On December 9 at approximately 7:53 pm., less than one hour after polls closed, Mayor Tim Keller was declared the victor over Darren White by the media. The final vote was not even close with Keller winning by 15%. The final vote was:
- Tim Keller 74,421 57.71%
- Darren White 54,538 42.29%
The link to the final vote tabulation is here:
Mayor Tim Keller campaigned on his eight-year record of fighting crime and expanding housing for the 5,000 or more unhoused people in the city. That included opening a multifaceted Gateway system of care and creating the city Community Safety Department to respond to behavioral health and crisis situations in the city.
Darren White campaigned on his law enforcement background, saying 8 years of Keller was enough and that it was time for a change. He promised a change of direction, emphasizing aggressive encampment sweeps of homeless individuals, and full cooperation with federal immigration agents seeking access to data on suspects arrested by APD. He said he entered the race after lamenting about the “state” of the city, and finding no other Republican was running. White promised he would only serve for four years.
Mayor Keller spoke to his supporters at The Clyde Hotel downtown and said this in part about his win and the city’s future:
“Voters granted us something very, very special. … The city has spoken, and folks have essentially said one thing loud and clear: they want us to keep going. … We are not going to allow ICE in. We are not going to let Trump come into Albuquerque. … It’s a mandate to push forward, and it’s also a challenge to rise to the occasion. That’s what our next four years are going to be all about. … I see what you see. I understand what’s going on in the streets. … These are truly challenging times. But also challenging times politically. Look this was a campaign. We know we were attacked from all sides.”
Darren White conceded the mayoral race around 7:45 p.m., 45 minutes after the polls closed, to a crowd of about 60 people gathered at the Courtyard by Marriott, across the city from downtown, at a hotel in the Journal Center. Darren White gave his concession speech and said this in part:
“Yes, we are disappointed by the results. But we respect their choice. We came up short, but our call for change and a better quality of life should resonate long and wide. … Don’t you think for a minute that your voice can’t be heard. And don’t think for a minute that you should give up and say the hell with this. Because this is our city, and we love it, and that’s what we were fighting for. … And maybe just maybe, what we went through in those debates and those forums, maybe just maybe, the mayor will understand that we want him to fight for our families, and we want him to fight for our businesses.”
CITY COUNCIL SEATS
West Side voters also decided on the two westside Albuquerque City Council races in Districts 1 and 3.
In City Council District 1, Progressive Democrat Stephanie Telles prevailed over MAGA Republican Joshua Taylor Neal in the runoff for the open West Side council district seat to succeed City Councilor Louie Sanchez, who chose not to seek a second term to pursue an unsuccessful bid for mayor coming in fourth. Democrat City Councilor Sanchez endorsed Republican Neal. The final vote was:
- Stephanie Telles 9,071 59.46%
- Joshua Neal 6,186 40.55%
In City Council District 3, three term incumbent moderate Democrat Councilor Klarissa Peña prevail over her challenger Progressive Democrat Teresa Garcia with the closest margin as it gets winning by a mere 69 votes or 1.03%.The final vote was:
- Klarissa Peña 3,338 50.52%
- Teresa Garcia 3,270 49.49%
The link to the final vote tabulation is here:
The links to quoted or relied news sources are here:
https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/keller-wins-albuquerque-mayoral-election/?cb=1765336814365
https://www.koat.com/article/tim-keller-wins-albuquerque-mayor-election/69680229
https://www.abqjournal.com/news/article_31f89c61-9332-482e-9c9a-d1b14190bbd5.html
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
There are no term limits for Albuquerque mayor. With his victory, Mayor Tim Keller secured a historic third consecutive four year term as Albuquerque Mayor. No previous Albuquerque mayor has served for three consecutive terms. Mayor Martin Chavez served for three terms but they were not consecutive. Chavez served one term from 1993-1997 then left the Mayor’s office to run unsuccessfully for Governor. Chavez lost to Republican Governor Gary Johnson and returned to run for mayor again and won twice and served two consecutive terms from 2001-2009.
Voters saw the most contentious runoff in the city’s history with Mayor Tim Keller securing what many would call a landslide victory over Darren White after a contentious campaign by both candidates as they battled over the topics of high crime rates and the homeless.
Keller and White vilified each other pointing out each other’s numerous flaws. The politcal reality was we had a runoff between two of the most disliked candidates to ever run for Mayor. Mayor Keller clawed his way back from a low approval rating of 42% to win a hard-fought election.
Mayor Keller was the only candidate for Mayor of seven candidates whose campaign was publicly financed. Keller was given more than $1.14 million in contributions for both the regular local and runoff elections, compared to White’s reported total of $642,429 in private contributions. White didn’t qualify for the public financing.
Tim Keller running against a very weak slate of 6 candidates and being the only one to qualify for $1.14 Million in public finance were likely the deciding factors for his win along with Keller’s built in advantage of incumbency and his very loyal progressive democratic party base.
NEW CITY COUNCIL
When it comes to the new city council, it will now be evenly split with 4 very progressive Democratic City Councilors, 4 MAGA Republican City Councilors and one moderate Democrat City Council who will likely be the swing vote on major issues. In other words, the politcal dynamics will be the same as before but with the identity of the swing vote changing. It was first term District 1 Conservative Democrat Louie Sanchez who more often than not sided with the 4 MAGA Republicans on the City Council to thwart the efforts of the Progressive Democrat City Councilors. Sanchez did not seek reelection and ran unsuccessfully for Mayor and came in fourth out of seven total candidates running.
The City’s progressive Democratic leaning organizations and Democratic Progressive party members made a very strong bid to give the City Council a decidedly progressive lean, but the effort fell short. Incumbent moderate Democrat City Councilor Klarissa Peña won by a mere 69 votes or 1.03% over progressive Democrat Teresa Garcia for the City Council District 3 seat representing the SW Mesa area.
The Peña/Garcia city council race attracted leading progressives to get involved with the race. Mayor Tim Keller endorsed Peña as did Democratic Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury and Democratic Governor candidate Deb Haaland. Democratic Senior Senator Martin Heinrich and State Senator Katy Duhigg endorsed Democrat Teresa Garcia.
It will Incumbent moderate Democrat City Councilor Klarissa Peña who assume the critical role as swing vote replacing Conservative Democrat Louie Sanchez who often sided with the four MAGA Republicans. With the departure of Conservative Democrat City Councilor Louie Sanchez and his replacement by Progressive Democrat Stephanie Telles, Mayor Keller should have improved relations with the City Council, but not that much more.
The breakdown of the new City Council is as follows:
PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS
- District 1 Progressive Democrat City Councilor Stephanie Telles
- District 2 Progressive Democrat City Councilor Joaquín Baca
- District 6 Progressive Democrat City Councilor Nichole L. Rogers
- District 7 Progressive Democrat City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn
MAGA REPUBLICANS
- District 4 Republican City Councilor Brook Bassan
- District 5 Republican City Councilor Dan Lewis
- District 8 Republican City Councilor Dan Champine.
- District 9 Republican City Councilor Renée Grout
SWING VOTE
District 3 Moderate Democrat City Councilor Klarissa Peña.
NEW CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS
The first item of business the new city council will vote upon in its first meeting after being sworn in will be the election by the 9 city councilors of President and Vice President. The City Council President has the authority to appoint all city council committee chairmanships and for that reason sets the tone for how business is conducted and what is accomplished.
There is already rumors circulating that District 2 Progressive Democrat City Councilor Joaquín Baca wants to be the new City Council President. However, the real question is if District 3 Moderate Democrat City Councilor Klarissa Peña wants the job, which she has done before, and if the 4 MAGA Republicans will support her as President as a reasonable compromise.
CONCLUSION
Congratulations to all the victors and best wishes as they carry out the business of the people.