The Primary Race for Governor: Republican Edition

It’s primary election season and here at New Mexico in Focus, that means candidate interviews — lots of them. 

This week, our plan was to interview the three Republicans running to replace Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is termed out. Things were going along just duckie until Greg Hull — the former longtime mayor of Rio Rancho and frontrunner for his party’s nomination, according to the most recent public polling — cancelled on us. (Hull has since rescheduled, and we intend to feature him next week alongside Democratic hopefuls Sam Bregman and Deb Haaland.) 

The best laid plans, indeed. 

We did manage to sit down with Hull’s two GOP opponents: 

Host Nash Jones spent about 20 minutes working through Doug Turner’s platform with the small business owner, charter school advocate and 2010 candidate for governor. And NMiF Politics Correspondent Gwyneth Doland, fresh off her stellar performance moderating the Dukes Up Haaland/Bregman debate last weekend, caught up with cannabis CEO and former state human services secretary Duke Rodriguez. (Be sure to stick around to the end of Gwyneth’s chat with Rodriguez, when he offers a shockingly blunt assessment of his opponents — and himself.) 
And to round out the show, we brought in former Republican Albuquerque city councilor and state representative Greg Payne to help us handicap the GOP primary race. We’re grateful to Greg for stepping up and helping us fill the show after Hull bailed.

And a quick reminder that, as we bring you these candidate interviews, early voting began Tuesday at county clerks’ offices. It’ll expand to more locations May 16, ahead of the June 2 primary election. As the state’s first-ever “semi-open primary,” independent or unaffiliated voters can cast a primary ballot without changing their registration.  

-Jeff Proctor, Executive Producer