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Eight vie for district judge seat

The Santa Fe New Mexican - 8/30/2017

Aug. 30--A state prosecutor, a county attorney and a former police officer are among eight applicants seeking to replace retiring state District Judge Sarah Singleton of Santa Fe, one of the nine judges who presides over cases in the judicial district that includes Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Rio Arriba counties.

Singleton, who was appointed by then-Gov. Bill Richardson in 2009 and subsequently elected by voters, announced in June that she will retire at the end of August but will continue presiding over select cases and hearing minor issues pro bono until her replacement has been named.

The new judge will be paid about $118,000 a year to preside over a docket of primarily civil cases.

The Judicial Nominating Commission, which will make recommendations on the appointment to Gov. Susana Martinez, on Tuesday released the names of the applicants, all of whom are Democrats. The applicants include:

--Jason Lidyard, 36, a deputy district attorney in Santa Fe who has handled primarily criminal cases and civil mental health commitments for the office since 2011. He also helped establish a pre-arrest diversion program to address recidivism by defendants with substance abuse issues. Lidyard previously worked for the Office of the Federal Defender in Maine and the Office of the City Prosecutor in Cleveland, Ohio. Lidyard earned his law degree from University of Maine in 2010.

--Maria E. Sanchez-Gagne, 55, is a former state assistant attorney general who drafted human trafficking legislation while working at the state agency. She also previously worked as an assistant district attorney in the First Judicial District and unsuccessfully campaigned to become district attorney in Santa Fe in 2016. She had taken a leave of absence from her job at the State Engineer's Office to campaign for that race. She couldn't be reached Tuesday to verify her current occupational status. Sanchez-Gagne earned her law degree from the University of Denver.

--Michael R. Jones, 47, is a partner in the Santa Fe law firm of Clark, Jones & Pennington, where he handles civil, criminal and family law cases. He formerly worked as chief analyst for the New Mexico State Senate Majority Pool Analysts, the Senate Conservation Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee. He also was an assistant attorney general in the state Attorney General's Office and an assistant district attorney in Santa Fe and in Farmington. He earned his law degree from the University of Toledo College of Law in 1996.

--Gregory S. Shaffer, 45, is the Santa Fe County attorney and former chief legal counsel for the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration. He also worked as deputy chief counsel at the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department and at several law firms in New York. He earned his law degree at New York University in 1997.

--Paul W. Grace, 64, is a Santa Fe attorney whose experience is primarily in commercial law -- particularly banking and regulation law -- and appellate law. He sought appointment to the First Judicial District bench in 2014 and the state Supreme Court in 2015. Grace earned his law degree from the Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles.

--Jerry Anthony Archuleta, 47, is a Santa Fe attorney who owns his own law firm. He also has worked as an assistant district attorney in the First Judicial District Attorney's Office, as a student prosecutor in the First and Second Judicial Districts, as an administrative law judge for the New Mexico Corrections Department, as a security guard at Los Alamos National Laboratory and as an officer with the Santa Fe Police Department. He earned his law degree from The University of New Mexico School of Law in 2011.

--Sean Michael Cunniff, 45, is an assistant attorney general in the litigation division of the state Attorney General's Office. He formerly worked in Phoenix at the law firm of Quarles & Bradey and as a law clerk at the New Mexico Supreme Court. Cunniff earned his law degree from the UNM School of Law in 2010.

--Matthew E. Jackson, 44, practices civil litigation for the Albuquerque law firm Peifer, Hanson & Mullins. He is a former assistant attorney general for the state of New Mexico. Prior to becoming a lawyer, he was a programmer for Yahoo. Jackson earned his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 2008.

The Judicial Nominating Commission is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m.Sept. 11 at the District Court complex in Santa Fe, 225 Montezuma Ave., to evaluate the applicants. The governor, a Republican, will have 30 days from that date to appoint one of the nominees or ask for more names. The evaluation session is open to the public.

Once appointed, the new judge will begin hearing cases, but in order to remain on the bench, he or she will have to stand for election in the 2018 general election, then be retained by voters in a retention election in 2020, which would have been the end of Singleton's current term. The judge will then have to stand for retention every eight years thereafter to keep the job.

Contact Phaedra Haywood at 505-986-3068 or phaywood@sfnewmexican.com. Follow her on Twitter @phaedraann.

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