Incumbents run away in N.M. election

Posted by Bill Donovan | Nov 6, 2014 | Election 2014 |

GALLUP

Incumbents ruled the elections in McKinley County and in New Mexico Tuesday.

Carol Bowman-Muskett and Genevieve Jackson were both elected to the McKinley County Commission, defeating Edwin Begay and Ray Lancer easily.

Muskett received 2,853 unofficial votes to 1,471 for Begay, her Republican challenger. Jackson received 2,480 votes to 798 for her Republican challenger, Lancer.

Ron Silversmith, the Democratic candidate, won the county sheriff position easily, defeating Republican Clayton Garcia and Michael Lunnon, who ran on the Constitutional Party ticket.

Silversmith received 7,188 votes to 1,502 to Lunnon and 1,421 for Garcia.

Although Susana Martinez won easily in her re-election bid for governor, she lost again in McKinley County as Navajos on the reservation voted heavily for her Democratic opponent, Gary King.

Thanks to a strong Republican vote in Gallup, she ended up with 5,235 votes compared to 5,579 votes for King.

Sandra Jeff scored a little more than two percent of the votes as a write-in candidate in the state representative District 5 race against Democrat Doreen Johnson.

Only about 36.7 percent of the 39,895 registered voters in the county showed up to vote.

While voting turnout was about normal for a general election without a U.S. presidential contest in Gallup, turnout on the reservation was down with election officials thinking that the lack of a presidential contest on the reservation convinced a lot of Navajo voters to stay home.