While 667 votes aren’t usually considered a large amount in an election, it is when you are a write-in candidate and your opponent received less than 50.
Part-time educator and retired Northern New Mexico College Professor Tim Crone logged a landslide victory during Tuesday’s general election, over his opponent, Anthony Trujillo. The men were competing for the New Mexico Public Education Commissioner District 10 seat held by outgoing District 10 Commissioner Jeff Carr.
So far, the unofficial results show that 395 Santa Fe, 183 Taos, 66 Colfax and 23 Rio Arriba County voters cast votes in support of Crone.
He expects that number to grow because he doesn’t believe the Rio Arriba County Clerk’s Office has finished counting all of the write-in ballots.
Carr, a democrat, decided not to run so he could seek a Colfax County Commission seat. However, he was not successful in that contest. His Republican challenger, James Landen Newton, won that race with ease.
Although Crone spent the better part of his career working at Northern, which is located in Rio Arriba County, his largest support base came from Santa Fe and Taos county voters.
Santa Fe County was also Trujillo’s largest base of support. The unofficial Secretary of State’s results show 31 votes from Santa Fe, 15 from Taos and two from Colfax County voters for Trujillo. He didn’t receive any votes from Rio Arribans, as of yet.
Crone said his overwhelming success is owed to a combination factors, which includes help he had from two statewide labor organizations, campaign contributions and social media.
“It is very pleasing that people took the extra time,” he said. “My candidacy was the hardest position to vote for because you had to make extra effort to vote. Not only did you have to fill out the oval, you had to write my name on the ballot.”
To get the turnout he did, Crone sought advice and help from the American Federation of Teachers and Communication Workers of America. He also received campaign contributions that allowed him to send 3,000 mailers to residents in the four counties his District encompasses. In addition, incumbent Public Regulation Chairwoman Valerie Espinoza helped him.
Crone will join nine other commissioners on the 10-person Advisory Board, which is responsible for advising Secretary of Education Hanna Skandera on charter schools and other matters.
Specifically, the Commission will be divided up into three committees that will work to advise the secretary on the Department’s Strategic Plan, authorizing and reviewing school charters and compliance with the Carl Perkins Vocational and Technical fund. The fund is designed to promote career training in technical areas.
Crone said he decided to seek the seat because the state’s charter school program deserves a bit more scrutiny. Since state legislators first approved the 2007 Charter School Act, the schools have sprung up like weeds.
During the nine years the law has been active, the number of schools have grown from a handful to 100, Crone said.
“I would like a moratorium on the state’s charter schools,” Crone said during a phone conversation prior to the election. “And, I would support a bill to take the small-school adjustment formula away from urban schools.”
Preventing urban school districts from claiming the small-school adjustment would “even the playing field” and save the state money.
“It would make more money available to non-charter schools,” he said.
Crone said the state’s charters school system needs to be closely evaluated because the current system resembles “legal discrimination.”