April 21, 2021
Three candidates running in the race to fill the 1st Congressional district vacancy fielded questions on Tuesday night in the election’s first public forum. The New Mexico Black Voters Collaborative organized and moderated the forum, which took place just hours after a Minnesota jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd.
Democratic candidate and current state Representative Melanie Stansbury, Libertarian candidate Chris Manning and independent candidate and former state Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn took part in the forum. Republican candidate and current state Senator Mark Moores was notably absent from the forum. According to a press release from the Black Voters Collaborative prior to the forum, Moores originally agreed to participate but later withdrew.
A New Mexico state district judge ruled on Thursday that a Libertarian candidate for Congress will remain on the ballot for the June 1 special election to fill a 1st Congressional District vacancy.
Santa Fe judge Glenn Ellington ruled from the bench that claims challenging the validity of the Libertarian Party of New Mexico’s major party status were not sufficient enough to remove the party’s candidate from a special election ballot.
Chris Manning is the state’s Libertarian Party nominee for the special congressional election to fill the vacant seat after former congresswoman Deb Halaand was confirmed as U.S. Secretary of Interior. Ginger Grider and James Clayton, both members of the Libertarian Party of New Mexico filed a legal challenge, arguing that the Libertarian Party should not have been granted major party status and that the party broke its own rules by nominating Manning.
Zachary Gutierrez
SANTA FE The 2018 case of a teenager accused of fatally shooting a Michigan man ended in a mistrial Tuesday morning shortly after the trial began.
First Judicial District Judge Glenn Ellington declared a mistrial during opening arguments due to “manifest necessity” in order to protect the Constitutional rights of a key witness in the case, who is facing federal charges in another case.
The defendant, Zachary Gutierrez, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, is facing charges of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence for allegedly killing 64-year-old Richard Milan of Kalamazoo, Michigan. In September 2018, Milan was walking his dog on Airport Road near Lucia Lane when he came upon a group of teenagers and was allegedly shot by Gutierrez after an argument.