Lawsuit could boot GOP candidate

Challenge to petition would leave incumbent unopposed

A last-minute lawsuit charges that the Republican candidate for state treasurer did not get enough signatures for a spot on the ballot, alleging some of the people who signed his nominating petition do not appear to be registered to vote.

The complaint filed in state District Court by a lawyer who has worked for the New Mexico Democratic Party has left the GOP candidate and selfdescribed electoral neophyte, Arthur Castillo, thinking very seriously about dropping out of the race rather than pay for a lawyer to fight the case.

That in turn would cede the statewide contest to the otherwise unopposed Democratic incumbent, Tim Eichenberg.

“It has put me between a rock and a hard place,” Castillo said on Tuesday. He did not dispute some of the signatures might be invalid but lamented the prospect that the sitting treasurer might not have any competition in his campaign for re-election.

“If I drop out, there’s no opposition,” Castillo said.

State law requires GOP candidates for treasurer to get nominating signatures from at least 1,228 voters registered as Republicans — 2 percent of the votes cast in the party’s 2014 primary election for governor.

Castillo was the only Republican to file for the race.

On filing day, Feb. 6, Castillo submitted what the complaint describes as “1,447 lines of signatures or other information.”

That would seem to be plenty. But the complaint says 192 signatures are invalid.

Filed Friday on behalf of two voters in Albuquerque and one in Santa Fe, the lawsuit by Santa Fe lawyer Gretchen Elsner charges some of the names on Castillo’s nominating petitions are not registered Republicans. That means they would not be eligible to nominate him.

Other names do not appear in the state’s voter registry at all, the complaint says.

Some are duplicates, appearing twice on different pages of the petition.

Yet more are incomplete, simply illegible or possible forgeries, the complaint says.

Castillo on Tuesday defended his signatures while also conceding that some of those who signed his petition might be registered as Democrats or independents.

Asked whether he might have a chance to stay in the race if he can just keep a judge from disqualifying all but 33 signatures, Castillo suggested he might not even take the case that far.

“I’m seriously considering dropping out because I can’t afford attorneys and I don’t want to deal with this anymore,” he said.

Castillo, of Albuquerque, formerly worked as the chief financial officer of the State Treasurer’s Office. Now 68, he is retired.

In his campaign announcement in January, Castillo said there is now “an embarrassing lack of transparency” at the office.

But he said this is also his first time running for elected office and comes only after switching parties to Republican, describing the Democrats as having abandoned conservatives like him.

The challenge is another potential blow to the state Republican Party, which has struggled to recruit candidates to run statewide this year as observers anticipate a Democratic wave with the departure of GOP Gov. Susana Martinez and a backlash against President Donald Trump.

Elsner did not respond to a voicemail message on Tuesday. She has represented the state Democratic Party in other cases. But the party said Tuesday it is not behind the challenge to Castillo’s signatures.

Regardless, the lawsuit is just the latest example of an election-year tradition in New Mexico: disqualifying nominating petition signatures to knock a political opponent off the ballot.

In 2014, for example, Conservation Voters of New Mexico bankrolled a lawsuit to disqualify a Democratic state senator from Crownpoint who had repeatedly sided with Republicans. The challenge worked and a court disqualified Sandra Jeff from the election. She is now running for Secretary of State as a Libertarian.

Voters had until the end of Friday to challenge nominating petitions filed for the June 5 primary election.

The challenge to Castillo’s signatures was filed late that afternoon, according to court records.

Assigned to state district Judge David K. Thomson, the court has until Feb. 26 to hold a hearing and hand down a decision on the disputed signatures.