May 30—The closer politicians are to private life, the more colorful their quotes become.

State Sen. Mark Moores, R-Albuquerque, isn’t running for a fourth term, and he isn’t sanitizing his comments.

Moores just donated $5,500 to fellow Republican Chad Hamill, who’s in a mudslinging primary race for the open District 32 Senate seat in southeastern New Mexico. Hamill’s opponent is state Rep. Candy Spence Ezzell.

I asked Moores why he’s helping Hamill.

“Ezzell is horrible, the least serious person in a building full of non-serious people,” he replied in a text message.

So much for Ronald Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.”

Told of Moore’s denunciation of her, Ezzell first said she was puzzled. “I don’t really understand where he’s coming from. I haven’t had many dealings with him.”

But Ezzell then told of clashes with Moores. By her account, he once tried to leave a hearing of the House Agriculture Committee she chaired before debate ended on Moores’ bill to outlaw coyote killing contests. Another time, Ezzell said, Moores confronted her in a Capitol corridor, causing enough of a stir for building security officers to respond.

“Agh, that’s BS,” Moores said in a phone interview. “After 20 years of failures in the House, she doesn’t deserve a promotion to the Senate. I’ll say it a second time: She’s not a serious person.”

Moores isn’t the only sitting legislator working to defeat Ezzell in Tuesday’s primary. Republican Sens. Craig Brandt, Greg Baca and Joshua Sanchez donated a combined total of $11,500 to Hamill’s campaign during the most recent reporting period that ended Thursday.

Ezzell didn’t foresee Hamill as a political enemy. She said she recruited him to succeed her in the House of Representatives.

“I wanted a conservative who understands rural New Mexico. I offered to knock on doors for him,” Ezzell said.

Hamill’s version is different in important respects. Yes, Ezzell asked him to run for the District 58 House seat she is vacating, and she initially offered her assistance. But, he said, she later threw her support to another candidate, causing Hamill to reconsider his options.

Hamill said he circulated paper nominating petitions for both the House and Senate seats while mulling what to do.

“I decided to run for the Senate. I knew it was going to be a tougher fight, but I also knew my opponent has a 20-year record she’d have run on,” Hamill said.

This is his second race for the Senate in District 32. He lost the Republican primary in 2012 to Cliff Pirtle by nine votes.

Pirtle, a farmer from Roswell, went on to win three terms in the Senate before a scandal stopped his political career. His wife confronted him about an extramarital affair in Santa Fe during last year’s legislative session. Much of the tension was captured on video by a sheriff’s deputy.

Pirtle has since fathered a girl with the one-time legislative employee he was seeing while married to someone else.

Ezzell said she decided to run for the Senate before Pirtle’s troubles. Pirtle until March seemed to keep open the possibility of seeking reelection. But with the deadline for candidacy filings looming, he finally said he wouldn’t seek a fourth term.

Ezzell offered a theory about the outgoing senator: “He conspired with somebody else to run for the Senate seat,” she said, referring to Hamill.

That is false, Hamill said. “Pirtle had nothing to do with my decision. They’re grasping at everything because I’m a threat.”

The campaign in oil country has been rough, a gusher of charges and countercharges. Hamill claimed he recently was phoned at 2:30 a.m. by someone backing Ezzell. He didn’t answer, but he’s sure he’s right about the caller’s identity.

Ezzell, a farmer and a rancher, said her detractors have repeatedly lied about her legislative record. One example, she said, is critics claiming she voted for higher purses for racehorses to profiteer. She has no racehorses.

After winning 10 terms in the House, the last three without opposition, this spring has jarred Ezzell.

“What’s going on makes me sick to my stomach. It’s gotten ugly. It really has,” she said.

Hamill said he’s been under siege, too, as false charges rain down on him. Still, he said this experience is better in one way than his run for the Senate in 2012, when Hamill was fire chief of Roswell.

City officials, he claimed, were wary of his legislative campaign. If Hamill had won the primary, he would have challenged Democrat Tim Jennings, who was president pro tem of the Senate.

Ezzell, better known and better financed, promises she hasn’t overlooked Hamill as the mud flies.

“There’s only two ways to run,” she said. “Unopposed or scared.”

Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.