Business as usual

Tucumcari’s city business will resume with no changes in the city commission after the two incumbents who faced challengers easily kept their commission seats in the March 6 elections.

In District 4, Mayor Pro Tem Robert Lumpkin retained his commission seat with 49 votes. His challenger, Keith Hayes, who organized a recall effort that ended unsuccessfully when voters retained all three commissioners by wide margins.

Lumpkin retained his seat with 49 votes versus 23 for Hayes.

In District 5, Commissioner Todd Duplantis retained his seat, garnering 149 votes against David Hamilton, who returned to the city within the past year to open a real estate agency. Hamilton received 61 votes.

Municipal Judge Joe Dominguez, currently suspended without pay pending a drunk driving charge, received 196 votes. He ran unopposed.

Lumpkin said, “The people of Tucumcari were good enough to support me. I would be remiss if I did not continue to support them.”

Tucumcari is moving along, he said, with music and entertainment events, and sports teams that are excelling.

These developments, he said, show that Tucumcari residents are trying “to make things better.”

He also said, however, that he respects all the candidates in the election, who ran because they “want to make things better for the people.”

Hayes was not happy with the result.

“It’s typical,” he said. “It’s pretty much about right. People don’t care about $1.8 million in reserves that the city has gone through in 2-1/2 years.”

Rochelle Arias, Tucumcari’s finance director, said that, on the contrary, “We have been increasing our reserves for the past five years.”

In District 4, Duplantis said , the result, “has given me a great vote of confidence. I got 70 percent of the vote and I have a lot of people behind me.”

He said Hamilton called him after the election and pledged to work with Duplantis on projects to benefit the city.

Hamilton said he was “not unhappy at all” about the election’s outcome, and he was satisfied to receive 61 votes on his first try at office.

He said he looks forward to working with Duplantis and others to help Tucumcari.

In the meantime, he said, he is satisfied to focus on operating his real estate business.

District 4 City Commissioner

• Robert Lumpkin (Incumbent) 49

• Keith Hayes 23

District 5 City Commissioner

• Todd Duplantis (Incumbent) 145

• David Hamilton 61

Municipal Judge

• Joe Dominguez (Incumbent) 196