The New Mexico Business Coalition hosted job interviews for some of the candidates in Dona Ana County.
Candidates had to let voters know why they were the best person for the job.
Republican Secretary of State Candidate Nora Espinoza says the secretary of state’s office can help improve the business climate in New Mexico by processing business licenses quicker.
“If you had a business you want your things expedited,” Espinoza said. “You want it done quickly because your holding up money, I mean your holding up their business, so things need to be done in a very professional manner and expedited.”
Her opponent Democrat Maggie Toulouse Oliver says she could implement a system for business licensing based on what she’s done in the Bernalillo County Clerks Office.
“We’ve done a variety of things in my county clerk office for example,” Toulouse Oliver said. “With the recording and filing division that I think we could model at the Secretary of State’s level, creating an online system for business filings that apply to new filings as well as annual reports, and not just for LLC’s but for corporations of all sizes.”
Republican Judith Nakamura is seeking election to the New Mexico Supreme Court after being appointed to fill a vacancy in 2015. She says one of the biggest problems facing the court is a low budget.
“We have been working very closely with legislators, and the governors office who respect the plight of the court,” Nakamura said. “Because really we’re at their mercy when it comes to our budget, and when the court isn’t sufficiently funded the adjudication slows down and that’s a real problem because people have a right to know as quickly as possible the outcome of their controversy.”
Her opponent Democrat Michael Vigil says he hopes to help working families.
“I hope to accomplish on the New Mexico Supreme Court is fashion decision that continue to advance the causes of working families in New Mexico,” Vigil said. “Children, their protection, and providing a peaceful, safe environment for all the people in New Mexico.”
Republican Stephen French is seeking election to the New Mexico Court of Appeals after being appointed earlier this year. He is concerned about funding for courts.
“The problem with funding quite frankly,” French said. “New Mexico is on hard times, funding is on hard times, but the court’s job is to service the people of the state of New Mexico, and when you have people filing appeals you want to try to get the decisions out as fast as you can. But we’re extremely understaffed, we have budgetary problems and it slows down our case load.”
His opponent Democrat Julie Vargas is concerned about fair representation.
“Things like access to justice,” Vargas said. “Which are issues related to people being represented in court, lawyers are really expensive, and so there is a lot of people that come to court that don’t have lawyers, that can’t afford lawyers and it’s detrimental to them because they might not get the best representation and the best result out of the court process.”
In the race for New Mexico Senate District 37, Incumbent Democrat Bill Soules says New Mexico needs to make key investments to grow business.
“The biggest problem we have in New Mexico is we need to make sure we’re making investments in infrastructure, investments in educated workforce, and investments in energy,” Soules said. “And I think we’re a little behind in all of those things in terms of attracting big types of businesses. New Mexico is an incredible place and I think we’ve got a strong small business community. But we need to have some more of those real anchor businesses.”
His opponent Republican Ceil Levatino says New Mexico needs to be more competitive.
“We have to stop being so dependent on the federal government,” Levatino said. “We’ve got to stop being so dependent on oil and gas, and we’ve got to do whatever it takes to make ourselves more competitive with our five neighboring states that are just outperforming us in every single way.”
Voters will decide on November 8th who gets the job.
