Todd Garrison wants his old job back. The Republican, who served as Doña Ana County sheriff from 2005 through 2014, won his party's nomination this year and now faces Democrat Vanessa Ordoñez in the Nov. 3 general election to replace outgoing Sheriff Kim Stewart.
Garrison is campaigning on more than three decades on the job, telling KVIA that he has over 31 years of law enforcement experience. He emerged from a crowded Republican primary field, a path detailed by the Las Cruces Sun-News, which reported Garrison is seeking a second stint leading the department after Stewart, the county's first female sheriff, wraps up two terms in office.
Garrison's return to the ballot traces back further than this year's race. He told KRWG he was selected to complete former Sheriff Juan Hernandez's remaining term after Hernandez stepped down due to illness. In June's primary, Garrison won the Republican nomination outright with 4,175 votes, or 57 percent, according to Organ Mountain News, while runner-up Jaime Marquez Quezada finished with 1,219 votes, or 17 percent.
Ordoñez Brings Navy and Police Chief Background
Ordoñez's path to the general election was tighter. The former Anthony police chief and U.S. Navy veteran led James A. Frietze by 559 votes in the Democratic primary, per Organ Mountain News, with partial returns from all 190 precincts showing Ordoñez at 6,008 votes, or 37 percent, to Frietze's 5,449 votes, or 33 percent. The Santa Fe New Mexican describes her as a Democrat running against Republican Garrison in a county where the outgoing sheriff's two terms are now ending.
Both campaigns have circled around the same basic challenge: a sprawling county that is hard to police evenly. The newspaper's report noted the candidates both expressed a desire to expand services in remote regions of the county, improve response times and amplify community policing — a shared priority the two aired during a candidate forum at Temple Beth El in Las Cruces on Oct. 8. Garrison has pointed to the scale of the problem directly, noting that Doña Ana County's nearly 4,000-square-mile area complicates the job of the sheriff. Chaparral alone has a population of more than 30,000 residents but generally just two deputies available, per the same account.
Diverging on Schools and Training
Where the candidates split is on specifics. Garrison has proposed working with school districts to put school resource officers back into schools and bring back training programs such as DARE and GREAT, he told KVIA. He has also said he would expand the sheriff's office training budget, which he described to KRWG as about $100,000 a year.
Garrison has pointed to thefts, gun violence and juvenile issues as ongoing law-enforcement concerns, telling the same station that arrests alone don't solve the underlying causes behind those problems. The candidates also addressed juvenile gun violence and public trust directly in a joint appearance on ABC-7 this week, as the campaign enters its final stretch.
What Comes Next
Voters have a narrow window left to weigh in. Early voting in New Mexico ends Saturday, Oct. 31, and Election Day falls on Tuesday, Nov. 3, per ABC-7's report. The sheriff's race was one of the most crowded on this year's primary ballot, with 11 total candidates — four Republicans and seven Democrats — competing before the field narrowed to Garrison and Ordoñez, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News' earlier primary coverage.
