There are a total of 11 candidates who have registered with the City Clerk as candidates for Mayor. All 11 candidates are required to collect 3,000 qualifying nominating signatures. Five of the eleven candidates running for Mayor are “public financed” candidates with 3 others withdrawing as Public Finance Candidates. Public financed candidates must collect 3,780 donations of $5.00 to the city from registered voters to qualify and for the city to give them $755,946 in city financing for their campaigns.
The time frame to collect both nominating petition signatures and $5.00 qualifying contributions is the same and it is from April 19, 2025 to June 21, 2025, a mere 64 days. As of May 23, with 35 days expired, which is over halfway through in the collection process period, following are the tabulations for the candidates nominating petition signature and $5.00 qualifying donations as reported by the City Clerk.
QUALIFYING NOMINATING PETITION SIGNATURES
All eleven candidates must collect at least 3,000 qualifying nominating petition signatures from April 19, 2025 to June 21, 2025, a mere 64 days. Each signature must come from registered voters in the Albuquerque area. The city clerk’s go through each one of the signatures to confirm their registration and candidates can challenge each other’s signatures for disqualification. The signatures of people who sign the nomination petitions and who are not actually registered voters are tossed and are not counted.
Daniel Chavez is the first to secure the required 3,000 signatures to get on the ballot. Following are the processed qualifying nominating petition signatures for each of the 11 candidates as of Friday April 23:
DANIEL CHAVEZ
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 3,424
- Rejected Petition Signatures 2,336
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed -0-
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 100%
BRIAN FEJER
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 69
- Rejected Petition Signatures -0-
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 2,931
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 2%
ALPANA ADAIR
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 14
- Rejected Petition Signatures 11
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 2,986
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 0%
ALEXANDER UBALLEZ
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 2,066
- Rejected Petition Signatures 258
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 934
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 69%
ADEO HERRICK
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 35
- Rejected Petition Signatures 28
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 2,965
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 1%
LOUIE SANCHEZ
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 1,382
- Rejected Petition Signatures 262
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 1,618
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 46%
MAYLING ARMIJO
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 699
- Rejected Petition Signatures 182
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 2,301
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 23%
EDDIE VARELA
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 1,562
- Rejected Petition Signatures 347
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 1,438
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 52%
PATRICK SAIS
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 413
- Rejected Petition Signatures 482
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 2,587
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 14%
DARREN WHITE
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 1,211
- Rejected Petition Signatures 103
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 1,789
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 40%
TIMOTHY KELLER
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 2,634
- Rejected Petition Signatures 410
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 366
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 88%
Daniel Chavez said this of being first to qualify for the ballot:
“I’m feeling great. That was our goal, and we did it. When I announced my candidacy, we really weren’t getting very much attention. So, I figured if we could really work hard with volunteers and friends to get enough signatures to get on the ballot before Tim, we might get noticed. And we were able to do it … I made a $100,000 contribution to my campaign. That’s what got me rolling. It doesn’t make sense to me that we’re paying $5 to Tim or whoever it is to get them into office. And then we’re paying them that on principle, I don’t just believe in it.”
The link to the relied upon and quoted news source is here:
https://www.koat.com/article/albuquerque-mayoral-candidates-new-mexico/64868853
COMMENTARY AND ANALSIS ON QUALIFYING PETITION SIGNATURES
As of May 23, only one candidate has collected 3,000 qualifying nominating petition signatures over the 35 day period from April 19 to May 23. Republican Daniel Chavez secured 100% of the required qualifying petition signatures of 3,000 with 3,424 verified by the city clerk and a whopping 2,336 signatures rejected by the city clerk. Daniel Chavez is self-financed giving his campaign $100,000. The fact that he collected a total of 5,760 signatures, almost twice of what is needed, with so many rejected, is evidence that he paid people who were inexperienced at collecting qualifying signatures but they got the job done which is what counts.
Democrat Mayor Tim Keller is easily on his was to secure the required 3,000 signatures to get on the ballot with 2,634 signatures secured or 88% with 410 rejected and Keller needs only 336 more signatures which is less than the 410 rejected. Keller has a clear advantage because of his incumbency and the experience from two successful municipal campaigns. Keller is holding a series of “meet the candidate” events at supporters homes to collect both signatures and $5.00 donations.
Democrat Alexander Uballez likewise will likely make the ballot with 2,066 verified petition signatures secured or 69% and 258 rejected and he needs 934 more signatures which is doable with 29 days remaining to collect signatures. Ubabellez, like Keller, is holding a series of “meet the candidate” events at supporters homes to collect signatures and $5.00 donations.
Republican Eddie Varela is on track to secure the required 3,000 signatures to get on the ballot with 1,562 signatures collected or 52% and 347 rejected. Varela needs 1,438 more signatures.
Democrat City Council Louie Sanchez is lagging slightly at mid-point to secure the 3,000 required signatures with 1,382 verified or 46%, 262 rejected and needing 1,618 more signatures to get on the ballot.
Republican Darren White is seriously lagging at mid-point to secure the 3,000 required signatures having secured 1,211 or 40% with 103 rejected and needing 1,789 more verified nominating signatures. Notwithstanding, there still is sufficient time for White to make up the difference.
Democrat Mayling Armijo is seriously underwater with her collection of nominating petition signatures with 699 verified signatures collected or 23%, 182 rejected and 2,301 more needed to get on the ballot. It is surprising she is seriously lagging in collecting signatures given the amount she has raised in seed money and raised by a measured finance committee’s for her which should have been spent on collecting signatures. It must be noted that part of Armijo’s problem is she is not even in the country in that she has been deployed for military service.
Only 29 days, from May 23 to June 21, remain to collect the balance of the qualifying nominating petition signatures. It is painfully obvious that 4 out of 11 candidates for Mayor will not collect the required 3,000 signatures to be placed on the ballot with 4 having less than 15% of the required signatures. Those candidates are: Brian Feger with 2% collected, Alpana Adair with 0% collected, Adeo Herrick with 1% collected and Patrick Sais with 14% collected. There is an outside chance one or more are hoarding signatures collected in order to simply turn them in at the last minute but this is a highly risky proposition given that many signatures may prove to be invalid.
The link to the City Clerk web page is here:
PROCESSED PUBLIC FINANCE QUALIFYING DONATIONS
Five of the eleven candidates running for Mayor are “public financed” candidates: Darren White, Tim Keller, Louis Sanchez, Alexander Uballez and Adeo Herrick. Three candidates have withdrawn their application for public finance and are now considered a privately financed candidates: Alpana Adair, Eddie Varela and Patrick Sais.
The single most difficult task for candidates who are publicly financed candidates is the collection of 3,780 qualifying donations of $5.00 each to secure $755,946 in city financing. The candidates are given from April 19, 2025 to June 21, 2025, a mere 64 days, to collect the 3,780 qualifying donations from registered Albuquerque voters.
The city clerks will go through each one of the donations to confirm donor registration within the city limits. If a candidate does not collect the full 3,780 qualifying donations, those donations collected revert to the city and not to a candidate’s campaign. The failing candidate to collect 3,780 qualifying donations can declare to be a privately finance candidate and solicit private campaign donation funding until election day November 5.
The following are the processed public finance qualifying donations for 5 candidates who remain publicly financed candidates as of Friday May 23 with 3 candidates withdrawing as public financing:
ALPANA ADAIR (On May 22, Alpana Adair withdrew from public financing thereby becoming a privately finance candidate.)
- Required Qualifying Contributions 3,780
- Verified Qualifying Contributions 7
- Rejected Qualifying Contributions 4
- Remaining Qualifying Contributions Needed 3,773
- Percentage of Verified Qualifying Contributions Met 0%
ALEXANDER UBALLEZ
- Required Qualifying Contributions 3,780
- Verified Qualifying Contributions 819
- Rejected Qualifying Contributions 122
- Remaining Qualifying Contributions Needed 2,961
- Percentage of Verified Qualifying Contributions Met 22%
ADEO HERRICK
- Required Qualifying Contributions 3,780
- Verified Qualifying Contributions 6
- Rejected Qualifying Contributions -0-
- Remaining Qualifying Contributions Needed 3,774
- Percentage of Verified Qualifying Contributions Met 0%
LOUIE SANCHEZ
- Required Qualifying Contributions 3,780
- Verified Qualifying Contributions 619
- Rejected Qualifying Contributions 64
- Remaining Qualifying Contributions Needed 3,161
- Percentage of Verified Qualifying Contributions Met 16%
EDDIE VARELA (Withdrew application for public finance thereby becoming private financed candidate.)
- Required Qualifying Contributions 3,780
- Verified Qualifying Contributions 95 Rejected Qualifying Contributions 7
- Remaining Qualifying Contributions Needed 3,685
- Percentage of Verified Qualifying Contributions Met 3%
PATRICK SAIS (On May 2, Patrick Saiz withdrew from public financing there becoming a privately finance candidate.)
- Required Qualifying Contributions 3,780
- Verified Qualifying Contributions 2
- Rejected Qualifying Contributions -0-
- Remaining Qualifying Contributions Needed 3,778
- Percentage of Verified Qualifying Contributions Met 0%
DARREN WHITE
- Required Qualifying Contributions 3,780
- Verified Qualifying Contributions 1,266
- Rejected Qualifying Contributions 26
- Remaining Qualifying Contributions Needed 2,514
- Percentage of Verified Qualifying Contributions Met 33%
TIMOTHY KELLER
- Required Qualifying Contributions 3,780
- Verified Qualifying Contributions 2,034
- Rejected Qualifying Contributions 152
- Remaining Qualifying Contributions Needed 1,746
- Percentage of Verified Qualifying Contributions Met 54%
The link to the City Clerk web page is here:
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS ON QUALIFYING DONATIONS
According to the City Clerk, the number of collected $5.00 donations as of May 23 represents donations collected from April 19 to May 23 or collected over a 35 day period. Only 29 days remain from May 23 to June 21 to collect the balance of the $5.00 donations needed to qualify for public finance.
KELLER AND WHITE TWO TOP CANDIDATES FOR PUBLIC FINANCE
Mayor Tim Keller having collected 54% of the required qualifying donations as of May 23, collected over a 35 day period, can be said to be on his way to qualify for the $755,946 in city financing, but it is still going to be close for him with little margin of error. Keller must collect and have approved by the City Clerk an additional 1,746 $5.00 donations over the remaining 29 days to qualify for public finance. This means additional $5.00 donations must be collected to offset those that may be held as invalid. Given Keller’s advantage, his experience in running twice before as a public finance candidate, and his campaign securing 88% of his nominating petition signatures, his percentage of 54% collected in $5.00 donations should be significantly higher. This failure to collect more $5.00 donations is likely attributed to the public’s disdain to making any kind of political contribution as well as Keller’s low approval rating which is said to be at 33%. Keller could conceivably be the only candidate out of 11 who qualifies for public financing, but then again there is an outside chance that no candidates will qualify for public financing given that a mere 29 days remain to collect the $5.00 donations.
Former Bernalillo County Sherriff Darren White comes in a distant second to Keller with White collecting only 1,266 or 33% of the qualifying $5.00 donations over a 35-day period. White must still collect 2,514 more $5.00 donations over the 29 day period remaining, which by any measure is a very daunting task. Given White’s name identification within the Republican Party, he should be doing a lot better and be more competitive. His failure to perform better is likely attributed to his high negatives and being out of office for a considerable amount of time. At this point, White qualifying for Public Financing is in serious doubt. However, if he does not qualify for public finance he could still remain in the race as a privately financed candidate.
UBALLEZ AND SANCHEZ SECOND AND THIRD PUBLIC FINANCE CANDIDATES
Coming in distant 3rd and 4th in the collection of $5.00 public finance donations to the city is former US Attorney for New Mexico Alexander Uballez and City Councilor Louie Sanchez. Uballez has 22% of the required $5.00 donations, or 819 collected, and needs to collect 2,961 more $5.00 donation over a 29-day period. Sanchez has collected a mere 619 or 16% of the required $5.00 donations, and needs to collect 3,161 more $5.00 donations over a 29 day period.
With only 29 days remaining in the collection process it is not at all likely Uballez nor Sanchez will qualify for public financing but they can continue with their campaigns as privately finance campaigns unless they do not collect the required 3,000 nominating petition signatures.
Both Uballez and Sanchez would be wise to abandon their efforts to qualify for public finance and concentrate on collecting the required 3,000 nominating petition signature in order to get on the ballot. Uballez has 69% or 2,066 of the nominating petition signatures needed to get on the ballot and needs 934 more. Sanchez has 1,382 or 46% of the signatures needed to get on the ballot and needs 1,618 more nominating petition signatures to get on the ballot .
FOUR CANDIDATES HAVE FAILED TO QUALIFY FOR PUBLIC FINANCE
Adeo Herrick has collected only 6 qualifying $5.00 donations out of the 3,780 required and it can be presumed he will not qualify for public finance.
Three candidates who originally private finance candidates withdrew their applications and have not qualified for public finance: Alpana Adair, Eddie Varela and Patrick Sais.
The link to the City Clerk web page is here:
DIRE NEED FOR REFORM TO PUBLIC FINANCE LAWS
The fact that only one candidate for Mayor or perhaps two will qualify for public finance this election year is clear evidence that the system has been set up for candidates to fail, that is why so few candidates for Mayor will qualify for public finance. The system favors incumbents who have high name identification and built in campaign organizations. Some have argued it is a system that is supposed to be hard to “weed out” candidates who are incapable of mounting serious campaigns. But making it so hard that no one qualifies makes it a mockery of the purpose and intent of public finance which is to encourage qualified people to run who can not afford to run.
The deficiencies in the city’s public financing have been repeatedly warned about over the last 14 years but have been ignored. Some of the changes advocated is reducing the number of qualifying donations to a more realistic number as well as increasing the time to collect the qualifying donations. Simply put, public finance laws should not be set up to make it too difficult to qualify for public financing and should have sufficient safeguards to police and prevent fraud.
The following changes to the City’s public finance and election are in order:
- Double the amount of time from 64 days to 128 days to collect both the qualifying donations and petition signatures, and private campaign donation collection.
- Reduce the number of $5.00 qualifying donations of 3,780 to equal the number of nominating petition signatures of 3,000. Simply put, many voters loath making political donations of any kind.
- Allow the collection of the qualifying donations from anyone who wants, and not just residents or registered voters of Albuquerque. Privately finance candidates now can collect donations from anyone they want and anywhere in the State and Country.
- Once the allowed number of qualifying donations is collected, the public financing would immediately made available, but not allowed to be spent until the date of closure of the collection process.
- Permit campaign spending for both publicly financed and privately financed candidates only from the date of closure of the collection process to the November election day.
- Return to candidates for their use in their campaign any qualifying donations the candidate has collected when the candidate fails to secure the required number of qualifying donations to get the public financing.
- Mandate the City Clerk to issue debit card or credit card collection devices to collect the qualifying donations and to issue receipts and eliminate the mandatory use of “paper receipts”. Continue to allow the collection of both nominating petition signature and $5.00 donations “on line.”
- Increase from $1.00 to $2.50 per registered voter the amount of public financing, which will be approximately $900,000, and allow for incremental increases of 10% every election cycle keeping up with inflation.
- Allow additional matching public financing available for run offs at the rate of $1.25 per registered voter, or $450,000.
- Albuquerque should make every effort to make municipal elections partisan elections to be held along with State and Federal elections by seeking a constitutional amendment from the legislature to be voted upon by the public.
- Any money raised and spent by measured finance committees on behalf a candidate should be required to first be applied to reimburse the City for any taxpayer money advanced to a public finance candidate or deducted from a publicly finance candidates account and returned to the city.
- City of Albuquerque campaign reporting and finance ordinances and regulations need to define with absolute clarity that strictly prohibit the coordination of expenditures and campaign activities with measured finance committees and individual candidate’s campaigns in municipal elections.
- A mandatory schedule of fines and penalties for violations of the code of ethics and campaign practices act should be enacted by the City Council.
CONCLUSION
Until there is real reform of public finance laws, we can continue to expect only one to two candidates qualify for public financing in elections for Mayor.