Arnold-Jones claims she’ll easily win preprimary

Janice Arnold-Jones (Photo by Heath Haussamen)

From NMPolitics.net - Republican 1st Congressional District candidate Janice Arnold-Jones sent out an eye-popping news release earlier this week claiming she is “poised to take well over 50% of the delegates” at the preprimary nominating convention in March. The preprimary is the preferred method of qualifying for the primary ballot. Succeeding there is also considered a sign of organizational strength and can be a big boost. Candidates do well at the state preprimary by working at a grassroots level to get their delegates elected at county preprimaries and sent to the state meeting. It’s no secret that Arnold-Jones, a former state representative from Albuquerque and a champion of open government, has an active following. Her news release stated that her supporters “came out in force” at the county-level meetings in the five counties that are in the 1st Congressional District. But the claim was eye-popping because Arnold-Jones is a candidate the GOP establishment usually doesn’t take seriously, and because she significantly trails both of her primary opponents, Dan Lewis and Gary Smith, in cash on hand. Arnold-Jones said she’s confident in her claim. She told NMPolitics.net her actual expected support at the preprimary is better than what she predicted in her news release, “but I’d rather be conservative.” “This is the grassroots of campaigning, and this is very personal,” she said in explaining how she won the support she expects to have. “People are very concerned about what is going to happen with this district, and that, first and foremost, we have someone who can stand toe to toe with the Democrats. Read more

Arnold-Jones claims she’ll easily win preprimary