The judge overseeing Democrats’ attempt to force a replacement candidate onto the ballot in New Mexico House District 23 has extensive ties to the state’s Democratic political establishment — including a marriage to one of New Mexico’s most prolific progressive fundraisers and strategists.
That history is drawing fresh scrutiny as Thirteenth Judicial District Judge James A. Noel prepares to hear arguments over whether Democrat Matthew Herman can legally replace Elise Falanga Taylor on the Nov. 3 ballot.
The underlying law appears straightforward.
Section 1-8-8(A) NMSA 1978 states: “If after a primary election, but ninety or more days before the general election, a vacancy occurs” the political party may fill that vacancy through its central committee. Subsection D separately gives parties until 70 days before the election to file an appointment for a vacancy that qualifies under Subsection A.
The distinction matters. Lawmakers specifically changed the vacancy threshold from 70 days to 90 days in 2023, while preserving the separate 70-day filing deadline.
For the Nov. 3 election, the 90-day mark was Aug. 5.
Falanga Taylor did not announce her departure until Aug. 16, after alleging Republicans had used “vile tactics” involving information about an abusive former partner. Republican incumbent Rep. Alan Martinez, the House minority whip, denied that he or anyone connected to his campaign had anything to do with the alleged attacks, and Falanga Taylor’s campaign did not identify who supposedly circulated them when questioned by local media.
Sandoval County Democrats subsequently selected Herman on Aug. 23.
Sandoval County Clerk Anne Brady-Romero initially concluded that was too late under the 90-day statute.
Then Noel intervened.
He ordered Brady-Romero to place Herman on the ballot or appear Sept. 2 and explain why she had not done so. The clerk ultimately complied Friday but maintained that her original interpretation was correct and announced Sandoval County would still argue that “no replacement candidate could be submitted because of statutory deadlines.”
Now the political background of the judge handling that dispute is receiving attention.
Noel was appointed to the bench in 2020 by Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and subsequently ran for the position as a Democrat. Before becoming a judge, Noel served as a cabinet secretary under Democrat Gov. Bill Richardson and as executive director of the New Mexico Judicial Standards Commission.
More significantly, Noel is married to Amanda Cooper, a longtime Democrat political strategist with deep ties to New Mexico’s progressive political infrastructure. Contemporary reporting has repeatedly identified Cooper as Noel’s wife.
Cooper is also the stepdaughter of former Democrat U.S. Sen. Tom Udall.
Her political résumé stretches back decades.
Richardson’s own presidential campaign identified Cooper as his reelection campaign manager and fundraising director, crediting her with overseeing $14 million raised for his gubernatorial reelection and helping raise another $28 million during Richardson’s chairmanship of the Democratic Governors Association. She later became a senior figure in Richardson’s presidential campaign.
Cooper also managed Udall’s successful 2008 U.S. Senate campaign.
Perhaps more relevant to current New Mexico politics, longtime political blogger Joe Monahan identified Cooper in 2024 as one of the figures heading Better Future for New Mexico, a major progressive independent-expenditure PAC, alongside consultant Nick Voges and Jim Gollin. A strategy letter published by Monahan was signed by all three and outlined efforts to defeat centrist and conservative Democrats while advancing priorities including abortion rights, climate policy, paid family and medical leave, and other progressive causes.
The PAC remains a financial powerhouse.
Its April and May 2026 campaign-finance filings disclosed three major contributions totaling $525,000: $250,000 from the North Fund reported in its April filing, followed by $175,000 from Grove Action Fund and $100,000 from Green Advocacy Project in its May report.
The May filing shows Better Future then sending tens of thousands of dollars for “voter contact” to organizations including Planned Parenthood Votes New Mexico, NM Working Families Party PAC, CVNM Verde Voters Fund, and Native American Advocacy Fund. An earlier filing shows another $20,000 going to ProgressNow New Mexico Votes.
The PAC has also repeatedly paid Dream Train Consulting, while Voges publicly identifies Dream Train as his consulting firm.
Cooper and Voges have additionally appeared together as sponsors of Emerge New Mexico, an organization devoted to recruiting and training Democrat pro-abortion, far-left women and “nonbinary” candidates.
According to information provided to Piñon Post, former Democrat state Rep. Daymon Ely, a trial attorney who previously represented House District 23, is also meddling in Democrats’ legal push surrounding the replacement candidate, in typical fashion. He recently attacked state Rep. Rebecca Dow (R-Truth or Consequences), unsuccessfully attempting to boot her from the ballot. Public reporting has separately identified attorney Kate Ferlic as representing Herman in the case.
There is another historical wrinkle.
In 2008, Noel was tapped to become New Mexico’s elections director while Cooper was managing her stepfather Tom Udall’s U.S. Senate campaign. Republicans raised conflict-of-interest concerns over having a candidate’s son-in-law overseeing state elections. Noel ultimately withdrew from the election job and remained with the Judicial Standards Commission.
That history makes the current case especially noteworthy.
New Mexico’s Judicial Ethics Handbook states that a judge must disqualify himself or herself when the judge’s impartiality “might reasonably be questioned.” But New Mexico case law also makes clear that mere political disagreement or fear of an unfavorable ruling does not itself establish judicial bias; there must be a reasonable factual basis for questioning impartiality.
There is no evidence Cooper is a party to the HD23 lawsuit, that she has a direct financial interest in Herman’s candidacy, or that Noel has acted improperly because of his wife’s politics.
But the optics are unavoidable.
A Democrat-appointed judge, married to a longtime progressive fundraising operative connected to one of New Mexico’s most powerful left-leaning PAC networks, is now deciding whether Democrats can keep contesting a Republican-held House seat despite a statute that expressly says a post-primary vacancy must occur 90 or more days before the election.
Falanga Taylor’s vacancy did not.
The Democrats created the vacancy. Their candidate waited until after the 90-day threshold to quit. The Legislature deliberately changed that threshold from 70 days to 90 days only three years ago.
So the question heading into Wednesday’s hearing is simple: Will the court enforce the statute as the Legislature wrote it, or find a way around a deadline Democrats plainly missed?
With control of legislative seats hanging in the balance — and Noel’s own family history deeply intertwined with Democratic politics — New Mexicans will be watching closely.