Ush­ered in by a mu­sic truck and flanked by sev­er­al Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment stal­warts, Dr Janet Hi­lary Bernard en­tered the La Hor­quet­ta Re­gion­al Com­plex yes­ter­day to file her nom­i­na­tion pa­pers.

Ari­ma Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment Pene­lope Beck­les, Ari­ma May­or Cagney Casemire, San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Chair­man Ter­ry Ron­don and oth­er mem­bers of the Ari­ma Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion were at her side as she took her steps to­wards the of­fice of the re­turn­ing of­fi­cer.

For­mer May­or of Ari­ma and cur­rent D’Abadie/O’Meara MP Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian, who was the for­mer lo­cal gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the Ari­ma Cen­tral elec­toral dis­trict, ar­rived short­ly af­ter Dr Bernard filed her pa­pers, and told the PNM can­di­date that she was proud of her.

This en­dorse­ment, the PNM can­di­date said, was one of the rea­sons she did not feel any sig­nif­i­cant pres­sure fol­low­ing in the for­mer may­or’s foot­steps.

“I cer­tain­ly won’t feel that as any pres­sure be­cause she is of­fer­ing me her full sup­port. In fact, be­cause she has done such a won­der­ful job and so many peo­ple are en­deared to her it makes it a lot eas­i­er for me go­ing through this elec­toral process,” Dr Bernard said.

The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress took a far more re­served ap­proach to the nom­i­na­tion process. Can­di­date Shel­don “Fish” Gar­cia ar­rived not too long af­ter the PNM and their en­tourage but opt­ed to wait un­til the red-clad group had left be­fore ap­proach­ing to file.

There was a brief mo­ment when the groups con­verged with con­ver­sa­tions be­ing struck.

Af­ter fil­ing, Gar­cia a school bus dri­ver, said his con­tri­bu­tion to the com­mu­ni­ty and the youth in Ari­ma would prove de­ci­sive in the race.

“I am feel­ing very con­fi­dent this morn­ing for. I know I am go­ing to get the job done. For years I have been work­ing in our area with the youths, main­ly the youths be­cause I fo­cus on the youths. They have been ne­glect­ed for years. When I pass and I see them play­ing and every­thing in that state I say it’s time to throw my hat in­to the ring and get the job done,” he said.