Ballotpedia's 2012 General Election Review Articles: Southwest Regional State Executive Officials

December 14, 2012

By Jennifer Springer and Maresa Strano

MADISON, Wisconsin: It's an off-year for gubernatorial elections in Arizona and New Mexico, which means the region had all eyes fixed on the state executive races for public service commissioners, public regulation commissioners, and public education commissioners.

• In Arizona, voters made their choice for three Corporation Commissioners. Incumbents Paul Newman (D), Sandra Kennedy (D), and Bob Stump (R) all sought re-election. They had all been serving on the commission since 2009. All three Republican candidates, including incumbent Bob Stump, won in the general election.

• In Arizona, Karen Montoya and Valerie Espinoza won the District 1 and District 3 seats, respectively, on the Public Regulation Commission. All five candidates - including the incumbents from Districts 8,9, and 10 - who ran for the Public Education Commission were unopposed in the general election on November 6, 2012, although a write-in challenger for the open District 3 Commissioner seat did emerge, sapping about 2% of the vote from Carmie Lynn Toulouse (D). (See election vote boxes below)

National picture

States with 2012 executive elections

There were 94 total seats up for election across 22 states this year, including 11 Governors, 9 Lt. Governors, 10 Attorneys General, 7 Secretaries of State and 57 down ballot seats.

• Before the election, 51 of these offices were held by Democrats, 38 were held by Republicans, and the remaining 4 positions were held by non partisan or Independent officers . After the election, Democrats hold 49 (net loss of 2 seats), Republicans 42 (net gain of 4 seats), and Independents/non partisans only 1 (loss of 3).
• Of the 69 incumbents who ran for election in 2012, 7 were defeated-6 Democrat and 1 Republican. Democratic Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau narrowly escaped that fate, having had to wait for her challenger to cancel a self-financed recount on December 11, 2012 before being named the official winner.
• Out of 25 total open seats, 13 were won by Democrats, 11 went to Republican, and 1 went to an Independent (nonpartisan) candidate. In all, there are 34 new state executives as a result of the election. That number could become 35 if the Montana recount results show Juneau's challenger, Republican Sandy Welch, is the winner.
• From the gubernatorial perspective, after the November 2012 election, there are 30 Republican and 19 Democratic governors. If the GOP had taken five governor seats from Democrats on November 6, that would have given the party 34 -- the most for Republicans since 1922. As of December 2012, the number of Democratic governors in the country is at its lowest since 2001.

2012 State Executive Election Partisan Breakdown
Party	Before 2012 Election	After 2012 Election	Net Change
Democratic	51	50	-1
Republican	38	43	+5
Independent (Nonpartisan)	4	1	-3
TOTALS	931 vacant	94

2012 State Executive Election Analysis
Party	Open Seat Winners	Defeated Incumbents	New State Executives
Democratic	13	6	15
Republican	11	1	18
Independent (Nonpartisan)	1	0	1
TOTALS	25	7	34

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Arizona

See also: Arizona down ballot state executive elections, 2012

Arizona Corporation Commission General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Paul Newman Incumbent	15.5%	868,726
	Democratic	Sandra Kennedy Incumbent	15.4%	862,876
	Democratic	Marcia Busching	13.8%	776,472
	Republican	Bob Stump Incumbent	17.5%	979,034
	Republican	Robert Burns	16.8%	943,157
	Republican	Susan Bitter Smith	16.7%	935,575
	Libertarian	Christopher Gohl	2%	112,490
	Green	Daniel Pout	1%	58,607
	Green	Thomas Meadows	1.2%	67,950
	Write-in	Various	0.1%	3,784
Total Votes				5,608,671
Election results via Arizona Secretary of State

New Mexico

See also: New Mexico state executive official elections, 2012

New Mexico Public Regulation Commission District 1 General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Karen Montoya	55%	94,526
	Republican	Christopher Ocksrider	45%	77,256
Total Votes				171,782
Election results via New Mexico Secretary of State

New Mexico Public Regulation Commission District 3 General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Valerie Espinoza	100%	127,569
Total Votes				127,569
Election results via New Mexico Secretary of State

New Mexico Public Education Commission District 3 General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Carmie Lynn Toulouse	97.6%	60,322
	Democratic	Vanessa Leigh Gutierrez (Write-in)	2.4%	1,469
Total Votes				61,791
Election results via New Mexico Secretary of State

New Mexico Public Education Commission District 5 General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	James F. Conyers	100%	42,305
Total Votes				42,305
Election results via New Mexico Secretary of State

New Mexico Public Education Commission District 8 General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Vince N. Bergman Incumbent	100%	48,844
Total Votes				48,844
Election results via New Mexico Secretary of State

New Mexico Public Education Commission District 9 General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Carolyn Kennedy Shearman Incumbent	100%	35,889
Total Votes				35,889
Election results via New Mexico Secretary of State

New Mexico Public Education Commission District 10 General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Jeff Carr Incumbent	100%	66,144
Total Votes				66,144
Election results via New Mexico Secretary of State

See also

• Ballotpedia's 2012 General Election Review Articles: Arizona Congressional Seats
• Ballotpedia's 2012 General Election Review Articles: New Mexico Congressional Seats
• Ballotpedia:2012 general election preview articles
• November 6, 2012 election results
• State executive official elections, 2012
• Ballotpedia:Statewide projections for the November 6, 2012 elections
• Arizona state executive official elections, 2012
• New Mexico state executive official elections, 2012

Footnotes