Dunn family likes to run for office

SANTA FE — It looks like a quorum of the Dunn family is running for office this year. Robin Dunn — a cattle rancher and businesswoman from Mountainair — filed the paperwork Tuesday to run as a write-in candidate for lieutenant governor.

She is the wife of Aubrey Dunn, the state land commissioner and a candidate for the U.S. Senate, and the mother of Blair Dunn, a lawyer who’s running for attorney general. All three are Libertarians.

But Blair Dunn assures me that at least two family members are sitting the election cycle out. He has a brother and a sister who aren’t running.

Robin Dunn is a former member of the Cloudcroft school board, Blair Dunn said.

She’s part of a Libertarian ticket that also includes gubernatorial candidate Bob Walsh, a retired Sandia National Laboratories employee. He is a write-in candidate, too.

Altogether, five people filed as write-in candidates this year: Democrat Jesse Andrew Heitner in the 1st Congressional District, Democrat Cameron Alton Chick Senior of Belen for a state House seat, and Democrat Michael Baltes for magistrate judge in De Baca County. COMPETITIVE: Republicans have represented New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District — the southern half of the state, essentially — for all but two years since 1981.

But national experts say this year’s race is growing more competitive.

The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan newsletter, moved the district into the “lean Republican” category rather than “likely Republican” earlier this month.

That means the race is competitive but the GOP has an advantage.

The change comes as the political environment looks more favorable for Democrats.

Last week, a Democrat in southwestern Pennsylvania, Conor Lamb, declared victory in a congressional district that President Trump won by 20 percentage points in 2016.

The 2nd Congressional District, meanwhile, is wide open this year because the Republican incumbent, Steve Pearce, is running for governor rather than seeking re-election.