GOP Playing Election Games? Never …

JUST WHEN I was beginning to settle in with Gov. Susana Martinez’s Republicanism, figuring she wasn’t as ideological as she could be, her Republican secretary of state pitches a hardball whose only apparent purpose is to reap a possible advantage for the GOP in November.

Realizing that 5 percent more Democrats than Republicans voted a straight ticket in the 2010 New Mexico general elections, Diana Duran outlawed straight-ticket voting this fall, seemingly gambling that many Democratleaning voters will not bother to work through the whole ballot to make a selection, thereby negating, at least in some small part, any benefit for the opposition,

The first Republican to hold that office in 80 years, Ms. Duran announced her rationale for the action: It isn’t against the law. No matter that New Mexicans have been able to vote a straight ticket for generations — without breaking any law — Ms. Duran spotted a loophole that might be a possible boost for her party, so she leaped at it.

New Mexico is one of 16 states that has, until last week, allowed straight-ticket voting in one form or another. In New Jersey, it is permitted only in primary elections; in North Carolina, only in general elections. Among those states, there is one that has banned it for this November’s elections: Wisconsin.

Ethics aside, it was a clever move. I wonder if Ms. Duran thought it up by herself or had help from a national organization that may be attempting to build on the principles of Gov. Scott Walker, arguably the most ideological of all reigning state chief executives. Coincidence? Not likely.

KENNETH F. ENGLADE

Rio Rancho

HEALTH