymously through emails, then said she doesn’t live in the district she represents.

Lujan, 47, told me she and her 6-year-old daughter live with her parents. Their house is in District 48.

Lujan’s driver’s license and voter registration record list her address as her parents’ house.

Her foes at different times have said she lives in Albuquerque or in Santa Fe’s House District 45, where she was registered to vote earlier this year. Lujan’s husband is still a registered voter in District 45.

No one has brought a formal complaint about Lujan’s residency to the New Mexico Democratic Party or the Secretary of State’s Office.

Members of the state Democratic Party Central Committee who live in District 48 will meet Aug. 15 to select a candidate for the House seat Lujan holds. Committee members will choose the Democratic nominee for the November election.

Brian Egolf, speaker of the state House of Representatives, said he expects Lujan to receive the party’s nomination.

She was solid on Democratic Party positions in her interview for the appointment, said Egolf, D-Santa Fe.

I asked Egolf about Lujan’s residency. He said he was satisfied she lives in District 48.

“She also meets the residency requirements under a state Supreme Court decision,” said Egolf, an attorney.

The case he cited was a 1990 decision in which the Supreme Court affirmed the election of Democrat Raymond M. Chavez as a Santa Fe County commissioner.

Republican Mel Apodaca said Chavez actually lived in Rio Arriba County. Chavez said he owned a house in Rio Arriba County, but his legal residence was his parents’ house. The two homes were next door to one another, but his parents’ house was on the Santa Fe County side of the line.

If Lujan receives the Democratic nomination next week, she would be assured of winning a two-year term as a state representative. Republicans, who often wave a white flag of surrender in Santa Fe legislative elections, didn’t field a candidate in District 48.

Lujan told me her residency shouldn’t be an issue.

“I live in Santa Fe and in the district,” she said.

So far, she’s convinced the powers that be. To be seen is whether any of her critics will come out from behind their computer screens to try to make a case against her.