Republican Robert S. Godshall will face off against current District 27 state Rep. Marian Matthews in the Nov. 8 general election. According to unofficial results on the Secretary of State’s website, Godshall defeated GOP contestant Lisa Maria Martinez in the primaries with 61% of the vote.
Godshall received 1,557 votes and Martinez 1,012, with 38 of 38 precincts reporting. New Mexico Secretary of State voter registration data for May shows District 27 has a total of 23,739 registered voters, with 8,535 of them Republican.
District 27 includes areas between Paseo Del Norte Boulevard to the north, Spain Road to the south, Eubank Boulevard to the east, and Louisiana Boulevard to the west. As of May 31, 40% of registered voters in District 27 were Democrat, 1% Libertarian and 23% other.
According to the website godshallfordistrict27.com, Godshall spent much of his career in law enforcement and is a new grandfather. To tackle crime, Godshall suggests cooperating with federal authorities “in identifying and removing foreign nationals that commit crime.” In addition, he suggests reforming the bail system to consider the severity of the crime to prevent potential repeat offenders from being released.
He says New Mexico’s schools are failing with low graduation rates and a “system that is clogged with high-paid administrators.” He says the education system “does not challenge our students to do better but seems to want to accommodate failure, to look for reasons to accept failure.” Godhsall suggests electing more Republicans to the Legislature to “get people into the system that want to achieve educational excellence.”
Godshall also suggests eliminating gross receipts taxes, raising wages and limiting government involvement in economic policy to increase employment across the state. “When we get excellence in college education, when we get less government interference in wages and benefits and when we have quality workforce development, we will get the conditions to produce business success,” the website reads.
