Let the Political Season Begin--For Those Who are Paying Attention!

The Albuquerque Journal today started its serious coverage of the 2006 Primary Elections with a line up of possible candidates for state office. Really, the only people interested in this stuff right now are the prospective candidates and their supporters. Certainly, some folks are thinking a little about the Governor's race, and maybe the contests for Senate and House seats. There are political junkies that are very involved and lots of bloggers are starting to pay attention to this political season. Overall however, most of the statewide races will be ignored until the last two weeks before the Primary Election on June 6th. There are too many things on the regular voters plates right now to think about this stuff. About the only thing candidates can do for these offices right now is to get around the state a little bit and prepare for the pre primary nominating conventions in March. That is where the party faithful will vote for their favorites and put the one with the most delegate votes in the number one ballot position. That used to mean something on the old style mechanical voting machines but I personally don't think ballot position means much on the new generation of electronic voting machines.

Candidates must also now be getting nominating signatures in order to get on the ballot. About 4,000 signatures are needed and for the most part the majority of those will be obtained by professional signature gatherers.

Ahem, just so you will know I will make a decison by the first of January on whether I will seek the State Land Commissioner Office once again. I have been elected to that office two times and it is a job where you can do some really good things for New Mexico.