21-001 Definitions.

As used in this Code:

A. "candidate" means a person seeking selection for or retention in judicial office by election or appointment. A person becomes a candidate for judicial office as soon as the person makes a public announcement of candidacy, declares or files as a candidate with the election or appointment authority, or authorizes solicitation or acceptance of contributions or support. The term "candidate" has the same meaning when applied to a judge seeking election or appointment to nonjudicial office;

B. "election" means a municipal, primary or general election and includes partisan elections, nonpartisan elections and retention elections;

C. "fiduciary" includes such relationships as executor, personal representative, attorney in fact, trustee and guardian;

D. "impartiality" or "impartial" denotes absence of bias or prejudice in favor of, or against, particular parties or classes of parties, as well as maintaining an open mind in considering issues that may come before the judge.

E. "knowingly," "knowledge," "known" or "knows" means actual knowledge of the fact in question. A person's knowledge may be inferred from circumstances;

F. "law" means court rules, statutes, the United States Constitution, the Constitution of the State of New Mexico and decisional law of this jurisdiction;

G. "member of the candidate's family" or "member of the judge's family" means a spouse, child, grandchild, parent, grandparent or other relative or person with whom the candidate maintains a close familial relationship;

H. "member of the judge's family residing in the judge's household" means any relative of a judge by blood or marriage, or a person treated by a judge as a member of the judge's family, who resides in the judge's household;

I. "nonpublic information" means information that, by law or court order, is not available to the public; and

J. "require," when used in rules prescribing that a judge "require" certain conduct of others, means that a judge is to exercise reasonable direction and control over the conduct of those persons subject to the judge's direction and control.

[Adopted, effective February 16, 1995; as amended, effective August 31, 2004.]

Effective of amendment notes:
The 2004 amendment, effective August 31, 2004, added a new Paragraph D defining "impartiality" or "impartial" and re-lettered former Paragraphs D to H as Paragraphs E to J.