Golden Morper gets state Supreme Court victory
Decision allows GOP candidate in 3rd Congressional District race to appear at preprimary convention
The New Mexico Supreme Court has cleared the way for Anastacia “Anise” Golden Morper of Angel Fire, the top fundraising Republican in the 3rd Congressional District race, to appear at her party’s upcoming preprimary convention.
Last month, the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office disqualified Golden Morper as a candidate for failing to use a legally prescribed petition form to collect voter signatures, and state District Judge Bryan Biedscheid upheld that decision.
But Golden Morper appealed to the state Supreme Court, which ruled 4-1 Thursday to overturn Biedscheid’s decision. The high court ordered the District Court to direct the Secretary of State’s Office to certify Golden Morper as a candidate at the state Republican Party’s preprimary convention Saturday in Albuquerque.
In a statement Friday, the candidate hailed the decision as a victory over a secretary of state she said denied “the First Amendment rights of over 770 signatures on her petitions.” Golden Morper referred to Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver as a “leftist” and called the Democrat’s office a place of “socialists.”
“Today, the law prevailed and in a well-deserved victory,” said Golden Morper, a licensed real estate agent seeking the U.S. House seat being vacated by Rep. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., who is running for the U.S. Senate.
“Anise, the leading Republican candidate, has been fighting the New Mexico Secretary of State for weeks while they have attempted to use every tactic at their disposal to remove her from the Republican ballot,” the statement said.
The pro-gun, anti-abortion candidate previously accused Toulouse Oliver of politicizing her office and argued “the New Mexico establishment” was trying to thwart her congressional bid “because Democrats fear nothing more than a conservative woman in office.”
Toulouse Oliver’s office on Friday called Golden Morper’s claims
“outlandish and baseless” and said election officials only disqualified her because she didn’t follow the “uniform standard in qualifying candidates for office pursuant to state law.”
“Secretary Toulouse Oliver’s top priority is to maintain a uniform application of New Mexico’s election laws, and this case was no exception,” spokesman Alex Curtas said.
“While Secretary Toulouse Oliver is disappointed in the court’s decision, as it has concerning implications for the future uniform administration of the primary election process,” Curtas added, “she of course respects the court’s authority to disagree with her interpretation of her obligations under
the Election Code and will abide by their decision.”
Curtas also said the secretary of state “looks forward to reading” the court’s full opinion to have “clarity from the court about what is and is not permissible with regard to these filing documents.”
At the Republican convention Saturday, delegates will choose which U.S. Senate, House of Representatives and statewide candidates will appear on the ballot for the state’s June 2 primary election. The Democratic Party will hold a separate convention on the same day. Golden Morper was scheduled to speak at the event pending the Supreme Court decision.
Golden Morper has raised about $20,000 in campaign contributions — more than the other four GOP primary candidates vying for the nomination, but still less than the lowest fundraising Democrat in the race, Sandoval County Treasurer Laura Montoya.
Golden Morper’s campaign fundraising total is far less than the more than $1 million raised by Democrat Valerie Plame, a Santa Fe resident and former CIA agent running for the same seat. Other Democrats seeking the congressional seat include Santa Fe attorney Teresa Leger Fernandez, First Judicial District Attorney Marco Serna and former New Mexico Deputy Secretary of State John Blair.
Other Republican candidates include Karen Bedonie, a member of the Navajo Nation who has worked a variety of jobs from construction to food service; Audra Brown, a Portales cattle rancher who said she has a master’s degree in computer science and is “world champion of destruction” (a taekwondo competition); Santa Fe engineer Alexis Johnson; and former Santa Fe County Commissioner Harry Montoya.
At the Republican convention, delegates will choose which U.S. Senate, House of Representatives and statewide candidates will appear on the ballot for the state’s June 2 primary election.