By Andy Lyman
A New Mexico House district that covers both Cibola and McKinley counties has been without a representative for months, including the first week of the legislative session. Now the two counties are close to nominating the second candidate in a matter of weeks, but like the first nominee, the new frontrunner may face similar accusations about residency.
Democrat Clemente Sanchez, who for nearly a decade represented Senate District 30, scored a nomination Tuesday night from the Cibola County Commission to represent House District 6.
The last person to represent that district was Eliseo Alcon, a Democrat who resigned shortly before he died from liver cancer. Sanchez is now positioning himself to get a nod from the McKinley County Commission and then an appointment from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to represent House District 6.
State voting records show Sanchez changed his voter registration address shortly after Alcon’s resignation. The change moved Sanchez from a different House distict to House District 6.
Sanchez assured NM Political Report that he actually lives in the district.
“I live in Grants, that’s my primary address,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez told NM Political Report that despite his wife, Cibola County Commissioner Georgia Routzen Sanchez, being registered to vote in Acomita, New Mexico — which qualifies her for her position on the commission — he still lives primarily in Grants and the two live in different houses.
“She lives in one [house] and I live in the other,” Sanchez said. “I stay out there a couple days a week, mostly weekends, because we go to Catholic mass out there in Laguna [Pueblo].”
Sanchez confirmed with NM Political Report that his wife abstained from the commission’s vote to nominate him.
New Mexico politicians changing addresses to run for office — and subsequently raising concerns in the court of public opinion — is not new, but the last person to push for a nomination for House District 6 found himself in an investigation over his residency by the New Mexico Department of Justice, at the request of Lujan Grisham.
State law requires that a state legislator must reside in the district which they represent.
Harry Garcia, another former Democratic legislator, got the nod from both McKinley and Cibola counties, but Lujan Grisham rejected his nomination while raising questions about where Garcia actually lived. The governor asked New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez to investigate the matter, which ended with Torrez determining Garcia did in fact not live in House District 6. Lujan Grisham then tasked the two county commissions to try again.
Sanchez is still waiting for McKinley County to make their choice next week, but he said he’s not worried about a potential investigation of his address by Torrez’s office.
“I welcome it,” Sanchez said. “If they want to do it, I mean they can.”
A spokesman for Lujan Grisham said her office will wait to see who McKinley County commissioners pick before even considering where Sanchez lives.
“McKinley County still needs to select their candidate and we will consider what to do with Clemente if/when he is the selection,” spokesman Michael Coleman said in a text message.
Sanchez lost his seat in the Senate during the 2020 Democratic primary election, then lost another Democratic primary last year in a comeback attempt.
Regardless of whether the governor or the attorney general raise questions about where Sanchez lives, he’s not worried and said he’ll readily share his utility bills with them as proof.
“I have no concerns at all,” he said.
Sounds like typical NM politics.
His brother in law made the nomination and in doing so violated the government conduct act. (Entire section on nepotism) Regardless of where Clemente lives he either committed voter fraud when Angel Charley wipe the floor with him or now that is currently committing voter fraud as he fraudulently makes a movida for the house district 6 seat. This commission is making all people lose trust in the process and the Democratic Party.
Also was told that his brother in law was on the commission and did vote for him so this might want to be looked into. He ran in senate district 30 so he obviously wasn’t in Grants when he ran earlier this year.