New Mexico’s Jon Barrie started out his quixotic US Senate campaign in the Summer trying to get on the ballot by securing the necessary 6000 signatures (Democrats and Republicans need only 2000). Barrie turned in 10,000+ but was told by the GOP Secretary of State he fell 277 short. She would not allow a timely review to find clerical errors etc. and challenged Barrie to go to court. I don’t think she expected this fledging newcomer to go ahead, but Barrie found a good attorney, sued, and the state Supreme Court sided in his favor. Cost to get on the ballot: $15,000 in legal fees – that was the hole Barrie was in when he started campaigning in early September. By early October polls taken by both his GOP and Democratic opponents showed him pulling 9% of the vote; other surveys had him at 3-4% … the latest poll, by Republican Heather Wilson a few days ago, had Barrie at 3%.
To date, Republican Heather Wilson has spent $6.2 million; her allies threw in another $3.2 million via independent expenditures. Democrat Martin Heinrich has spent $6.5 million and his outside interests friends put in another $2.4 million. Jon Barrie raised and spent about $15,000 (NB: he’s still around $11,000 in the red from up front legal fees).
Today, the voter turnout is expected to be in the 800,000 range. The establishment parties are buying the election to the tune of $20 a vote.
Heather lost the race by about five percent while Jon pulled about 3.62 percent. Short summary – Jon took a chunk out of Heather’s ass. Hopefully this race will be the death of Heather’s career in public offices.
I fully expect the McCleskey Machine to retaliate against Jon and the IAP-NM at some point using the legal system.