The candidate is IN THE BUILDING!

It seems that you can’t go 100 feet without tripping over a new Democratic candidate for Congress here in Northern New Mexico. So I probably shouldn’t have been all that surprised last week when I was taking a routine look at Federal Election Commission filings and saw a declaration of candidacy from a woman running for the open seat in the 3rd Congressional District. Her campaign committee’s address was 202 E. Marcy St. — the same address of the Santa Fe New Mexican.

The same address at which I was sitting at the time.

While I’m very familiar with the address, I wasn’t aware of the candidate, Jaymeson Pegue. A quick Google search told me she’s a lawyer whose law firm, Pegue & Thompson, is listed at the Marcy Street address.

I told an editor, “I’m going to get to the bottom of this even if I have to go clear to the other side of the building to do it!”

I noticed that the declaration was in early May and that Pegue hadn’t filed a required campaign finance report in mid-July, so I had to wonder whether she was committed to running. The list for CD3 on the FEC website includes a couple of invisible candidates who filed declarations months ago but haven’t reported any contributions or expenses. (Two candidates, Democrat Laura Montoya and Republican Audra Lee Brown, filed after the June 30 cutoff for the most recent reporting period.)

I went downstairs to find Pegue but learned the candidate wasn’t literally in the building, at least not on Wednesday. She was in California conducting depositions. But in a phone interview, when I asked if she’s really running, Pegue said, “Probably not.” She said professional obligations — a “large lawsuit in Missouri” to be exact — likely will put an end to her campaign before it even starts.

If any other co-workers or tenants of 202 E. Marcy St. decide to run for office, please drop by my desk and let me know.