Races for the State Supreme Court are usually low-key affairs with the contenders touting their judicial resumes, but a top NM legal source tells "New Mexico Politics With Joe Monahan" there could be some mud thrown on those black robes this year. This week the state Republican Party sent out an urgent email asking for volunteers to get petition signatures for Paul Barber for the state Court of Appeals and Ned Fuller for State Supreme Court, but other sources tell me until now both lawyers were seeking support for District Court judgeships. Why the switch? That's the big question.

Our legal beagle says rumors are swirling that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is promising to pump big bucks into the Supreme Court race in an effort to dump Supreme Ed Chavez, who was appointed last year by Big Bill to fill a vacancy on the five member panel. According to our reliable source: "The rumor about the Supreme Court candidate is that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce promised a big chunk of change to take on Chavez, but the candidate has to toe the Chamber line. If the rumor is true you could be looking at our first $1 million NM Supreme Court race."

Our legal beagle says that's what happened in Ohio where millions was spent on negative TV ads by anonymous 'independent' groups to support favored high-court candidates. The Ohio Legislature is now looking at changing state law to force full disclosure. As far as I know, there is no law here against independent groups coming into NM and doing the same.
CHAVEZ
Justice Chavez, an ENMU graduate, was an ABQ trial lawyer before getting the call from Big Bill. Under our system an appointed judge must face one competitive election. If elected, the judge then simply stands for 'retention' where voters say yes or no on the judge. A judge must receive a 57% "yes" vote to be retained. Our legal source says the Court of Appeals seat that Barber is going after is not on the Chamber's rumored hit list, but it's a good bet that Barber, a former GOP state rep., was promised financial support by the GOP to switch races in mid-stream. Fuller is a political unknown and no Republican has been elected to the Supreme Court since the 1980's. But all bets could be off if really big money comes into a Supreme Court contest for the first time in history. Stay tuned.

FOCUS ON THE CAUCUS ON 'IN FOCUS' ON CHANNEL 5

Want some more insight on what happened during Tuesday's NM Prez caucus? Join me on KNME-TV Channel 5 Friday at 8:30 p.m. and again Sunday at 9:00 a.m. as Kate Nelson hosts a roundtable to discuss the 2004 NM campaign.

PARDON ME

In a report this week I said Marc Racicot is chairman of the Republican National Committe. Of course, he is not, but is chair of the President's reelection campaign. Ed Gillespie remains at the helm of the RNC.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2004
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