but he was disqualified from the ballot after he failed to collect enough petition signatures. Wertheim raised the challenge and Padilla was disqualified after a district judge found he was 93 valid signatures short of the minimum requirement of 4,373. Padilla may appeal the ruling. State Senator Tim Keller had considered running, but chose to run for State Auditor instead. Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima also considered running, but decided not to. Rick Lopez was the only Republican running. State Auditor Incumbent Democratic State Auditor Hector Balderas was term-limited and cannot run for re-election to a third term in office. He was instead running for attorney general. Democratic former State Auditor Domingo Martinez had been running, but he withdrew from the race. Democrat Tim Keller and Republican Robert Aragon were the only candidates running. Commissioner of Public Lands Incumbent Democratic Commissioner of Public Lands Ray Powell was running for re-election to a second term in office. Republican Aubrey Dunn was the only other candidate running. Polling Results Public Regulation Commission Three of the five seats on the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission were up for election. District 2 Republican incumbent Patrick Lyons was unopposed for re-election to a second term in office. District 4 Democratic incumbent Theresa Becenti-Aguilar was running for re-election to a second term in office. Democrats Edward J. Michael and Lynda Lovejoy were also running. No Republican filed to run for the seat. District 5 Republican incumbent Ben Hall, the current Chairman of the Commission, was running for re-election to a second term in office. Democrats Donald L. Wolberg, Merrie Lee Soules, and Sandy R. Jones were also running. Democrat Ken Miyagishima, the Mayor of Las Cruces, had considered running for a seat on the Commission, but decided not to. Public Education Commission Seven of the ten seats on the New Mexico Public Education Commission were up for election. Five of the seats were up for regularly-scheduled elections. The other two were special elections following resignations. District 2 incumbent Republican Millie Pogna, District 3 incumbent Democrat Carmie Lynn Toulouse, District 5 incumbent Democrat James F. Conyers and District 6 incumbent Democrat Gilbert Peralta were all running for re-election to a second term unopposed. District 7 incumbent Democrat Eugene Gant was not running for re-election to a second term. Democrat Patricia E Gipson was running unopposed. In the District 1 and District 4 vacancies, Democrats former State Representative