Rio Arriba County Commission Chairman Elias Coriz has formed an alliance with Tsay Corporatio CEO Ron Lovato to take on two incumbents in the upcoming the Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative Board of Trustees elections.
Nominations for the Board’s seven openings closed May 29 with 12 candidates filing for office. Co-op elections will run from June 19 to July 1, Co-op General Manager Ernesto Gonzales said. Trustees serve four-year terms on the 11-member Board.
Coriz, of Chimayó, will face District 5 incumbent Leroy Ortiz. Ortiz, of Chimayó, has served two terms on the Co-op Board and lost to Coriz in the 2002 County Commission election. Lovato, of Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, will face District 5 incumbent Robert Martinez. Martinez, of La Mesilla, has served eight terms on the Co-op Board and is the former vice president of the Rio Arriba County Democratic Party.
Both Ortiz and Martinez belong to the old Emilio Naranjo faction of the Democratic Party, while Coriz is part of the party’s main other faction, Democrats for Progress.
Coriz also said he will not run for County sheriff in 2010 when his commission term expires due to term limits.
Coriz and Lovato are mounting a green energy platform-based challenge, Coriz said.
“There are communities in this district, in Dixon and Embudo, that are particularly interested in wind and solar energy,” Coriz said. “I think (the Board) would be open to it. Ron Lovato and me, we can bring new energy and ideas to the Board. We’re a team.”
“We already get alternative energy from Tri-State,” Leroy Ortiz said, citing Tri-State 30 mega-watt, half-million panel solar farm planned for construction in Colfax County. “It doesn’t really matter where it’s generated, so long as we get it at the lowest cost for our members.”
Joseph P. Martinez, of Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, had planned to run against Robert Martinez but said Tuesday he had dropped out of the race to support Lovato. Lovato did not return a call for comment Tuesday.
District 5 encompasses an area east of the Rio Grande from Chimayó and Truchas to Dixon and Embudo. District 5’s third seat, held by Levi Valdez, is not up for election this year.
Robert Martinez could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Signs promoting his and Ortiz’s candidacies have already popped up in the Valley.
If Coriz and Lovato win office, they could join a couple of allies. District 4 Trustee David Salazar, the patriarch of the politically powerful Salazar clan, was hired by the County just months before Coriz’s Commission re-election bid in 2006 and is a political ally of the commissioner.
Kenny Borrego, an electrician certified in fiber optics from Española, said is running for a seat left open by departing District 6 incumbent Marie Pacheco.
“There is money out there to go green to pay for wind and solar systems’ installation,” Borrego said.
Also running for the District 6 opening is Leroy Lopez.
The original version of this story required a clarification and a correction.
The article stated that Co-op District 6 Board of Trustees candidate Kenny Borrego “would be an ally to Coriz and Lovato on the Board …”
The article quoted Borrego as having said. “It would be nice to work with Coriz and Lovato on the Board. We could get it done if we could all get along.”
Borrego clarified that he meant he would work with Coriz and Lovato if they are elected, and not that he was actively supporting their electoral campaigns.
Also, the article incorrectly stated that Pressiliano Garcia is a candidate for the Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative Board of Trustees in the upcoming election. Garcia requested the names of District 6 Co-op members but did not formally file as a candidate for the July 1 election, Co-op General Manager Ernesto Gonzales said.