Adams, Muñoz, Johnson engaged in District 4 state Senate race
Kurtis Donisthorpe, the assistant district attorney in San Juan County, told Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, in an April 5 memorandum that “…the Office of the District Attorney has received your request for an investigation regarding potential voter fraud. At this time, our office will begin our investigation into the authenticity of the signatures and upon finding good cause will ask the McKinley County Clerk’s Office to make a determination regarding the signatures’ authenticity. If they are determined to be false, we will ask law enforcement to begin a criminal investigation. If probable cause exists to charge a person of a violation, we will do so.”
Donisthorpe’s correspondence comes about three weeks after Muñoz sent an initial heads-up letter to the district attorneys of McKinley, Cibola and San Juan counties. In that letter, Muñoz called at least 26 signatures on a petition form submitted by challenger and political newcomer Felisha Adams to the New Mexico Secretary of State “questionable.”
A private investigator was subsequently hired by Muñoz to further look into the situation. Candidates running for Senate in New Mexico are required to submit 135 signatures to the Secretary of State.
“Honesty and integrity and fairness are necessary when running for an elected office,” Muñoz told the Gallup Sun this week. “I think that is important.”
Muñoz said one of the signatures on Adams’ list appeared to be way out of the ordinary. He said it was done by a mentally challenged person who has a caretaker. He did not provide the name of the signee nor caretaker in question.
Muñoz, Adams and Jordan Johnson of Vanderwagen are running for the New Mexico District 4 seat, which Munoz, the son of a former Gallup mayor, has held since 2009. The district includes McKinley and Cibola counties.
Donisthorpe copied Secretary of State Brad Winter, Attorney General Hector Balderas, McKinley County District Attorney Karl Gilson, Cibola County District Attorney Lemuel Martinez, Farmington District Attorney Robert Tedrow, San Juan County Clerk Debbie Holmes and McKinley County Clerk Harriett Becenti in the two-page correspondence.
Adams, of Iynabito, a senior business and economics student at Diné College, has called the questionable petition allegations by Muñoz “a swing for no apparent reason.” She has said that she has amassed more than 500 petition signatures.
She said April 26 that Donisthorpe called her about a week ago and drilled her about the names on the petition list. She also said she has heard from people in the community that the state police have been going door-to-door throughout the district in an attempt to match signatures.
“I think he’s trying to intimidate me and the voters,” Adams, 29, said of Muñoz. “Intimidation is not the right thing to do. This is clearly a case of voter intimidation.”
A state primary is set for June 7 and the general election is Nov. 8.
By Bernie Dotson
Sun Correspondent
