Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1920-09-09
Lar lzoIo Leads In Initial
a0und, But Lacks Thirty
Qdd Votes of Having
Elough To Win.
LIVELY LEGAL FIGHT
AT EVENING SESSION
i3tgnes Moves To Make the
Choice Unanimous; Judge
leahy Of Las Vegas Is
ornament Chairman.
BY Clinton p. Anderson.)

1Sc McIIltl y. MecneHl OF 80
'e1rrc, presiding judge of the Sew.
entn judicial district, was chosen
i on fle third ballot last evening as
the republican nominee for gov
ernor. Mechem was looked upor
as a compromise candidate tc
some degree, since he had moi
been active in the campaign against
Governor o. A. Larrazolo, his CHIEF
competitor.
Ie nomination of Mechem came
on ballot which opened as if il
VOL d be far from decisive. Ber.
nah o passed. Chaves split lis
iwcHty-three votes about as 1t had
rm he second with fifteen for Lar
la2Q and eight for Mechem. Col
fa2 boiled the sixty-four votes for
~ azolo that 1t had polled on the
t}s two and the six others for
&t lem. Curry cast its fourteen
i0r Iarrazolo, Dona Ana was un-
s}it ged, thirty-seven for Larrazolc
Hfd twenty-one for Mechem.
Eddy Switches One Vote.
Then came the first change
Eddy switching one vote from Lar
raZolo to Mechem. Grant was un-
changed, fifty-three for Mechem
and one for Larrazolo. Guadalupe
gave him an extra vote to compen-
safe. Hidalgo and Lea were un-
changed, six for Mechem from the
former and two for Larrazolo from
the latter. Larrazolo gained one in
Lincoln. Luna and Mckinley were
unchanged. Mora gave Larrazolo
lose Rtn
Arriba, Roosevelt, Sandoval, San
Juan, San Miguel, Santa Fe and
Sierra were unchanged. Socorro,
Taos, Torrance and Union ran
through without change. Valen-
cia switched its sixty-three votes
from Armijo to Mechem. Socorro
called for a new roll call before
the vote was announced and Lar
razolo gained two votes
San Miguel Follows SUIT.
Realizing that Bernalillo county
was having difficulty keeping the
Hughes vote in line when Hughes
cause was lost, Secundino Romero
came down the aisle and an
nounced its vote then: ninety-one
for Mechem and fourteen for Lar.
razolo. This gave Mechem more
than enough and Tom Gable rose
from his place in the Cofax dele
cation and switched the county's
seventy votes to Mechem. Dona
Ana and Socorro followed suit and
the convention set up a roar for
the nominee.
Chairman Leahy recognized
Thomas Hughes of Bernalillo, who
moved that the nomination of Me-
chem be made unanimous. This
carried and the convention ad-
journed until 10 o'clock Thursday
morning.
Stormy Opening Session.
The opening session opened with
a lively legal battle over the con-
stitutionality of Judge Mechem's
nomination. II. A. Wolford of ST.
ezra county, seconded Mechem's
nomination and was followed by
Washington E. Lindsey of Roose-
welt. who declared that Mechem
came from Ohio. "the mother of
the father of presidents"
Frank Mangum of Union county
quoted section 19 of article SIX of
the state constitution, which pro-
vides that no judge of the supreme
court or district court shall be
nominated or elected to any office
other than judicial in the state.
II. o. Bursum took the plat
form to assert that no nomination
was completed until the candidate
accepted and the certificate had
been filed. He claimed that Me-
chem would have ample opportun-
ity to resign his judgeship before
the nomination, if extended, was
High Court Ruling Cited.
A. B. Renehan of Santa Fe, held
that the supreme court Of New
Mexico had ruled upon the point
and Mechem could not be nominat-
ed. This precipitated sharp de-
bate between Renehan and Bur-
sum. insisting that Governor Lar
razolo could accept Mechem's res
Ignation and fill the vacancy. A
fight between George Guilty and