New Mexico voters will choose an attorney general on Nov. 3, with the candidates offering different answers to what the office should prioritize and how it should use its resources. Democratic incumbent Raúl Torrez points to litigation against the Trump administration and Big Tech companies as part of his record. Republican challenger Samuel Kane, a Las Cruces attorney, says the office should focus more on public safety and helping judges make pretrial decisions.
Torrez first won election as attorney general in 2022 after a stint as Bernalillo County’s district attorney, according to Source New Mexico. Kane, meanwhile, has run his own law practice since 2004, focusing largely on personal injury cases, the outlet reports. Both men agree the attorney general’s office plays a broad role in state government, even as they diverge sharply on where its energy should go, according to the same report from the seed story published by KFOX.
Kane’s Priorities for the Office
Kane says crime would be his top priority as attorney general, describing the state as having a revolving door for repeat offenders. In an interview with Source New Mexico, he called crime his “single top priority.” KFOX reported that Kane said local police officers have told him that people arrested can return to the streets quickly, sometimes being arrested at the same location for the same crime the next day.
Kane has also questioned whether judges handling arraignments for as many as 50 to 100 people can assess each defendant individually, according to KFOX. He told Source New Mexico he would propose “bringing in a high level of technology” to summarize case information for district court judges considering pretrial detention. Kane says the attorney general’s office could provide local judges with resources to make those decisions more easily and quickly.
Pretrial Decisions in Context
A state report cited by Source New Mexico found that New Mexico’s violent and property crime rates had fallen from a 20-year high in 2018 but remained above the national standard, according to News From The States. Separately, the New Mexico Supreme Court said in a June 30, 2022, decision involving alleged residential burglaries in the Albuquerque area that evidence about the circumstances of a charged offense alone was not enough to establish grounds for pretrial detention, according to the New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts. That ruling concerned evidence in an individual case; it does not establish statewide repeat-offender rates or, by itself, explain implementation of the 2016 bail-reform amendment.
Juvenile Justice and a Narrower Federal Role
Kane has also said he would support increased penalties for juveniles who commit serious and heinous crimes, including trying some offenders as adults, telling Source New Mexico there are situations where, as he put it, “if you kill in cold blood, then you need to be tried as an adult.” On the office’s role fighting federal power, Kane has struck a more restrained tone than his opponent, saying his focus would be New Mexico-specific issues rather than joining multistate lawsuits against the Trump administration. “My focus is: Let’s deal with the issues here in New Mexico,” he said.
Still, Kane has not ruled out federal fights entirely. In a statement to the Albuquerque Journal, he said he would support federal action that benefits New Mexico while fighting federal overreach through the courts when necessary. He also told the Journal he wants a strong in-house litigation team with strategy and oversight remaining inside the department, even as he supports using outside counsel in consumer-protection lawsuits.
Torrez’s Case for Statewide Litigation
Torrez has described the attorney general’s office as one of the country’s most effective public interest law firms, according to KFOX. His office says it has filed lawsuits against the Trump administration, Big Tech companies and New Mexico’s Children, Youth and Families Department. In candidate questionnaires published by the Santa Fe New Mexican, the office said it had filed or joined more than 50 lawsuits against the Trump administration and saved New Mexico $885 million in federal funds the administration tried to withhold.
Torrez has said the attorney general’s role includes protecting New Mexico’s land, water and citizens from the federal government, and he has prioritized protecting vulnerable children in the state, per KFOX. He told the Santa Fe New Mexican he intends to keep taking the Trump administration to court as part of challenging what he calls federal overreach, while also pushing to modernize consumer-protection and Big Tech laws. “We have a lot of work to do in both modernizing our consumer protection and our laws that regulate big tech,” he said, according to Source New Mexico.
Meta Judgment and Legal Backdrop
One case Torrez has pointed to is a lawsuit against Meta that ended this year with a $942 million judgment against the company, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Under New Mexico law, the attorney general is required to prosecute and defend causes in the state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals in which the state is a party or interested, along with certain other civil actions, according to state legislative records. Torrez’s office has also taken public legal positions on state legislation, including a statement from the New Mexico Department of Justice saying he viewed House Bill 9 as a constitutional exercise of state authority that his office would defend.
The candidates have also sparred over narrower questions of office policy. In the Santa Fe New Mexican’s candidate questionnaire, one respondent said it was reasonable for people who do not live in New Mexico to bear the cost of their own public-records requests, while the other opposed adding any residency requirement to the process.
Poll Shows Torrez With Double-Digit Lead
A Journal Poll conducted Aug. 21-28 found Torrez with a 17-percentage-point advantage over Kane among likely voters, with 51% supporting Torrez compared with 34% for Kane, according to the Albuquerque Journal. The poll surveyed 516 voters and carried a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points, the paper reported.
The attorney general’s office carries an annual salary of $154,714, according to Source New Mexico. With the general election set for Nov. 3, voters will decide which priorities they want the office to emphasize, from litigation involving federal policy and technology companies to public safety and pretrial decision-making.
