Democratic candidate for governor Deb Haaland recently endorsed Stephanie Garcia Richard for Lieutenant Governor, following Maggie Toulouse Oliver’s withdrawal from the race due to health concerns.

Hull’s Criticism

Haaland’s Republican opponent, Gregg Hull, criticized the endorsement, arguing that Haaland should have refrained from endorsing anyone and allowed the Democratic Party’s state central committee to make the decision independently.

‘Having the candidate involved in it is inappropriate,’ Hull said. ‘I think people are feeling like it’s not a transparent process and that whoever gets selected is not the person that was selected by the voters.’

Haaland’s Response

Haaland defended her decision, stating that endorsements are a regular part of campaign processes. ‘And so I don’t see this as anything necessarily unusual. Maybe it’s unusual that we have a lieutenant governor candidate that, you know, was unable to be on the ballot, but in and of campaign process itself, endorsements are really a regular part of all of that,’ Haaland said.

Hull also suggested that gubernatorial candidates should have the ability to select their running mates in the future, similar to practices in other states. ‘Maybe it’s time looking into the future that as we have gubernatorial races that other states have gone to this where the governor picks their running mate, and maybe it’s time that we move to that process and look at that going forward,’ Hull said.

Original reporting: KOAT Albuquerque — read the source article.