Rep. Christine Chandler Files to Run for Fourth Term in Legislature

Christine Chandler, the Los Alamos-based Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, filed Tuesday morning to run for a fourth term representing New Mexico House District 43, which spans Los Alamos, Sandoval, and Santa Fe Counties.

Chandler identified her priorities as artificial intelligence, social media, and policies supporting working families, including tax measures and social benefits. The AI focus aligns with legislative conversations she has engaged in publicly, including a February 2025 Legislative Preview co-sponsored by the Los Alamos League of Women Voters and AAUW, where she spoke first among the three local legislators who participated. That forum included discussion of an artificial intelligence bill that would require developers and deployers to screen for discrimination when algorithms are used in consequential decisions.

Beyond the Judiciary Committee chairmanship, Chandler sits on the House Taxation and Revenue Committee. During the legislative interim, running June through December, she chairs the Courts, Corrections and Justice interim committee and serves on the Revenue Stabilization and Tax Policy Committee, giving her a hand in both the criminal justice and fiscal policy conversations that shape state government between sessions.

Chandler was first elected to the New Mexico House in 2018 and re-elected in 2020. A filing for a fourth term is consistent with continued service through successive election cycles since then.

Her professional roots run deep in Los Alamos. She retired as an attorney and manager from Los Alamos National Laboratory's Office of General Counsel, and her husband George Chandler is also a retired LANL physicist and attorney. Before her legislative career, she served as Probate Judge for Los Alamos County and completed two terms on the Los Alamos County Council, where she held both the Chair and Vice Chair positions. Her earlier civic work also included serving as president of the Los Alamos League of Women Voters, as a board member of the Los Alamos Public Schools Foundation and Leadership Los Alamos, and as a member of the Los Alamos Planning and Zoning Commission.

Chandler earned an economics degree from Smith College and holds law degrees from both Boston College and Georgetown University. She and George have three children and six grandchildren living in Los Alamos, Carlsbad, and Oregon.