This article was originally published by Source NM.
By Patrick Lohmann, Source NM
Only about 160 Republicans attended in person or via proxy on Saturday to vote to elect a new state party chair, far short of the quorum needed to select a leader ahead of the November general election.
The seat is currently vacant due to a court order that ousted former Republican Party of New Mexico Chair Amy Barela. She is running to reclaim her old seat against Valencia County Republican Party Chair John Brenna and local conservative radio host Brandon Vogt.
But party rules require that two-thirds of party officials hailing from at least 22 of the state’s 33 counties attend meetings to fill leadership vacancies, either in-person or through a delegate, for votes to be official. That means the minimum threshold is 358 party officials.
Stephan VanHorn, a Sandoval County Republican, told Source NM on Tuesday that only 163 Republicans attended the meeting to elect a new chair last Saturday, June 20, in-person or via proxies, at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Museum in Las Cruces. He said the vast majority of attendees came from southern New Mexico counties.
Party rules allow State Central Committee members to call a meeting to fill leadership vacancies, as long as 25 members sign on. VanHorn said he was among the Republicans who called for a meeting this Saturday, June 27, in Belen.
VanHorn said he also felt obligated to attend the Las Cruces meeting as an appointed member of the party’s State Central Committee, though he heard rumblings from fellow committee members in northern New Mexico that they were boycotting the meeting.
The boycott was not unexpected, as party leaders said in a June 14 court filing that they expected most northern New Mexico Republicans to boycott the Las Cruces meeting. They also noted that “certain (non-leadership) factions” of the party had called for the separate meeting June 27 in the Albuquerque metropolitan area, one that they expect will also not achieve the required attendance for a binding vote.
VanHorn, who supports Brenna to take over as chair, said the sparse attendance is the latest example of the north-south divide afflicting the minority party as it seeks to win seats in the November election.
“The faction that is essentially in control now of the party, through the leadership, some of those people there, they’d be interested in joining Texas, right?” he said. “I’m not saying that they’re not patriots. I’m saying that there’s a huge division, and there’s a lot of reasons for it, and what we really need to do as committee members is start talking about this. Let’s try and fix this.”
The Republican Party of New Mexico did not immediately respond to Source NM’s emailed request for comment. RPNM First Vice Chair Mike Nelson has been serving as party chair since Barela’s ouster.
The Democratic Party of New Mexico, in a statement Saturday, touted the failed vote as “indicative of larger problems with the Republican Party of New Mexico.”
“All they do these days is fight each other, and after one embarrassing failure after another, not even enough of them cared enough to show up to the meeting called to replace their state Chair,” DPNM spokesperson Daniel Garcia said in a statement.
RPNM’s attorney Carter Harrison , the RPNM’s attorney, wrote in the June 14 court filing that, if the party continues to fail to achieve a quorum, the court “will likely be called upon to resolve these disputes.”