Watchman on primary ballot
Judge rules there are enough signatures

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — Peter Watchman won a victory Friday, with a district court decision putting him on the ballot for District 9 state representative in the June 3 primary.

Patty Lundstrom, who has held the position since the redistricting in 2003 had challenged Watchman’s right to be on the ballot, claiming that he did not have enough valid signatures to meet the minimum requirement. Watchman had submitted 139 signatures but Lundstron’s analysis of it showed only 47 of them to be valid, 10 short of the number required by law.

Lundstron’s analysis — which was also confirmed by McKinley County Bureau Chief Rick Palochak — showed that all of Watchman’s petitions had “McKinley County” at the top which meant, according to the analysis, that all of the signatures from San Juan County he had gathered did not count.

Watchman’s petitions contained 55 signatures from outside the county and Watchman argued in Thursday’s hearing that many of these people live in the two precincts in San Juan County that were part of District 9.

Lundstrom’s position was that it didn’t matter since the petitions said that all of the people who signed resided in McKinley County.

To comply with state law, Watchman needed to have separate petitions marked “San Juan County” for those outside the McKinley County to sign.

The big question in the hearing before District Judge Louis DePauli was whether he would accept these signatures and on Friday, he said a review of the registered voters for San Juan County revealed that Watchman, in fact, did have enough valid signatures to be on the ballot.

Bob Rosebrough, Lundstrom’s attorney, said he plans to talk to Lundstrom today to see if she wants to file an appeal before the New Mexico Supreme Court.

Under state law, Lundstorm has five days from the date of the ruling too file the appeal. If she does, the supreme court is required to hold an expedited hearing on the matter.