David Thomson
2019 - Present
2026
5
David K. Thomson (Democratic Party) is a judge of the New Mexico Supreme Court. He assumed office on February 4, 2019. His current term ends on December 31, 2026.
Thomson (Democratic Party) ran for re-election for judge of the New Mexico Supreme Court. He won in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Thomson was first appointed to the court by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) on January 25, 2019.[1] To read more about judicial selection in New Mexico, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[2] Thomson received a confidence score of Strong Democrat.[3] Click here to read more about this study.
Thomson previously served on the First Judicial District Court in New Mexico from 2015 to 2019 and in 2010.[4]
Biography
Thomson received a B.A. in government and economics from Wesleyan University in 1991 and a J.D. from the University of Denver College of Law in 1998.[5] After graduating from law school, Thomson worked as a law clerk for Bruce Black, a federal judge for the District of New Mexico.[6]
From 1999 to 2010, Thomson worked at the Office of the New Mexico Attorney General, eventually becoming the deputy attorney general.[6]
Elections
2020
See also: New Mexico Supreme Court elections, 2020
General election
General election for New Mexico Supreme Court
Incumbent David K. Thomson defeated Kerry Morris in the general election for New Mexico Supreme Court on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | David K. Thomson (D) | 54.2 | 480,507 |
 | Kerry Morris (R) | 45.8 | 406,791 | |
| Total votes: 887,298 | |||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for New Mexico Supreme Court
Incumbent David K. Thomson advanced from the Democratic primary for New Mexico Supreme Court on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | David K. Thomson | 100.0 | 201,767 |
| Total votes: 201,767 | |||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for New Mexico Supreme Court
Kerry Morris advanced from the Republican primary for New Mexico Supreme Court on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Kerry Morris | 100.0 | 132,763 |
| Total votes: 132,763 | |||
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2019
Thomson was appointed to the New Mexico Supreme Court by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) on January 25, 2019.[1]
2014
- See also: New Mexico judicial elections, 2014
Thomson was elected to serve on the New Mexico First Judicial District Court in 2014. He won the Democratic primary on June 3, 2014, receiving 35.9% of the vote. He was unopposed in the general election on November 4, 2014.[7][8]
2010
- See also: New Mexico judicial elections, 2010
Thomson was appointed to the New Mexico First Judicial District Court by Gov. Bill Richardson (D) in 2010. He ran for election to the same seat, also in 2010, but was defeated in the Democratic primary by T. Glenn Ellington.[4][9]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[10]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[11]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
David
Thomson
New Mexico
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Democrat
- Donated over $2,000 to Democratic candidates
- Held political office as a Democrat
Partisan Profile
Details:
Thomson was a registered Democrat. He donated over $7,150 to Democratic candidates. He worked for United States Senator Jeff Bingaman (D) and served as the deputy attorney general of New Mexico while he was a registered Democrat. He was appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) to fill a vacancy in 2019. At the time of his appointment, New Mexico was a Democratic trifecta.
State supreme court judicial selection in New Mexico
- See also: Judicial selection in New Mexico
The five justices of the New Mexico Supreme Court are chosen through partisan elections. After serving for one year, the appointed justice must win the first partisan general election after their appointment to serve the remainder of the unexpired term. Justices serve eight-year terms.[12] To serve additional terms, justices must receive at least 57% of the vote in a retention election.[12]
Qualifications
To serve on the supreme court, a person must:
- be at least 35 years old;
- have practiced law for ten years before assuming office; and
- have been a New Mexico resident for three years before assuming office.[13]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court is selected by a peer vote of the justices to serve a two-year term. The chief justice must have been elected to the court, not appointed to fill a vacancy.[14]
Vacancies
In the event of a midterm vacancy, the governor appoints a justice from a list of qualified candidates recommended by a judicial nominating commission. The appointed judge will serve until the first general election held one year after their appointment. The appointee must run in that general election to serve the remainder of the unexpired term.[15]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Candidate New Mexico Supreme Court |
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Santa Fe New Mexican, "District judges elevated to New Mexico high court," January 25, 2019
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Rio Grande Sun "Court Picks For June Primary," May 20, 2010
- ↑ NM Verdicts, "Hon. David Thomson," accessed July 29, 2021
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 New Mexico Courts, "Justice David K. Thomson," accessed July 29, 2021
- ↑ New Mexico Secretary of State, "2014 Primary Election Contest/Candidate List"
- ↑ New Mexico Secretary of State, "UNOFFICIAL RESULTS Primary Election 2014," June 4, 2014
- ↑ Santa Fe New Mexican, "One First District judge faces primary challengers," May 15, 2014
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 New Mexico Secretary of State, "Constitution," accessed September 2, 2021 (Article VI Section 33) Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "nmconst33" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ New Mexico Secretary of State, "Constitution," accessed September 2, 2021 (Article VI Section 8)
- ↑ NMOneSource.com, "Current New Mexico Statutes Annotated 1978," accessed September 2, 2021 (Chapter 34 Article 2)
- ↑ New Mexico Secretary of State, "Constitution," accessed March 29, 2024 (Article VI Section 35)
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| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Current |
Chief Justice: Michael VigilChief Justice: Shannon Bacon • David Thomson • Briana H. Zamora • Julie Vargas | ||
| Former |
Edward Chavez • Patricio Serna • Charles Daniels • Petra Jimenez Maes • Richard Bosson • Barbara J. Vigil • Gary L. Clingman • Paul Kennedy (New Mexico) • Judith Nakamura • | ||
Federal courts:
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of New Mexico • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of New Mexico
State courts:
New Mexico Supreme Court • New Mexico Court of Appeals • New Mexico District Courts • New Mexico Magistrate Court • New Mexico Municipal Courts • New Mexico Probate Courts • New Mexico Problem-Solving Courts • New Mexico Workers' Compensation Administration Court • Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court
State resources:
Courts in New Mexico • New Mexico judicial elections • Judicial selection in New Mexico
