The 11 candidates who have registered with the City Clerk as candidates for Mayor listed in the order by the City Clerk on the city candidate web page are:
- Mayling Armijo
- Eddie Varela
- Patrick Sais
- Darren White
- Timothy Keller
- Louie Sanchez
- Alpana Adair
- Brian Fejer
- Alexander M. M. Uballez
- Daniel Chavez
- Adeo Herrick
https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/2025-candidates-and-committees-1
All 11 candidates are required to collect 3,000 qualifying nominating signatures.
Originally, 8 candidates applied for public finance, now there are 2 with the other 6 withdrawing their applications for public finance.
Public financed candidates must collect 3,780 donations of $5.00 to the city from registered voters to qualify 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 30, with 42 days expiring, there are only 22 days remaining to collect nominating petition signatures and $5.00 qualifying donations.
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, to secure a ballot positon. Each signature must come from registered voters in the Albuquerque area. City clerk’s go through each one of the signatures to confirm their registration. 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.
Following is the breakdown of petition signatures collected by the 11 candidates as of June 6, 2025 as tabulated by the city clerk:
DANIEL CHAVEZ
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 3,422
- Rejected Petition Signatures 2,338
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed -0-
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 100%
TIMOTHY KELLER
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 3,829
- Rejected Petition Signatures 683
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed -0-
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 100%
ALEXANDER UBALLEZ
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 3,179
- Rejected Petition Signatures 542
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed -0-
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 100%
EDDIE VARELA
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 2,602
- Rejected Petition Signatures 699
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 398
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 87%
LOUIE SANCHEZ
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 2,180
- Rejected Petition Signatures 625
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 820
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 73%
DARREN WHITE
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 2,061
- Rejected Petition Signatures 161
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 939
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 69%
MAYLING ARMIJO
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 1,589
- Rejected Petition Signatures 610
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 1,411
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 53%
PATRICK SAIS
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 862
- Rejected Petition Signatures 826
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 2,138
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 22%
BRIAN FEJER
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 77
- Rejected Petition Signatures -0-
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 2,923
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 3%
ALPANA ADAIR
- Required Petition Signatures 3,000
- Verified Petition Signatures 19
- Rejected Petition Signatures 19
- Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 2,981
- Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 1%
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%
COMMENTARY AND ANALSIS ON QUALIFYING PETITION SIGNATURES
As of June 6, the City Clerk has verified 3 candidates who have collected the required 3,000 qualifying nominating petition signatures to be placed on the November 4 ballot. Those candidates are Democrats Mayor Tim Keller, former United States Attorney Alexander Uballez and Republican businessman Daniel Chavez who have secured 100% of the required verified qualifying petition signatures of 3,000.
Fifteen days, from June 6 to June 21, remain to collect the balance of the qualifying nominating petition signatures by the remaining candidates.
Republican Eddie Varela is on track to secure the required 3,000 signatures to get on the ballot with 2,602 signatures collected or 87%. Varela needs 398 more signatures which is very doable within the 15 days left in the collection process. (On May 30, Varela had collected 1,998 or 67%.)
Democrat City Council Louie Sanchez has spiked in the collection of the 3,000 required signatures with 2,180 verified signatures collected or 73%. (On May 30 Sanchez had collected 1,707 signatures or 57%.) Sanchez needs to collect 820 more signatures to get on the ballot. With 15 days left in the collection process it is more likely than not Sanchez will collect them.
Republican Darren White has spiked in the collection of the 3,000 required signatures with 2,061 verified signatures collected or 69% collected. (On May 30 White had collected 1,699 or 57%.) White now needs 939 more signatures to get on the ballot and with 15 left in the collection process it is more likely than not White will collect them.
Democrat Mayling Armijo is still lagging with the collection of nominating petition signatures with 1,589 verified signatures collected or 53%, and she needs 1,411 more needed to get on the ballot which will be difficult at the pace she is going. (On May 30, Armijo had collected 1,084 or 36%.)
It can be said that 4 of the 11 candidates for Mayor will not collect the required 3,000 verified signatures to be placed on the ballot with 3having less than 15% of the required signatures and one with 29%. Those candidates who will likely fail to collect the required 3,000 by June 21 to get on the ballot are: Brian Feger with 3% collected, Apana Adair with 1% collected, Adeo Herrick with 1% collected and Patrick Sais with 29% collected.
The link to the City Clerk web page is here:
PROCESSED PUBLIC FINANCE QUALIFYING DONATIONS
Originally, there only two candidates for Mayor declared that they were privately financed candidates: Daniel Chavez and Mayling Armijo.
Originally, 8 of the 11 candidates running for Mayor declared themselves to be “public finance” candidates. The original 8 are Alpana Adair, Alexander Uballez, Darren White, Tim Keller, Louis Sanchez, Edie Varella, Patrick Sais and Adeo Herrick.
Five candidates have now withdrawn their application for public finance and are now considered privately financed candidates. The candidates who have withdrawn from public finance to become privately financed candidates are Alexander Uballez, Louis Sanchez, Alpana Adair, Eddie Varela and Patrick Sais.
The three candidates who are still declared public financed candidates are Tim Keller, Darren White and Adeo Henrick.
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 were 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 go through each one of the donations to confirm donor registration within the city limits. Audits are also conducted by the city clerk’s office where direct contact is made of donors to confirm the donation was made by the donor. 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 private financed candidate and solicit private campaign donation funding until election day November 5.
The following are the processed public finance qualifying donations for the 3 candidates who remain publicly financed candidates as of Friday June 6 :
TIMOTHY KELLER
- Required Qualifying Contributions 3,780
- Verified Qualifying Contributions 3,040
- Rejected Qualifying Contributions 239
- Remaining Qualifying Contributions Needed 740
- Percentage of Verified Qualifying Contributions Met 80%
DARREN WHITE
- Required Qualifying Contributions 3,780
- Verified Qualifying Contributions 2,000
- Rejected Qualifying Contributions 276
- Remaining Qualifying Contributions Needed 1,780
- Percentage of Verified Qaulifying Contributions Met 53%
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-%
The link to the City Clerk web page is here:
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS ON PUBLIC FINANCE
Mayor Tim Keller is seeking a third term as Mayor and for the third time he is seeking public financing. As of June 6, Keller has collected 3,040 verified qualifying $5.00 donations or 80% and he still needs 740 donations to qualify for public finance or another 20%. With 15 days left in the collection period, Keller must collect an average of 49 donations per day plus an additional number to take into account disqualifications. The odds are high that Mayor Keller will be the only candidate who will qualify for public finance given the number of house parties his campaign has scheduled for that very purpose as well as public events scheduled for June.
The odds are high that Republican Darren White will NOT qualify for public finance. White has collected 2,000 qualifying donations or 53% of the required 3,780 and he needs at least 1,780 more $5.00 donations. With 15 days left in the collection period, White must collect an average of 119 donations per day, plus an additional number to take into account city clerk rejected donations.
NEWS UPDATE: On June 8, with no press announcement, former Bernalillo County Sherriff Darren White, became the sixth candidate to withdraw from public finance filing with the city clerk a withdrawal notice.
https://www.cabq.gov/clerk/documents/white-withdrawal-as-an-applicant-candidate.pdf
Adeo Herrick has collected 0% of the qualifying donations and 1% of the required nominating petition signatures and it is safe to assume that Herrick has likely given up his efforts to run for Mayor and has dropped out of the race.
FINAL COMMENT
The time frame to collect both nominating petition signatures and $5.00 qualifying contributions for public finance is the same and it is from April 19, 2025 to June 21, 2025. On June 21, we will know for sure who has made the ballot and if Mayor Keller will be the only candidate who qualifies for public finance.
On June 21 the campaign for Mayor will begin in earnest with the election to be held on November 4. If no candidate secures 50% plus one of the vote, a run off will be scheduled within 30 days between the two top vote getters.