Looks like the District 5 race is starting to heat up. The once open seat on Albuquerque's Westside still has a crowd vying to fill it with incumbent Cadigan the odds-on favorite.
According to our Eyes, Democrat Jeremy Toulouse has turned in enough signatures to get on the October ballot. The development is no doubt good news for Republican Dan Lewis who would seem to be the most obvious beneficiary of a Toulouse candidacy. Traditional thinking would have Cadigan and Toulouse splitting the Ds and Lewis coasting to an easy victory in the heavily R district.
The problem is there's nothing quite traditional about this race. Of the three candidates only the Republican (Lewis) is taking public financing. Cadigan tried and failed to qualify for public cash in the mayoral race and after his aborted mayoral attempt decided to jump back to his council seat but chose to forgo taxpayer cash.
Toulouse is the only candidate who can say that he's not taking taxpayer cash to fund his political ambitions. It'll be interesting to see how that plays against his two opponents. Lewis will wrap himself in the "clean elections" standard while taking money coerced from taxpayers. Cadigan will claim that he supports clean elections but decided against getting too clean just this once.
We still think that Toulouse's entry into the race benefits Lewis. But a lot is riding on how effective Toulouse is at finding an issue that will bring his opponents within reach. Campaign financing is one issue where Toulouse can take shots at both rivals at the same time which will make the most of his limited resources.
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