Two district attorneys keep their seats after high-dollar races

District Attorney Sam Bregman left, kept his seat in in the Second Judicial District in the state's most expensive race. Mary Carmak-Altwies retained her seat in the First Judicial District in Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and Los Alamos counties for another term. (Courtesy NM Administrative Office of the Courts)

Incumbent district attorneys in Santa Fe and Albuquerque kept their seats in the primary election Tuesday, amid a huge rash of spending and increased attention statewide on the races for chief prosecutor.

Second Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman, whose campaign was the biggest fundraiser among all primary elections statewide this year, won 56.3% of the vote as of 11:40 p.m. The district covers Albuquerque and Bernalillo County.

Bregman bested challenger Damon Martinez, a former federal prosecutor, who amassed the second-highest fundraising total in the state. More than 46,000 voters cast ballots in the race.

Up north, District Attorney Mary-Carmack Altwies defeated challenger Marco Serna, according to a call from the Associated Press just before 10 p.m. Tuesday. The First Judicial District covers Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Rio Arriba counties.

That race, too, drew enough donations to place both challengers in the top-10 list of biggest fundraisers this cycle.

District attorney races across New Mexico generated increased interest this year, thanks, in part, to renewed attention on crime and public safety. The lack of competition in other races also may have played a role.

Because most of the district attorney candidates are Democrats, the winners Tuesday become de facto elected chief prosecutors. Neither Bregman nor Carmack-Altwies has a Republican challenger.

See below for details on the outcomes of three District Attorney races affecting the state’s three-biggest cities.

Carmack-Altwies’ victory comes amid the high-profile, and expensive, prosecution of Alec Baldwin for his part in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the ‘Rust’ film set.

Serna, her opponent, criticized Carmack-Altwies for “hemorrhaging money” on an outside communications firm and special prosecutors for the effort. Carmack-Altwies defended the prosecution as necessary for justice.

Baldwin is expected to go to trial in July, and voters on Tuesday voted by a relatively wide margin to make sure Carmack-Altwies is in charge when it happens.

She received 62% of the vote, earning more than 16,000 votes out of about 26,500 cast, according to the latest returns.

Challenger Damon Martinez cast his ballot Tuesday in Albuquerque after a long fight with Bregman, a well-known defense attorney who was appointed to the seat last year by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham when Raúl Torrez became state Attorney General.

Martinez, a former federal prosecutor, told Source New Mexico at the polls on Tuesday that he was “cautiously optimistic” about the race.

“But this is politics,” he said. “So anything could happen.”

As of 9:54 p.m., Bregman had received about 6,000 more votes than Martinez, enough for the Associated Press to name him the winner.

The state’s most expensive race this year so far generated more than $824,000 in donations and loans. Bregman raised $472,000.

The high level of spending – and the fact that Martinez loaned himself about half of the $352,000 he raised – highlighted a mismatch in transparency requirements between Bregman and his opponent.

Bregman is required under state law to file a financial disclosure form, which lists his sources of income, spouse’s source of income, real estate holdings and other potential conflicts of interest. Martinez, however, is under no such requirement under state law.

Source NM asked Martinez and other statewide district attorney candidates if they would voluntarily release the information that their opponents are required by law to disclose.

No candidate took the news organization up on the offer. Martinez declined to do so again Tuesday.

“I’m obviously gonna follow the law,” he said.

The five-person race in the Third Judicial District, which includes Las Cruces, ended with incumbent Gerald Byers losing to challenger Fernando Macias. Macias was one of four Democrats vying for the seat, and he’ll now face Republican Michael Cain in the November General election.

As of midnight, Byers had received less than 10% of the vote total. He told the Las Cruces Bulletin that the “ people have spoken .”

Source New Mexico reporter Danielle Prokop contributed to this story.

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