Four Qualify For Mayoral Ballot; Three More Will Likely Qualify; Four Will Likely Not Qualify; Measured Finance Committees Formed To Promote Keller, Varela and Armijo; Donors And Expenditures Identified; POSTSCRIPT: Proposed Changes To City Public Finance System

Posted on June 15, 2025 by Pete Dinelli

There are 11 candidates who have registered with the City Clerk as candidates running for Mayor. The candidates listed in order by the City Clerk on the 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

PROCESSED PETITION SIGNATURES

All eleven candidates must collect at least 3,000 qualifying nominating petition signatures from April 19, 2025 to June 21, 2025 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 13, 2025 as tabulated and verified by the city clerk:

DANIEL CHAVEZ

Required Petition Signatures 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures 3,427
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 3,424
Rejected Petition Signatures 592
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed -0-
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 100%

ALEXANDER UBALLEZ

Required Petition Signatures 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures 3,281
Rejected Petition Signatures 621
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed -0-
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 100%

EDDIE VARELA

Required Petition Signatures 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures 3,510
Rejected Petition Signatures 992
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed -0-
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 100%

LOUIE SANCHEZ

Required Petition Signatures 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures 2,981
Rejected Petition Signatures 1,345
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 19
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 99%

MAYLING ARMIJO

Required Petition Signatures 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures 2,358
Rejected Petition Signatures 1,160
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 642
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 79%

DARREN WHITE

Required Petition Signatures 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures 2,268
Rejected Petition Signatures 167
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 732
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 76%

PATRICK SAIS

Required Petition Signatures 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures 975
Rejected Petition Signatures 950
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 2,025
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 32%

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 28
Rejected Petition Signatures 19
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 2,972
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 1%

ADEO HERRICK

Required Petition Signatures 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures 38
Rejected Petition Signatures 28
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 2,962
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 1%

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

Out of 11 candidates for mayor, the following 4 have qualified for ballot and have collected 100% of the required verified qualifying signatures as of June 13, 2025:

DANIEL CHAVEZ
TIMOTHY KELLER
ALEXANDER UBALLEZ
EDDIE VARELA

With 8 days left to collect qualifying signatures, the following additional 3 will likely qualify for the ballot:

LOUIE SANCHEZ (Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 99%, 19 signatures remaining needed)
MAYLING ARMIJO (Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 79%, 642 signatures remaining needed)
DARREN WHITE (Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 76%, 732 signatures remaining needed).

With 8 days left to collect qualifying signatures, the following 4 will likely NOT qualify for the ballot:

PATRICK SAIS (Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met: 32%, Remaining Petition Signatures needed 2,327)
BRIAN FEJER (Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 3%, remaining Petition Signatures Needed 2,923)
ALPANA ADAIR (Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 1%, remaining petition signatures Needed 2,972)
ADEO HERRICK (Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 1%, remaining petition signatures needed 2,962)

PROCESSED QUALIFYING CONTRIBUTIONS

Public finance 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.

Originally, 8 candidates declared as public finance candidates. Now there are 2 with 6 withdrawing their applications for public finance with those 6 now private financed candidates.

The 8 original candidates who declared themselves to be “public finance” candidates are Alpana Adair, Alexander Uballez, Darren White, Tim Keller, Louis Sanchez, Edie Varella, Patrick Sais and Adeo Herrick. Six candidates have now withdrawn their application for public finance

The only two candidates who are still declared public financed candidates are Tim Keller and Adeo Henrick.

Adeo Herrick has collected 0% of the qualifying $5.00 donations and 1% of the required nominating petition signatures and it is safe to assume that Herrick is not a serious candidate and has likely dropped out of the race.

The following are the processed public finance qualifying donations for Tim Keller as of Friday June 13:

TIMOTHY KELLER

Required Qualifying Contributions 3,780
Verified Qualifying Contributions 3,688
Rejected Qualifying Contributions 312
Remaining Qualifying Contributions Needed 92
Percentage of Verified Qualifying Contributions Met 98%

COMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

With 8 days left to collect qualifying $5.00 and with Keller having collected 98% of the donations and with only 92 remaining to be collected, Keller will be the only candidate to qualify for public finance and will be given by the city $755,946 to run his campaign.

As for Keller’s opponents, all are relegated to scrambling for private financing unless they are wealthy enough to self-finance. It’s unknown how they will do with private fundraising but we will soon see as campaign finance reports are required. The only candidate that likely has the ability to private finance his own campaign is Parking Company of America CAO Daniel Chavez who has already donated $100,000 of his personal money to finance the collection of the ballot qualifying nominating signatures.

THREE MEASURED FINANCE COMMITEES FORMED FOR MAYOR’S RACE

Under the City of Albuquerque’s campaign finance laws, a Measure Finance Committee (MFC) is a political action committee (PAC), person or group that supports or opposes a candidate or ballot measure within the City of Albuquerque. Measure finance committees are not bound by the individual contribution limits and business bans like candidates. Any Measure Finance Committee can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on behalf of a candidate or in opposition to a candidate.

Measured finance committees are strictly prohibited from coordinating their activities with candidates and their campaigns. It is a very grey area as to what constitutes coordinating campaigns when friends, family and business associates and people who do business with the city are comingled with both the candidates campaigns, make donations and the measured finance committee fundraising and activities .

In the 2025 municipal election, three measured finance Committees have been formed to help and support Mayling Armijo, Tim Keller and Eddie Varela. The 3 measured finance committees and what they have raised thus far as of June 13 are:

SAFER ALBUQUERQUE COMMITTEE (SAFER ABQ) formed for the purpose “To advocate for Mayling Armijo’s candidacy for mayor during the Albuquerque 2025 mayoral race and align with values that reduce crime, reduce homelessness, and promote job growth.”

As of June 13, this measured finance committee has raised $120,080 in total contributions and has made $41,466.90 in total expenditures and has a cash balance of $78,613. A total of 53 expenditures have been made for “advertising” with 13 payments made to LINKEDIN and 22 payments made to FACEBOOK.

Chairperson: CHARLES M. ROLISON Treasurer: KATRINA TRACY. The top Contributors listed in the financial disclosure for the SAFER ALBUQUERQUE COMMITTEE (SAFER ABQ) are:

Chauling Mary Armijo $40,000
Katrina Tracy $40,000
Four Winds Mechanical HTC/AC Inc $40,000
Charles Rolison $80.00

Chauling Mary Armijo is believed to be the owner and chief executive officer of Four Winds Mechanical HTC/AC and she is the sister of candidate Mayling Armijo.

https://campaignfinance.cabq.gov/#/exploreCommitteeDetail/M3FjOgNU2Z3h9u5VXBTrEgpRrh19RviUIoO4CmCWDAE1/null/null/2/2025

ASCEND ALBUQUERQUE formed for the purpose “To support the election of Tim Keller as Mayor of Albuquerque.”

As of June 13, this measured finance committee has raised $38,500 in total contributions and has made $14,050.92 in total expenditures and has a cash balance of $24,449.08.

$24,449.08. CHAIRPERSON: Michelle Mayorga. TREASURER: Sean Marcus.

The chairperson for ASCEND ALBUQUERQUE is well known progressive Democrat and politcal consultant Michelle Mayorga who is a partner with GBOA, a public opinion research, political strategy and consulting firm based out of Washington, DC. Michelle Mayorga has spent two decades in progressive politics — recruiting, managing, and training candidates and organizers at all levels. Her clients have included Democratic candidates around the country, such as Senator Ben Ray Luján (NM), Reps. Colin Allred (TX-32), Andrea Salinas (OR-6), and Teresa Leger Fernández (NM-3) as well as Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall.

The email address for this measured finance committee is sfitzer139@gmail.com. This email address is believed to be that of Steve Fitzer who is a highly respected and well known politcal fundraiser and strategist for successful democratic candidates for office. Steve Fitzer is Vice President of Strategies 360 in the New Mexico office which is a politcal strategies and fundraising company. “Fitzers career in politics and campaigns spans over three decades. From city council races to presidential races, he has had experience at every size and reach of a campaign. For over the last 20 years his main focus has been fundraising.” You can read more about Mr. Fitzer in the link below:

Political Fundraiser and Strategist, Steve Fitzer, Joins Strategies 360

CONTRIBUTORS

As of June 13, major contributors to ASCEND ALBUQUERQUE listed are:

Fresquez Concessions, Inc $15,000
Edward Garcia $5,000
Carlos Garcia $5,000
Paul Wynn $5,000
Texas Spine and Orthopedic Surgeons $2,500
Randi McGinn $2,500
Suresh Neelagan $2,500
James C. Atkins $1,000

COMMENTARY ON CONTRIBUTORS

“Fresquez Concessions, Inc.”, which is a part of “Fresquez Companies”, manages and operates the City of Albuquerque’s Airport concession contracts. The Chief Executive Officer of Fresquez Companies is Lenny Fresquez and his daughter Lee Anna Fresquez is the President of Fresquez Companies .

Edward Garcia is the Executive Chairman of the Garcia Automotive Family Dealerships and Carlos Garcia is a managing partner who oversee the group’s operations. In addition to the Garcia Automotive Dealerships, the Garcia family are major stakeholders in Albuquerque downtown real estate development.

EXPENDITURES OF ASCEND ALBUQUERQUE

As of June 13, according to ASCEND ALBUQUERQUE financial expenditures report, the following expenditures with purpose listed have been made:

April 15: $759 paid to Blue Print Public Affairs of Salt Lake, Utah for “fundraising.”
May 1: $277: paid to “ACT Blue”, Somerville, MA, for “information”
May 2: $3,000 paid to Blue Print Public Affairs of Salt Lake, Utah for “information.”
May 21: $1,076.25 paid to Electronics In Motion, Shake He, Ohio for “professional”
June 2: $1,076 paid to Electronics In Motion, Shake He, Ohio for “professional”
May 30: $7,500 paid to Stanford Campaigns, Dallas, Texas for “other”
June 1: $370 paid to “ACT Blue”, Somerville, MA, for “information”

https://campaignfinance.cabq.gov/#/exploreCommitteeDetail/VMQvJiHXaP1z-Iz2eL_papP4048PFnxLXRUfdOLcQk01/null/null/2/2025

CIPGAW: Committee to Elect Eddie Varela Mayor of Albuquerque formed for the purpose to “Elect Eddie Varela Mayor of Albuquerque.”

As of June 13, the Finance Report states the measured finance committee has raised $5,000 in total contributions and reports $24.83 in total expenditures and has a cash balance of $4,975.17.

EXPENDITURES

The Finance Disclosure statement reflects a $24.83 expenditure to White Co Checks on May 22.

The Finance Disclosure statement reflects a monetary expenditure of $3,000 on June 6 listing as the reason “Varela, Ed” with no further explanation.

CHAIRPERSON: Bradley William Day TREASURER: Amanda Baca.

CONTRIBUTORS

As of June 13, the sole contributor to this measured finance committee is Bradley William Day who contributed $5,000 on May 14, 2025.

https://campaignfinance.cabq.gov/#/exploreCommitteeDetail/feXJuXAYkFJVGJBhl95rMZP4048PFnxLXRUfdOLcQk01/null/null/2/2025

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

The purpose and intent of the city’s public financing system is to reduce the influence of large donors in local elections. Simply put, its a FALSE narrative with the existence of measured finance committees that can and will raise unlimited amounts of money and spend it on promoting a candidate.

The influence of “dark money” in elections as allowed by the US Supreme Court decision in Citizens United is destroying our democracy. Many highly qualified candidates for office all too often do not bother to run because of the inability or difficulty raising the necessary money to run. Political campaign fundraising and big money influence are warping our election process. Money spent becomes equated with the final vote. Money drives the message, affects voter turnout and ultimately the outcome of an election. Albuquerque municipal elections need campaign finance reform and enforcement. Voters are encouraged NOT to donate to any one of the 3 measured finance committees established to promote Mayling Armijo, Tim Keller and Eddie Varela.

Campaign finance reform and reform of the city’s public finance laws should become an issue in the 2025 Mayor’s race. The fact that only one candidate for Mayor will qualify for public finance this election year is clear evidence that the system has been set up for other candidates to fail and that it favors incumbents. That is why only Mayor Keller will qualify for public finance. The system favors incumbents such as Mayor Tim Keller who have high name identification and built in campaign organizations including city staff and a Mayor who holds two and three press conferences a day.

If Mayor Tim Keller is really committed to the city public finance and wants to “Walk The Talk” as he has said in the past, he would go out of his way to distance himself from ASCEND ALBUQUERQUE.

Keller should ask ASCEND ALBUQUERQUE organizers cease any efforts to raise donations to promote his candidacy. Asking Keller to condemn a measured finance committee promoting him is likely way too much to ask of an entrenched politician such as Keller and his greedy enablers and handlers who make lucrative livings off of public finance and the candidates they support.

Keller wants the best of both worlds of getting public finance and having a measured finance committee raise even more to promote him and he will be getting his wish!

______________________

PROPOSED CHANGES TO CITY’S MEASURED FINANCE SYSTEM

The deficiencies in the city’s public financing have been repeatedly warned about over the last 14 years, at least by www.PeteDinelli.com, 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 system and election code are in order:

Reduce the amount of the qualifying donation from $5.00 to $2.00.
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 qualifying donations from 3,780 to a flat 2,000. Simply put, many voters loath making political donations of any kind.
Strictly prohibit former campaign staff or family members of candidates from being allowed to run or fund measured finance committees.
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 be 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.

16 Candidates Run For 5 City Council Seats; Only One Incumbent Runs Unopposed; 13 Candidates Seek Public Finance, 3 Are Privately Financed; Links To Candidate Information And Finances; Calendar Deadlines

Posted on June 12, 2025 by Pete Dinelli

On November 4, 2025, the municipal elections for Albuquerque Mayor and City Council will be on the ballot. Of the nine-member city council, the 5 odd number City Council Districts 1,3,5,7, and 9 will be on the ballot. There are a total of 16 candidates running for the 5 City Council seats with 13 seeking public finance and 3 privately financed.

This article highlights and provides the information on the candidates as provided by the City Clerk. The information includes stating if the candidates are seeking public finance, their addresses and links to the following on each candidate:

Campaign email
Campaign website
Campaign finance

By clicking on the individual candidate campaign finance links provided below, the candidates disclose the following information:

Total Contributions
Total Expenditures
In-Kind Contributions
In-Kind Expenditures
Current Cash Balance
Current Debt Balance
Top Contributors

CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE CALENDAR DEADLINES

The “exploratory period” for City Council Candidates was from April 17, 2025 to June 1, 2025. During this time period, candidates were required to make an appointment with the City Clerk and they registered as a candidate and campaign rules and regulations were outlined to them.

The “seed money period” for candidates to collect campaign donations for City Council is from April 27, 2025 to July 7, 2025.

All Candidates for City Council must gather 500 verified nominating petition signatures from registered voters within the district the candidate wishes to represent. The nominating petition collection period is from June 2, 2025, at 8:00am to July 7, 2025, at 5:00pm.

The Public Finance qualifying contribution period for city council candidates is from June 2, to July 7, 2025 where candidates are allowed to collect $5.00 donations to qualify for public financing. The number of $5.00 qualifying donations for public finance varies in each council district based upon the number of registered voters.

Applicant candidates for public finance must receive Qualifying Contributions from 1% of the registered voters in the district the candidate wishes to represent. The actual amount of public finance given to a candidate by the city if they qualify for public finance varies in each council district and an amount is given for each registered voter.

CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 1

The District 1 City Council District is currently represented by first term Democrat Louie Sanchez who is not seeking re election and who is running for Mayor.

District 1 City Council District is the centrally located Westside District between City Council District 5 on the North represented by Republican Dan Lewis and City Council District 3 on the South represented by Democrat Klarissa Pena. The geographical borders generally include Central Avenue on the South, Coors and the Rio Grande River on the East and “zig zags” on the North to include Atrisco Dr., Tesuque Dr. and Buterfield Trail and with the West border jetting outwards to the city limits and vacant land.

According to the 2023 redistricting report, the following are the demographics of the district:

Total Population: 65,323
HISPANIC: 37,135 (56.8% )
WHITE: 19,659 (30.1%)
NATIVE AMERICAN 2,970 (4.5%)
BLACK 1,948 (3.0%)
ASIAN 1,441 (2.2%)
OTHER 2,170 3.3%

The seed money contribution limits that can be collected by each candidate in District 1 is $250 from individuals and an aggregate of $11,262.25.

The number of qualifying $5.00 contributions to secure public finance in District 1 is 450.

The amount of public finance and spending cap for District 1 is $56,311.25.

CANDIDATES LISTED

There are four candidates running for District 1 City Council. The links to the candidate campaign web pages and financial disclosure information are here:

DANIEL GILBER LEIVA

Publicly Financed
Campaign address: PO Box 7238, Albuquerque, NM 87194
Campaign phone number: 505-363-4871
Campaign email: info@votedaneilleiva.com
Campaign website: votedanielleiva.com
Campaign finance: View Candidate Disclosure

Chairperson: No one listed. Treasurer: KENNETH EDWARD SCOTT

STEPHANIE TELLES

Publicly Financed
Campaign address: 7200 Settlement Way NW, Albuquerque, NM 87120
Campaign phone number: 505-225-8942
Campaign email: stephanieforabq@gmail.com
Campaign website: stephanieforabq.com
Campaign finance: View Candidate Disclosure

Chairperson: No one listed. Treasurer: SARAH R. NEWMAN

JOSHUA TAYLOR NEAL

Publicly Financed
Campaign address: 4320 Spanish Broom Avenue NW, Albuquerque, NM 87120
Campaign phone number: 505-457-8142
Campaign email: nealfornm@gmail.com
Campaign website: N/A
Campaign finance: View Candidate Disclosure

Chairperson: No one listed. Treasurer: MICHAELA CHAVEZ

AHREN GRIEGO

Publicly Financed
Campaign address: 4612 Marbella Drive NW, Albuquerque, NM 87120
Campaign phone number: 505-288-2312
Campaign email: griegoforabq@gmail.com
Campaign website: N/A
Campaign finance: View Candidate Disclosure

Chairperson: No one listed. Treasurer: TYA WATTS

CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 3

District 3 is currently represented by Klarissa Peña and she is running for a fourth term. The district is considered safe democrat. The geographic borders are generally “Old Coors Road” on the East and the Valley area, Central on the North, and Dennis Chavez Road on the South, with the West side border jetting out to the city limits and mostly vacant area.

According to the 2023 redistricting report, the following are the demographics of the district:

TOTAL POPULATION: 65,343
HISPANIC: 53,314 (81.6%)
WHITE: 6,766 (10.4%)
NATIVE AMERICAN 1,865 (2.9%)
BLACK 1,554 (2.4%)
ASIAN 612 0.9%
OTHER 1,232 (1.9%)

The seed money contribution limits that can be collected by each candidate in District 3 is $250 from individuals and an aggregate of $8,373.00.

The number of qualifying $5.00 contributions to secure public finance in District 3 is 335.

The amount of public finance and spending cap for District 3 is $41,865.00.

CANDIDATES LISTED

There are 4 candidates running for District 3 City Council. The links to the candidate campaign web pages and financial disclosure information are here:

CHRISTOPHER R. SEDILLO

Publicly Financed
Campaign address: 605 Shire Street SW Albuquerque, NM 87121
Campaign phone number: 505-677-1913
Campaign email: votechrissedillo@gmail.com
Campaign website: votechrissedillo.com
Campaign finance: View Candidate Disclosure

Chairperson: No one listed. Treasurer: WANDA HARRISON

KLARISSA PEÑA (Incumbent)

Publicly Financed
Campaign address: 6525 Sunset Gardens Road SW Albuquerque, NM 87121
Campaign phone number: 505-503-5490
Campaign email: klarissapenacabq@gmail.com
Campaign website: klarissapena.com
Campaign finance: View Candidate Disclosure

Chairperson: No one listed. Treasurer: VIVIAN WEIDNER

NATALIA SALDANA

Privately Financed (withdrew from public financing)
Campaign address: 1408 Dona Luisa Street SW Albuquerque, NM 87121
Campaign phone number: 505-504-3874
Campaign email: vote4saldana@gmail.com
Campaign website: N/A
Campaign finance: View Candidate Disclosure

Chairperson: No one listed. Treasurer: MARIA G CARRASCO

TERESA GARCIA

Publicly Financed
Campaign address: 3030 Erratic St SW, Albuquerque, NM 87121
Campaign phone number: 505-903-2570
Campaign email: teresa@teresafordistrict3.com
Campaign website: teresafordistrict3.com
Campaign finance: View Candidate Disclosure

Chairperson: No one listed. Treasurer: CYNTHIA LIZZETTE CANUQUEO

CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 5

District 5 is the city’s northwest quadrant council district which is currently represented by Dan Lewis who is seeking a fourth term on the city council.

According to the 2023 redistricting report, the following are the demographics of the district:

TOTAL POPULATION: 63,144
HISPANIC: 28,967 (45.9%)
WHITE: 24,506 ( 38.8%)
NATIVE AMERICAN 2,799 (4.4%)
BLACK 2,079 (3.3%)
ASIAN 1,958 (3.1%) OTHER 2,835 (4.5%)

The seed money contribution limits that can be collected by each candidate in District 5 is $250 from individuals and an aggregate of $11,143.75.

The number of qualifying $5.00 contributions to secure public finance in District 5 is 446.

The amount of public finance and spending cap for District 5 is $55,718.75.

CANDIDATES LISTED

There are two candidates running for District 5 City Council. The links to the candidate campaign web pages and financial disclosure information are here:

ATHENEA ALLEN

Privately Financed
Campaign address: 10415 Venticello Drive NW Albuquerque, NM 87114
Campaign phone number: 505-720-9804
Campaign email: atheneaforabq@gmail.com
Campaign website: atheneaforabq.com
Campaign finance: View Candidate Disclosure

Chairperson: No one listed. Treasurer: KENNETH SCOTT

DAN LEWIS (Incumbent)

Publicly Financed
Campaign address: 10423 La Canada Drive NW, Albuquerque, NM 87114
Campaign phone number: 505-615-6507
Campaign email: lewisabq@gmail.com
Campaign website: lewis4abq.com
Campaign finance: View Candidate Disclosure

Chairperson: No one listed. Treasurer: ELLIS MCMATH

CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 7

District 7 is the mid heights city council district currently represented by first term city councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn and she is unopposed. The district includes the uptown retail business district including the Commons, Winrock and Coronado Shopping Center. The District boundaries are generally Montgomery Boulevard on the North, I-25 on the West, Lomas on the South and Eubank on the East.

According to the 2023 redistricting report, the following are the demographics of the district:

TOTAL POPULATION: 64,847
HISPANIC: 25,198 (38.9%)
WHITE: 29,506 (45.5%)
NATIVE AMERICAN 3,424 (5.3%)
BLACK 1,836 (2.8%)
ASIAN 1,953 (3.0%)
OTHER 2,930 (4.5%)

The seed money contribution limits that can be collected by each candidate in District 7 is $250 from individuals and an aggregate of $11,641.00

The number of qualifying $5.00 contributions to secure public finance in District 7 is 466.

The amount of public finance and spending cap for District 7 is $58,205.00.

CANDIDATES LISTED

City Councilor Tammy Feibelkorn is the only incumbent who is running unopposed.

The links to the City Clerk’s information on City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn’ campaign web pages and financial disclosure information are here:

TAMMY FIEBELKORN (Incumbent)

Publicly Financed
Campaign address: 1445 Adams Street NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110
Campaign phone number: 505-410-3884
Campaign email: tammyforabq@gmail.com
Campaign website: tammyforalbuquerque.com
Campaign finance: View Candidate Disclosure

Chairperson: No one listed. Treasurer: NANCY ARENAS

CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 9

City Council District 9 is often referred to as the Four Hills area city council district and is currently represented by first term Republican City Councilor Renee Grout who is seeking as second term. Grout has 4 opponents. The District is very condensed and safe Republican. The Northern border is Menaul, the West border is Eubank, the Southern border is Dennis Ave, SE and the East border is the Sandia foothills federal land.

According to the 2023 redistricting report, the following are the demographics of the district:

Total Population: 60,748
HISPANIC: 22,351 (36.8%)
WHITE: 27,685 (45.6%)
NATIVE AMERICAN 2,902 (4.8%)
BLACK 2,080 (3.4%)
ASIAN 2,876 (4.7%)
OTHER 2,854 (4.7%)

The seed money contribution limits that can be collected by each candidate in District 9 is $250 from individuals and an aggregate of $10,391.50

The number of qualifying $5.00 contributions to secure public finance in District 9 is 416.

The amount of public finance and spending cap for District 9 is $51,957.50.

CANDIDATES LISTED

There are five candidates running for District 9 City Council. The links to the candidate campaign web pages and financial disclosure information are here:

RENEE GROUT (Incumbent)

Publicly Financed
Campaign address: 1512 Stagecoach Road SE, Albuquerque, NM 87123
Campaign phone number: 505-440-2550
Campaign email: reneefordistrict9@gmail.com
Campaign website: vote.reneegrout.com
Campaign Finance: View Candidate Disclosure

Chairperson: No one listed. Treasurer: ROBIN SCHRITTER

ANAMI DASS

Publicly Financed
Campaign address: PO Box 53134, Albuquerque, NM 87153
Campaign phone number: 505-585-9057
Campaign email: vote@anamidass.com
Campaign website: vote.anamidass.com
Campaign Finance: View Candidate Disclosure

Chairperson: No one listed. Treasurer: JULIE BETTENCOURT

MELANI BUCHANAN FARMER

Privately Financed
Campaign address: 1012 Matia Court NE Albuquerque, NM 87123
Campaign phone number: 505-379-4817
Campaign email: melaniforcitycouncil@gmail.com
Campaign website: melaniforcitycouncil.com
Campaign finance: View Candidate Disclosure

Chairperson: No one listed. Treasurer: ROYCE FARMER

BYRON K. POWDRELL

Publicly Financed
Campaign address: 12845 Eastridge Drive NE, Albuquerque, NM 87112
Campaign phone number: 505-304-8809
Campaign email: powdrell4dist9@gmail.com
Campaign website: byronpowdrell.com
Campaign finance: View Candidate Disclosure

Chairperson: No one listed. Treasurer: Joan Day Baker

COLTON ALAN NEWMAN

Publicly Financed
Campaign address: 1315 Kirby Street NE, Albuquerque, NM 87112
Campaign phone number: 505-506-3701
Campaign email: coltonnewman001@gmail.com
Campaign website: N/A
Campaign finance: View Candidate Disclosure

Chairperson: No one listed. Treasurer: Madison Spratto

The link to the City Clerk candidate information web site is here:

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/2025-candidates-and-committees-1

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

A total of 16 Candidates are running for 5 city council Seats. The only incumbent city council who is running unopposed is Democrat first term District 7 City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn.

13 candidates are seeking public finance, including all four incumbents, and 3 candidates are privately financed candidates.

It is interesting to note that all the candidates do not have a chairperson listed yet list a named Treasurer for their campaigns. This is likely due to the fact the candidates are likely managing their campaigns themselves with some having paid political consultants assisting them.

Best wishes to all the candidates as they seek nominating petition signatures and the $5.00 qualifying donations.

Public Finance Candidates Drop Out Like Flies In ABQ Mayor’s Race; Mayor Keller To Be Only Candidate To Qualify For Public Finance; Keller And His Enablers Of Holguin, Packman And Denish Have Perfected Strategy Warping Public Finance Funding Without Condemnation Of Measured Finance Committees; POSTSCIPT: Sponsor Of Public Finance Eric Griego Advocates Reform Despite Ties To Keller

Posted on June 10, 2025 by Pete Dinelli

There are 11 candidates who have registered with the City Clerk as candidates running for Mayor. The candidates listed in order by the City Clerk on the 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

Only three candidates for Mayor initially declared that they are privately financed candidates: Daniel Chavez, Mayling Armijo and Brian Feger .

Originally, 8 candidates declared as public finance candidates. Now there are 2 with 6 withdrawing their applications for public finance with those 6 now private financed candidates.

Public finance 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.

The 8 orginal candidates who declared themselves to be “public finance” candidates are Alpana Adair, Alexander Uballez, Darren White, Tim Keller, Louis Sanchez, Edie Varella, Patrick Sais and Adeo Herrick. Six candidates have now withdrawn their application for public finance and the only two candidates who are still declared public financed candidates are Tim Keller and Adeo Henrick.

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.

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 is not a serious candidate and has likely dropped out of the race.

DROPPING LIKE FLIES

Alpana Adair withdrew from public finance after collecting only seven verified $5.00 contributions. Patrick Sais withdrew after collecting only two.

Eddie Varela withdrew after collecting 95 of the 3,685 donations or 3%. Varela had this to say:

“I was of the belief that [public finance] would help just a regular guy or gal run for office and would be a great benefit to everybody. … I don’t believe that anymore. I believe it’s flawed, and it needs to be revisited.”

On May 30, former United States Attorney Alexander Uballez abruptly ended his efforts to seek public finance. Uballez said this:

On June 2, City Councilor Louie Sanchez became the fifth candidate to withdraw from public finance and become a private financed candidate.

https://www.cabq.gov/clerk/documents/sanchez-withdrawal-as-an-applicant-candida

Sanchez said this of his withdrawal from public finance:

“One of the things that I’ve found out about public finance is that it’s extremely difficult. When you get into the realm of public financing, there is a lot of things that play in. We’re noticing that in this day and age, not everybody has a five-dollar bill, our volunteers don’t have change. … Since it’s online, or the online link, it takes several times or several tries to get the cumbersome process going.”

On June 8, former Bernalillo County Sherriff Darren White became the sixth candidate to withdraw from public finance by filing with the city clerk a withdrawal notice. White said this:

“Despite our tireless grassroots efforts, it became clear that we would not be able to meet the remaining 1,800 qualifying $5 donations within the two-week deadline. … The only person who has qualified for [public finance] in the past two elections is Tim Keller. And so what does that tell you? It tells you that the system is, as I said, it’s an incumbent protection plan.”

https://www.cabq.gov/clerk/documents/white-withdrawal-as-an-applicant-candidate.pdf

https://www.koat.com/article/white-withdraws-from-public-financing-in-mayoral-race-calls-system-an-incumbent-protection-plan/65027647

KELLER RESPONDS TO CRITICS

The Keller campaign said qualifying for public financing isn’t supposed to be easy. In a statement, Keller took issue with all his opponents’ claims that the public finance rules favor incumbents. Keller said this in a statement:

“Complaining that public financing doesn’t work is like blaming the ref because you can’t hit your free throws — it’s not the system’s fault you’re falling short. The real issue isn’t the rules; it’s a lack of grassroots support, campaign credibility, and the organizational strength to lead.

KELLER PERFECTS WINNING STATEGY WARPING PUBLIC FINANCE WITH NO CONDEMNATION OF MEASURED FINANCE COMMITEES

Keller was first elected Mayor in 2017 when he was a very popular New Mexico State Auditor. It was during this election cycle that Mayor Keller and his politcal enablers perfected the strategy of first qualifying for public finance and then relying on measured finance committees to raise more and spend even more to get elected.

In 2017 originally there were 16 candidates for Mayor, with only 8 candidates who secured the number of qualifying nominating signatures to be placed on the ballot. Under the election code ordinance at the time, all candidates for Mayor were given three months to collect nominating petition signatures from registered voters, but only six (6) weeks to secure the 3,000 required number of $5.00 qualifying donations for public finance.

It was a crowded field of 8 candidates who qualified for the ballot by collecting the required number of signatures. Keller was the only candidate in 2017 election that qualified for public finance. The Keller campaign collected the needed qualifying cash donations of $5 to the City of Albuquerque from registered voters over a six-week period.

Keller proclaimed he was “walking the talk” to keep big money out of the Mayor’s race by qualifying for public finance. Once qualified, the Keller for Mayor campaign was given a total of $506,254 in public financing allowed at the time, which included financing for the first election and separate financing for the runoff. As a condition to receive public financing from the City, Tim Keller agreed in writing to a spending cap not to exceed the amount given and agree not to raise and spend any more cash to finance his campaign.

Although Keller proclaimed he was “walking the talk” by being a public finance candidate to keep big donors as arm’s length, it was a false narrative and a political facade. Keller supporters realized that more would be needed to elect Keller. Supporters formed three (3) measured finance committees that either raised money directly to spend on his behalf or indirectly spent money and supported Keller’s candidacy for Mayor financially. No other candidate for Mayor in 2017 had a measured finance committee raising or spending on their behalf.

ABQ Forward Together was a measured finance committee that was formed specifically to raise money to promote Tim Keller for Mayor in 2017. The measured finance committee raised over $663,000 for Keller. ABQ Forward Together was chaired by longtime political consultant Nerie Holguin a former campaign consultant for Mr. Keller when he ran successfully for New Mexico State Senate. $67,000 was raised and spent by the Firefighters political action committee known as ABQFIREPAC for Tim Keller. $122,000 was raised and spent by ABQ Working Families on Tim Keller’s behalf.

In 2017, a whopping $1,358,254 was spent on Tim Keller’s successful campaign for Mayor. ($506,254 public finance money + $663,000 ABQ Forward + $67,000 ABQFIREPAC + $122,000 ABQ Working Families = $1,358,254.)

In the 2017 Mayor’s race, there was no other candidate that had measured finance committees that raised and spent money on their behalf. Republican City Councilor Dan Lewis, who made it into the runoff with Tim Keller, raised more than $847,000 combined in cash and in-kind contributions for the October election and the November Mayoral runoff election.

Democrat Brian Colón raised and spent nearly $824,000 for his unsuccessful mayoral run and came in third. Republican Wayne Johnson privately raised and spent approximately $250,000. Republican Ricardo Chavez financed his own campaign by contributing and loaning his campaign $1 million dollars, but when he dropped out of the race, all of the money was repaid to him after he spent approximately $200,000. The remaining three (3) candidates for Mayor raised and spent less than $50,000 combined after failing to qualify for public financing.

2021 MAYOR’S RACE RECALLED

In 2021, Mayor Keller ran against former Bernalillo County Sherriff Manny Gonzales and Republican Radio Talk Show host Eddie Aragon. It was Keller’s long time politcal consultant Neri Olguin who managed Keller’s 2021 campaign. Mayor Tim Keller easily collected more than the then required 3,779 qualifying $5.00 donations collecting 3,945 and his campaign was given $661,309.25 in public financing.

In 2021, Keller was the only candidate to receive public financing after the city clerk rejected Manny Gonzales’ public financing bid. It was Neri Holguin who spearheaded the challenge to the Gonzales $5.00 public finance donations. The City Clerk’s office eventually found that Gonzales forged voter signatures and donations, something Gonzales denied having a personal connection to. Keller’s other challenger, Eddy Aragon, relied on private financing.

MEASURED FINANCE COMMITEES FOR 2025 MUNICIPAL ELECTION

Under the City of Albuquerque’s campaign finance laws, a Measure Finance Committee (MFC) is a political action committee (PAC), person or group that supports or opposes a candidate or ballot measure within the City of Albuquerque. Measure Finance Committees are required to register with the City Clerk. Measure finance committees are not bound by the individual contribution limits and business bans like candidates. No Measure Finance Committee is supposed to coordinate their activities with the individual candidates running for office, but this is a very gray area as to what constitutes coordination of activities, and it is difficult to enforce.

The fact that measure finance committees are not bound by the individual contribution limits and business bans like candidates is what makes them a major threat to warping and influencing our municipal elections and the outcome. Any Measure Finance Committee can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money and can produce negative ads to destroy any candidate’s reputation and candidacy.

All Measure Finance Committees must register with the Albuquerque City Clerk, regardless of the group’s registration as a political action committee (PAC) with another governmental entity, county, state or federal. Measure finance committees must also file financial “Campaign Finance Reports” reporting monetary contributions, loans, in kind donations and expenditures. Under existing law, it is illegal for any candidate for office or their campaign committee to coordinate their campaign efforts with any measured finance committee.

In the 2025 municipal election, four measured finance Committees have been formed thus far and are registered with the City Clerk. They are:

SAFER ALBUQUERQUE COMMITTEE (SAFER ABQ) formed for the purpose “To advocate for Mayling Armijo’s candidacy for mayor during the Albuquerque 2025 mayoral race and align with values that reduce crime, reduce homelessness, and promote job growth.”

This measured finance committee thus far has raised $120,080 in total contributions and has made $36,224.29 in total expenditures and has a cash balance of $83,855.71. Chairperson: CHARLES M. ROLISON Treasurer: KATRINA TRACY. The top Contributors listed in the financial disclosure for the SAFER ALBUQUERQUE COMMITTEE (SAFER ABQ) are:

Chauling Mary Armijo $40,000
Katrina Tracy $40,000
Four Winds Mechanical HTC/AC Inc $40,000
Charles Rolison $80.00

Chauling Mary Armijo is believed to be the owner and chief executive officer of Four Winds Mechanical HTC/AC and she is the sister of candidate Mayling Armijo.

The lion’s share of the 53 individual expenditures totaling $36,224 is listed for “advertising” without explanation.

https://campaignfinance.cabq.gov/#/exploreCommitteeDetail/M3FjOgNU2Z3h9u5VXBTrEgpRrh19RviUIoO4CmCWDAE1/null/null/2/2025

ASCEND ALBUQUERQUE formed for the purpose “To support the election of Tim Keller as Mayor of Albuquerque.”

This measured finance committee thus far has raised $8,500 in total contributions and has made $4,027.96 in total expenditures and has a cash balance of $4,472.04. CHAIRPERSON: Michelle Mayorga. TREASURER: Sean Marcus.

Top Contributors to ASCEND ALBUQUERQUE listed are:

Paul Wynn $5,000
Randi McGinn $2,500
James C. Akins $1,000

According to ASCEND ALBUQUERQUE financial expenditures report, the following expenditures have been made:

On April 15, $759 was paid to Blue Print Public Affairs of Salt Lake, Utah for “fundraising.”

On May 1, $277 was paid to “ACT Blue” for “Information”

On May 2, $3,000 was paid to Blue Print Public Affairs of Salt Lake, Utah for “fundraising.”

https://campaignfinance.cabq.gov/#/exploreCommitteeDetail/VMQvJiHXaP1z-Iz2eL_papP4048PFnxLXRUfdOLcQk01/null/null/2/2025

ABQ For All formed for the purpose “To educate and advocate for or against candidates for City Council”

This measured finance committee thus far has raised $-0- in total contributions and has made $-0- in total expenditures and has a cash balance of $-0-. CHAIRPERSON: Mark Trujillo TREASURER: Eli Il Yong Lee

https://campaignfinance.cabq.gov/#/exploreCommitteeDetail/kfkMONlVQnqqDLwSKTLYnJP4048PFnxLXRUfdOLcQk01/null/null/2/2025

CIPGAW: Committee to Elect Eddie Varela Mayor of Albuquerque formed for the purpose to “Elect Eddie Varela Mayor of Albuquerque.”

This measured finance committee thus far has raised $5,000 in total contributions and has made $24.83 in total expenditures and has a cash balance of $4,975.17. CHAIRPERSON: Bradley William Day TREASURER: Amanda Baca

https://campaignfinance.cabq.gov/#/exploreCommitteeDetail/feXJuXAYkFJVGJBhl95rMZP4048PFnxLXRUfdOLcQk01/null/null/2/2025

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

The measured finance committee ASCEND ALBUQUERQUE was formed for the sole purpose “To support the election of Tim Keller as Mayor of Albuquerque,” and it will likely raise thousands of dollars to promote Keller on top of the $755,946 he will get if he in fact qualifies for public finance. This follows the identical strategy Keller and his handlers have used in the past to get him elected.

“Mayorga is a leading expert in Latino public opinion, and has spent two decades in progressive politics — recruiting, managing, and training candidates and organizers at all levels. Her clients have included Democratic candidates around the country, such as Senator Ben Ray Luján (NM), Reps. Colin Allred (TX-32), Andrea Salinas (OR-6), and Teresa Leger Fernández (NM-3) as well as Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall.

[Mayorga] has worked with advocacy and nonprofit groups like Equis Research, Progressive Caucus PAC, Sierra Club, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ BOLD PAC. Prior to joining GBAO, Michelle Mayorga worked on the ground organizing voters around the country. She served as the National Field Director of Planned Parenthood, and had national field organizing roles at the AFL-CIO, DCCC, The Democratic Party of New Mexico, and the DNC.

The American Association of Political Consultants recognized Michelle Mayorga with their Democratic Pollster of the year award in 2025 and the 40 under 40 award 2016.”

The links to the quoted information on Michelle Mayorga are here:

https://www.gbaostrategies.com/team/mayorga

https://www.gbaostrategies.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-mayorga-33346625

ASCEND ALBUQUERQUE has already paid Blue Print Public Affairs located in Salt Lake, Utah to commence fundraising efforts to promote Keller. Blue Print Public Affairs is a public relations and communications service that provides political consulting and fundraising services.

https://rocketreach.co/blueprint-public-affairs-profile_b4235d1bfee2844a

KELLER’S KEY POLITICAL ENABLERS

Confidential sources have confirmed that Keller’s 2021 Campaign Manager Neri Holguin is involved with Keller’s 2025 reelection bid for a third term and that Holguin educates Keller volunteers on how to collect the $5.00 donations at Keller campaign events. In the 2017 Mayor’s race where Keller was first elected, Holguin headed up the measured finance committee that raised $663,000 to promote Keller when he ran the first time.

Political Consultant Neri Holguin is the owner and primary principal of Holguin Consulting, Inc. Neri Holguin has an extensive history of successful management of numerous progressive Democrat campaigns including New Mexico House and Senate campaigns, county races such as county commission and Bernalillo County Sherriff and city council races. It is known that Holguin is currently involved with at least two city council races helping only Progressive Democrats. Holguin managed one of Keller’s state senate races.

Holguin is considered Mayor Tim Keller’s key political advisor, confidant and politcal consultant on the same level as Republican Political Consultant Jay McCleskey was to former Governor Susana Martinez. Holguin is known for her slash and burn political tactics, similar to that of Republican Political Consultant Jay McCleskey, of making false and inflammatory allegations and smearing any opposing candidate, even Democrats, to ensure her candidates win at all costs. She represents exclusively progressive Democrats. Conservative and moderate democrats need not apply. It’s unknown what Mayor Keller has agreed to pay Neri Holguin out of the public finance funding if he qualifies for the funding. (See article in postscript below for more on Neri Holguin.)

It is more likely than not that Mayor Keller’s long-time Democratic political consultant Alan Packman will be involved in the Keller reelection campaign. Packman’s political consulting firm’s managed Tim Keller’s successful campaign for New Mexico State Auditor. In August, 2018, it was reported Democratic political consultant Alan Packman had been hired by Mayor Tim Keller to work at the city. The city confirmed Packman would be working in the Department of Technology and Innovation which oversees the 311 citizens call center. 311 is the centralized call center for all non-emergency inquiries and services and logs are maintained on calls responded to and how the calls were resolved.

Packman’s official title was listed as “Integration Specialist” and when hired he was paid a salary of $75,000. City records later reflected that Mr. Packman was being paid $80,329. Packman organized a series of telephonic town halls where thousands were contacted by phone for a conference calls with Mayor Keller and with Packman introducing Mayor Keller and screening his questions. The telephonic town halls were viewed by city hall observers as simply an exercise in self-promotion by Keller and the use of city resources to promote Keller’s political agenda.

(See article in postscript below for more on Packman.)

Now that he is running and on the ballot, Keller is back at it again in full force with the townhalls. On June 10, Keller announced a Telephone Town Hall event on June 11 in an Instagram post. In his post, Keller said this will be an opportunity to discuss “immigration policies, recent ICE roundups, public safety support, and solutions to combat homelessness.”

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

The fact that only one candidate for Mayor will likely qualify for public finance this election year is clear evidence that the system has been set up for candidates to fail and that it favors incumbents, that is why it is highly likely only Mayor Keller will qualify for public finance. The system favors incumbents such as Mayor Tim Keller who have high name identification and built in campaign organizations including city staff and a Mayor who holds two and three press conferences a day.

Some have argued, especially Mayor Keller and his supporters, such as former Democratic Party State Chair and two term Democratic Lt. Governor Diane Denish, that public finance is a system that is “supposed to be hard.” Denish became yet another Keller public finance enabler when she went out of her way to severely criticize Alexander Uaballez when he withdrew his bid to qualify for public financing and when Uballez asserted the system favors “entrenched” politicians.

Denish said this on social media about Uballez:

“It’s really strange to hear Uballez complain about public financing and how hard it is to get enough $5 contributions and somehow suggesting that because Keller has built name ID, a volunteer infrastructure and strong support, it’s not fair to him. Is he that naive? If you think qualifying for public financing is hard, try being Mayor. And, yes Alex, you are a politician. You are running for office. Welcome to the world where you have to work hard to get public finance.”

Upon information and belief, Denish is financially well off and capable of financing her own campaigns but despite her wealth she has fundraised when she has run for office. She has never run as a public finance campaign in city elections although she hinted at running for Mayor in 2013. Denish really has no idea how hard it is run a public financed campaign because she has never done so herself.

It’s very difficult to take Denish seriously when she defends Keller and condemns a young, progressive Democrat like Uballez who is a threat to Keller and his progressive base, especially when she knows the advantages of incumbency and being well connected and taking advantage of those connections over so many years. A recent example of Denish taking advantage of her politcal connections was when she contacted Governor Lujan Grisham to veto funding of a playground in a park across the street from her home.

Both Keller and Denish are essentially saying public finance is designed to “weed out” candidates who are incapable of mounting serious campaigns or who have little or no political support. But building political support by newcomers to the political process is what political campaigns are all about and that can only accomplished with adequate funding. Making it so hard that no one qualifies for public finance but incumbents is a mockery of the purpose and intent of public finance which is to encourage qualified people to run who cannot afford to run and who are not independently wealthy and who are not politically connected.

Increases to the amount of public finance over the years were done to allow public finance candidates to compete with private financed candidates. But the problem is the system allows candidates to publicly finance and then allows their supporters to just turn around and set up measured finance committees so they can have the best of both worlds which is something Mayor Tim Keller and his enablers have perfected.

EDITOR’S REMINDER: The 2013 Mayors race was between Republicans Incumbent Mayor Richard Berry and Paul Heh and Democrats Pete Dinelli and Margret Aragon Chavez. Aragon Chavez did not qualify for the ballot. Mayor Berry was a privately finance candidate. Dinelli was the only candidate who qualified for Public Finance collecting 5,000 qualifying $5.00 donations when he needed only 3,600 and securing $360,000.00 in public financing. The public financing given to Dinelli was totally inadequate to compete against a well funded incumbent. Berry raised $904,623 and in-kind contributions of $5,176 for a total of $909,799. Berry’s 2013 contributors were top heavy with major Republican donors and included the Republican National Committee that made a $10,000 donation, oil and gas companies and Republican elected officials and Republican Party officials. Mayor Berry won reelection in a landslide with 68.12% to Dinelli 28.73% to Heh 3.15%. Berry’s margin of victory was a little over the two to one margin he spent to get re-elected by the lowest municipal voter turnout since 1977, which was 70,473 votes or only 19% of registered voters at the time. Dinelli was the first candidate to ever openly run as a Democrat for Mayor to no avail. Republican voter turnout was very high while many Democrats simply failed to vote.

PROPOSED CHANGES

The following changes to the City’s public finance system and election code are in order:

Reduce the amount of the qualifying donation from $5.00 to $2.00.
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 qualifying donations from 3,780 to a flat 2,000. Simply put, many voters loath making political donations of any kind.
Strictly prohibit former campaign staff or family members of candidates from being allowed to run or fund measured finance committees.
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 be 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.

FINAL COMMENTARY

There is little doubt that all of Mayor Tim Keller’s opponents are now in a state of panic or depression, or perhaps both, as Keller is on the verge of being the only candidate who will likely qualify for public finance and be given $755,946 in city financing for his campaign.

Some politcal gossip pundits and columnists are already saying that if Keller’s opponents are unable to raise sufficient money to run their campaigns, there is a chance that Keller could actually capture 50% of the vote and avoid a runoff election that would be required between the top two finishers if no one captures 50% plus one of the vote. With at least 6 likely candidates making the ballot, that is probably wishful thinking on the part of gossip pundits and columnist. Frankly, Keller will need every penny of his public finance and then some to deal with his low approval ratings as the campaign drags on over the summer and into winter and his opponents hit him hard on the issues until November 4.

Notwithstanding, all of Keller’s opponents are now relegated to scrambling for private financing unless they are wealthy enough to self-finance. It’s unknown how they will do with private fundraising but we will soon see as campaign finance reports are required. The only candidate that likely has the ability to private finance his campaign is Parking Company of America CAO Daniel Chavez who has already donated $100,000 of his personal money to finance the collection of the ballot qualifying nominating signatures.

Until there is real reform of public finance laws, we can continue to expect only incumbents to qualify for public financing in elections for Mayor and thereby by giving the incumbent the upper hand and an unfair advantage over all those who run for the office. If Mayor Tim Keller is really committed to the city public finance and wants to “Walk The Talk” as he has said, he would go out of his way to distance himself from ASCEND ALBUQUERQUE. Keller should ask ASCEND ALBUQUERQUE organizers cease any efforts to raise donations to promote his candidacy. Asking Keller to condemn a measured finance committee promoting him is likely way too much to ask of an entrenched politician such as Keller and his greedy enablers and handlers like Holguin and Packman who make lucrative livings off of public finance and the candidates they support.

__________________________

POSTSCRIPT

ABQ JOURNAL GUEST OPINION COLUMN BY ERIC GRIEGO

Eric Griego is an adjunct professor in political science at the University of New Mexico. He is a former Albuquerque City Councilor and former New Mexico State Senator. Griego was the original sponsor of the Open and Ethical Elections legislation in Albuquerque. In 2022, Eric Griego was employed by the city and Mayor Tim Keller as Assistant Chief of Staff for Policy for the Mayor Keller where he led the mayor’s policy, government affairs and community outreach efforts.

https://www.cabq.gov/mayor/news/keller-administration-announces-additions-to-city-leadership.

On Sunday, June 9, the Albuquerque Journal published the following guest editorial opinion column by Eric Griego:

HEADLINE: Public Finance Rules In ABQ Need Reform

By: Eric Griego

“Much has happened since the Open and Ethical Elections proposal creating public financing was passed overwhelmingly by voters in 2005, but the merits of public financing were as important then as they are now.

First, public financing makes it possible for ordinary people to run for public office. You shouldn’t have to be well-connected, wealthy or a party insider to run a strong race.

Second, instead of being forced to raise money from just a handful of wealthy donors to be competitive, publicly financing candidates can spend more time meeting their constituents and learning about the issues.

Third, under public financing, public policies are likely more reflective of public preferences and less focused on the desires of wealthy special interests.

In the first two elections (2007 and 2009) under the new system, eight out of 10 candidates won their seats using the new public financing system. Overall campaign spending decreased, and because of the required individual $5 contributions, voters had much more personal contact with candidates. More importantly, the outsized influence of large campaign donors was balanced by more participation from average voters. In 2009, all three mayoral candidates, including the incumbent mayor, ran using public financing. That was a huge victory for clean elections and local democracy.

That victory, however, was short lived. In 2010, in what will surely go down in U.S. history as one of the worst judicial decisions for American democracy, the U.S. Supreme Court in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission struck down limits on corporate independent expenditures. That decision not only poisoned our national and state elections but blew a huge whole in Albuquerque’s public financing system.

Thanks to Citizen’s United, independent PACs (called Measure Finance Committees or MFCs in Albuquerque elections) can now spend unlimited amounts of money supporting or opposing candidates. That effectively undermines the original purpose of public financing, which is to provide an alternative to the oversized power of big money in our elections.

My intention when I first started working with advocates and community members on Albuquerque’s Open and Ethical Elections system was to make it so more people could realistically run for local office. Short of a constitutional amendment, we can’t do much to end unlimited outside spending by PACs and MFCs. However, we can and should improve the current public financing system to make it more feasible for all candidates.

Currently, it is difficult for anyone other than incumbents and career politicians with strong partisan ties to qualify. In the 2021 mayor’s race, if the current trend continues, only one candidate — the incumbent — will likely qualify for the more than $750,000 provided by the clean elections fund.

If we want to keep public financing as an option, we must address this barrier as well as make other reasonable reforms to the system.

First, the threshold for qualifying for public financing in mayoral races should be cut in half from the current roughly 4,000 $5 contributions to 2,000.

Second, the time period for collecting qualifying contributions should be extended from the current 64 days to at least 90 days.

Third, oversight and penalties for coordination with MFCs should be improved. Former campaign staff or family members of candidates should not be allowed to run or fund these supposedly independent PACs.

Until we find a solution to the corrosive effects of big money in elections at all levels, we need to make alternatives like the Albuquerque public financing system viable to help change who runs, who they answer to and where their money comes from. It is a small step to improving our democracy, but it matters.

The link to the Journal column by Eric Griego is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/article_dc5a6966-066e-474f-8353-47cf1e914125.html

Links to related articles are here:

Political Consultants Neri Holguin And Jay McCleskey Make “Big Bank” In 2023 City Council Races Charging Candidates Upwards Of 100% Of Taxpayer Public Financing; Holguin Behind “Political Hit Piece” In District 6 City Council Runoff Race; Public Financing Just Another Cash Cow For Political Consultants

Keller’s Political Consultant Packman Working For City Paid Over $80,000; Board Of Ethics And Campaign Practices Called Upon To Investigate If City Personnel and Resources Are Being Used For Keller’s Announced Second Term Bid And Personal Use

Chavez, Keller, Uballez Make Mayoral Ballot; Varela, Sanchez And White Within Striking Distance Of Ballot; 4 Will Fail To Make Ballot; Armijo A “Maybe”; Uballez And Sanchez Withdraw From Public Finance; Keller Needs 740 More $5 Donations, White Needs 1,780 More $5 Donations By June 21 To Qualify For Public Finance

Posted on June 9, 2025 by Pete Dinelli

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:

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/2025-candidates-and-committees-1/2025-petition-qualifying-contribution-tally

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:

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/2025-candidates-and-committees-1/2025-petition-qualifying-contribution-tally

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.

Trump Administration Withdraws Hit List Of 500 Sanctuary Jurisdictions; Abq, Santa Fe And 23 NM Counties Originally Included; Millions At Stake As Mayor Keller Makes Trump Issue In Mayor’s Race”

Posted on June 6, 2025 by Pete Dinelli

On April 28, President Trump signed Executive Order 14287 entitled “Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens” to enforce federal law with respect to sanctuary jurisdictions to protect their citizens from what the Trump Administration calls “dangerous illegal aliens.” According to the Trump Administration “sanctuary jurisdictions include cities, counties, and states that are deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws endangering American communities. Sanctuary cities protect dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences and put law enforcement in peril.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly targeted communities, states and jurisdictions that it says aren’t doing enough to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as it seeks to make good on President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to remove millions of people from the country who are in the United States illegally. The Trump administration claims that sanctuary policies, including local rules or ordinances that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, undermine the rule of law and endanger both residents and law enforcement officers.

The Executive Order directs the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security to publish a list of States and local jurisdictions obstructing federal immigration law enforcement. They must notify each sanctuary jurisdiction of its non-compliance and provide them with an opportunity to correct it. Sanctuary jurisdictions that do not comply with federal law may lose federal funding. The list can be reviewed and changed at any time and will be updated regularly as jurisdictions come into compliance

The Executive Order directs the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security to pursue all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures to bring non-compliant jurisdictions into compliance. It instructs the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security to develop mechanisms for proper eligibility verification in sanctuary jurisdictions to prevent illegal aliens from receiving federal public benefits. The Department of Homeland Security is instructed that demands are to be made that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with Federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens.

There’s no specific or legal definition of what constitutes a “sanctuary jurisdiction.” The term is often used to refer to law enforcement agencies, states or communities that don’t cooperate with immigration enforcement. If “sanctuary jurisdictions” are notified and the Trump administration determines that they “remain in defiance,” the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security are then empowered to pursue whatever “legal remedies and enforcement measures” they consider necessary to make them comply.

The link to review the White House Fact sheet on the Executive Order is here:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-protects-american-communities-from-criminal-aliens/

HIT LIST OF 500 ISSUED

On Thursday, May 29, the Trump administration released a list of more than 500 “sanctuary jurisdictions” across the country accusing them of obstructing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Department Of Homeland Security published the list of the jurisdictions and said each one will be notified that the federal government has deemed them noncompliant with Trump’s Executive Order and if they’re believed to be in violation of any federal criminal statutes.

The list of 500 was compiled using several factors, including whether the cities or localities identified themselves as sanctuary jurisdictions, how much they complied already with federal officials enforcing immigration laws, if they had restrictions on sharing information with immigration enforcement or had any legal protections for people in the country illegally, according to the department.

The list of 500 was on the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) website and listed all states. The New Mexico list included the cities of Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and 23 counties, which is over two thirds of the state. The list of New Mexico counties was as follows:

Bernalillo County
Chaves County
Colfax County
De Baca County
Dona Ana County
Eddy County
Grant County
Hidalgo County
Lincoln County
Los Alamos County
Luna County
McKinley County
Otero County
Quay County
Rio Arriba County
Roosevelt County
San Juan County
San Miguel County
Sandoval County
Santa Fe County
Sierra County
Socorro County
Taos County

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said this of the list when it was first posted on the Homeland Security website:

“These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens.”

The DHS said the list would be updated regularly and urges all named cities and counties to review and revise their policies to align with federal immigration laws. Under the new executive order, jurisdictions that remained in defiance after notification could face federal funding cuts or legal action.

HIT LIST WITHDRAWN BY DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

On Sunday, June 1st the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) took down the list of counties and cities the federal government had claimed to be obstructing federal immigration law. The list was removed from the DHS website a day after a letter from the National Sheriff’s Association criticized it as an “unnecessary erosion of unity” between local and federal law enforcement.

The link to the original list is here https://www.dhs.gov/sanctuary-jurisdictions and it now states:

“Page Not Found

The page may have been moved, deleted, or is otherwise unavailable.”

The letter from the National Sheriff’s Association demanded that DHS apologize to local law enforcement, rescind the list and release a detailed breakdown of why each jurisdiction was included. The National Sheriff’s Association letter read in part:

“The sheriffs of this country feel betrayed. … The completion and publication of this list has not only violated the core principles of trust, cooperation, and partnership with fellow law enforcement, but it also has the potential to strain the relationship between sheriffs and the White House administration. … This decision by DHS could create a vacuum of trust that may take years to overcome.”

Kieran Donahue ,the president of the National Sheriffs’ Association, which represents more than 3,000 sheriffs nationwide, criticized the list in a statement. Donahue demanded an apology and that the list be removed. Donahue accused DHS of doing “a terrible disservice to President Trump and the Sheriffs of this country.” Donahue said that in a meeting between his association and members of DHS “no political appointee for the administration could explain who compiled, proofed, and verified the list before publication.”

National Sheriffs’ Association President Sheriff Kieran Donahue told the NPR national news agency that the list was compiled without clear criteria or a way to contest designations, calling it “arbitrary”. Donahue said this:

“This list was created without any input, criteria of compliance, or a mechanism for how to object to the designation. Sheriffs nationwide have no way to know what they must do or not do to avoid this arbitrary label. This decision by DHS could create a vacuum of trust that may take years to overcome.”

The list caused widespread confusion, both in New Mexico and nationwide, as named jurisdictions grappled with the threat of funding cuts with little to no explanation as to why the federal government considered them “non-compliant.” The list is still nowhere to be found on the DHS website.

Asked by the CNN news agency why the list was removed, a senior DHS official said in a statement on June 2 that the list “is being constantly reviewed and can be changed at any time and will be updated regularly.” The statement did not respond to specific questions about how the list was created or who identified jurisdictions that would be included.

Twenty Three out of thirty-three New Mexican counties were targeted as sanctuary jurisdictions, including some rural counties that have enacted legislation supporting President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. In southern New Mexico, Eddy County was listed non-compliant while neighboring Lea County was excluded from the list. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office called the list “confusing” and asked for transparency from the federal government.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem doubled down during the Sunday morning talk show Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures”, but did not acknowledge the list’s online erasure. Noem said this:

“Some of the cities have pushed back. … They think because they don’t have one law or another on the books that they don’t qualify, but they do qualify. They are giving sanctuary to criminals.”

Several jurisdictions on the DHS list said it does not accurately describe their policies. The city of Las Vegas said in a statement on X that it has never been a sanctuary city and is “not sure why DHS has classified Las Vegas in the manner it has.” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said while his city is “welcoming,” it is not a sanctuary city. Several city officials in San Diego County said they were confused about being on the list including one mayor who told local media that officers are allowed to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement in certain cases.

It is unclear when or if the list will be publicly re-released.

Links to relied upon or quoted news sources are here:

https://apnews.com/article/immigration-sanctuary-jurisdictions-list-a372c7501746e4f2b7e117ba22ebccac

https://www.police1.com/federal-law-enforcement/department-of-homeland-security-releases-list-of-cities-counties-labeled-as-sanctuary-jurisdictions

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/02/politics/sanctuary-jurisdictions-list-dhs

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/article_d4862f0d-5c64-4dc7-b7e1-505c48e91f4a.html

ICE WANNTS LOCAL AND STATE HELP ON DETAINMENT

ICE enforces immigration laws nationwide. Often ICE seeks state and local help in alerting federal authorities of immigrants wanted for deportation and holding that person until federal officers take custody.

One way that the administration seeks to enlist state and local support is through 287(g) agreements with local law enforcement agencies. Those agreements allow local law enforcement agencies to assume some immigration enforcement duties and greatly expand ICE’s capabilities. The number of those agreements has skyrocketed in just a matter of months under the Trump administration.

ICE has about 6,000 law enforcement officers who are able to find, arrest and remove immigrants by targeting them. This is a number that has remained largely static for years. By relying on local law enforcement, it can quickly scale up the number of staff available to help carry out Trump’s mass deportations agenda.

Communities that don’t cooperate with ICE often say they do so because immigrants then feel safer coming forward if they’re a witness to or victim of a crime. And they argue that immigration enforcement is a federal task, and they need to focus their limited dollars on fighting crime.

“Sanctuary policies are legal and make us all safer,” said a coalition of local officials from across the country and a nonprofit called Public Rights Project in a statement. They said the list was a fear tactic designed to bully local governments into cooperating with ICE

IMMIGRANT FRIENDLY CITY VERSUS SANCTUARY CITY

Trump’s Executive Order instructs the departments of Justice and Homeland Security to compile a list of sanctuary jurisdictions across the United States, targeting them for potential cuts to federal funding.

It was in 2001, long before Trump was President, that the Albuquerque City Council declared the city to be an “Immigrant-Friendly City” by City Council ordinance. The ordinance was originally sponsored by former Republican City Councilor Hess Yntema who represented the South East Heights area, including the International District that has the highest concentration of immigrants. Councilor Yntema’s wife is also naturalized citizen of the United States. In 2018, Albuquerque passed amendments to the original ordinance affirming the city was an “immigrant-friendly city,” again carefully avoiding the term “sanctuary city.”

The ordinance provides that the City of Albuquerque “welcomes and encourages immigrants to live, work and study in Albuquerque and to participate in community affairs, and recognizes immigrants for their important contributions to our culture and economy.”

Former City Councilor Pat Davis, who co-authored the measure, said the distinction was deliberate. Davis said this:

“We were really clear about being sure that we didn’t use sanctuary language. …We wanted to ensure transparency and cooperation, but also protect vulnerable residents.”

A “Sanctuary City” requires local government to essentially shield the undocumented from federal authorities and federal arrests. “Immigrant Friendly” cities on the other hand enact policies that are favorable to undocumented people to allow them city services like all other residents and its local law enforcement personnel do not make arrests for violations of federal immigration laws and only make arrests of undocumented people for violations of local ordinances and state laws.

Albuquerque does allow the sharing of arrest records of municipal and state violations with federal immigration agents. However, the city does not compile any information on immigration status of suspects and prohibits Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from using municipal facilities or resources. This balance distinguishes the city’s approach from more overt sanctuary city policies

WHAT WILL BE AT STAKE

The stakes are high if the Trump Administration goes through with labeling Albuquerque a sanctuary jurisdiction. The city would be at risk of losing more than $68 million in federal funding, roughly 5% of the city’s annual budget. The potential loss of funding includes:

$26 million for the Sunport and Double Eagle airports
$11 million for housing programs
$8 million for public transit
$6 million for the Albuquerque Police Department

The link to a quoted or relied upon news source is here:

https://www.koat.com/article/mayoral-candidates-divided-on-albuquerques-immigrant-friendly-status-amid-federal-funding-threats/64707080

KELLER MAKES TRUMP’S CUTS ISSUE IN MAYOR’S RACE

Mayor Tim Keller for his part is being very aggressive in taking on President Trump and his threats to cut federal funding to the city.

On Sunday, March 24, Mayor Tim Keller spoke to upwards of 250 people seated in the gymnasium at the city’s Monzano Mesa Multigenerational Center located two blocks South East of Central and near Costco. The event was billed as “DEFEND ABQ, Standing Strong For Families”.

The entire program was Mayor Tim Keller discussing and outlining in detail the impact Trump budget cuts and other actions taken by the Trump administration will have on the city.

Keller emphasized the need for “steady and experienced” leadership and said this:

“It’s real here. … It’s real in every city in America. That’s what is so terrible about this. … What they are doing is destroying every aspect of our community, including the business community. … These dangerous cuts are very real for every city in America and would have huge consequences for our families in Albuquerque. But this is not our first rodeo with Donald Trump, and we will keep fighting for our families and defend our city against anyone trying to tear us apart. … These potential cuts are, pure and simple, dangerous to our city. Regardless of our party or feelings about the White House, no one in Albuquerque is better off when kids go without child care, a crime lab is without officers, streets and neighborhoods are without trees, or seniors go without meals. … Like during Trump’s first term and the COVID pandemic, I will use all the tools we have, create new ones, and work with local and state government partners to keep our city running. I will stand up for every resident as we prepare for what could be exceptionally tough times.”

Keller touched on topics ranging from budget cuts to immigration. Keller outlined Trump Administration major cuts that will affect the city services. The Trump cuts include federal affordable housing funding, cutting vouchers for the unhoused, and cutting funding for homeless shelters. Cuts to transportation include cutting federal funding for road improvements, bike lanes and trails, bus routes and for the city’s multimillion dollar “rail trail” development.

Keller noted that 39% of New Mexico families are enrolled in Medicare and the Trump Administration is talking about making cuts to the program. Keller noted that there are 44,000 New Mexicans who are employed by the Federal Government and how blanket layoffs are already occurring in the city and New Mexico.

Keller outlined how federal funding cuts will impact other areas including:

PUBLIC SAFETY: The city could see an impact to a number of areas in law enforcement including drug enforcement, crime fighting technology and a decrease in the size of the police force with federal funding for 50 police officers cut. Keller asked “Can you imagine how detrimental that would be, especially given the challenges we’re having with crime?”

HOUSING: Trump federal funding cuts will affect projects like the “Uptown Connect” project which is a federally funded mixed-use development that will replace the the Uptown Transit Center. Included in the development are almost 200 affordable housing units. Keller said this: “We will never see it if Trump keeps doing what he’s doing.”

MINORITY BUSINESSES: Trump also issued an executive order laying out plans to eliminate government entities, including the Minority Business Development Agency.

One area Keller claimed the city is fighting back against Trump relates to “diversity, equality and inclusion” (DEI). Keller said the city will continue promoting DEI as Trump tries to crackdown on DEI programs across the country. Keller pledged to continue with the city’s Office of Equity and Inclusion, the Office of Civil Rights, and the Office of Financial Empowerment, all 3 which Keller created, and continue with the city’s Climate Action Plan.

SANCTUARY CITY DEBATE BECOMES ISSUE IN MAYOR’S RACE A SECOND TIME

The divisive issue of Sanctuary City is not new to Albuquerque. In 2009, Mayor Richard Berry ran on a tough on crime and a tough-on-immigration platform and defeated incumbent Mayor Martin Chávez. Once in office, Berry allowed ICE to use city resources and operate out of the city’s prisoner transport center. The practice was reversed after Mayor Tim Keller took office in 2017.

Berry defended the policy of allowing ICE to utilize city resources at the time, saying it allowed local police to focus on public safety rather than immigration enforcement. Berry said this at the time:

“It keeps APD officers from doing immigration work, which is important while they’re fighting crime in the streets.”

In 2025, the accusation that the city of Albuquerque is a sanctuary city is once again becoming an issue in the race Mayor of Albuquerque as Mayor Tim Keller seeks a third 4 year term.

Republican Darren White is one of 11 candidates running for Mayor. White is the controversial former Cabinet Secretary of the Department of Public Safety for then Republican Governor Gary Johnson. White is a former two term Bernalillo County Sheriff and former Albuquerque Chief Public Safety Officer under Republican Mayor Richard Berry.

White is essentially running on the same platform Richard Berry used to defeat Mayor Marty Chavez. White proclaims himself to be a “proven leader,” “tough on crime” and a “champion for change.” White asserts that there have been 660 murders during Keller’s years in office, that an alarming number of businesses have had to close down because of crime and that Keller has made Albuquerque a “sanctuary city.” White proclaims in his announcement:

“Mayor Keller has presided over the most murders in Albuquerque’s history. His weak approach to crime and homelessness has failed and it’s time for change.”

In a fund-raising letter, White falsely proclaimed this:

“One of Keller’s first acts as Mayor was too make Albuquerque a Sanctuary City for illegal immigrants who commit crimes. Now we have case after case of violent crimes being committed by illegal immigrants, many of who have been arrested multiple times but turned back onto the streets by this Mayor’s backward policies. As Mayor, I will end the Sanctuary City law immediately.”

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

Simply put, former APD Officer Darren White knows better, unless he flunked “Constitutional Law” at the APD Police Academy which is a real possibility given some of the things that come out of his mouth. White knows Keller has no authority to simply “turn back onto the streets” people arrested for a violent crime as White claims, and White knows its the courts that makes such decisions following due process of law. He is using the issue of sanctuary city to “gin up” anti immigrant fever as Trump has done on the national level.

There is no doubt that crime and the city’s homeless crisis will be the two biggest issues in the 2025 Mayor’s race. If and when the Trump Administration declares Albuquerque to be a Sanctuary Jurisdiction, which is expected, it too will be a political flashpoint in the 2025 municipal elections where the Mayor and 5 City Council seats will be on the ballot.

Mayor Tim Keller has always pushed back against the Trump administration’s efforts to label Albuquerque a “sanctuary city” and to withhold federal funding from cities with immigrant-friendly policies. Keller’s position is that Albuquerque will remain an inclusive and immigrant-friendly city and will resist federal pressure to change its policies, viewing such pressure as detrimental to public safety and community well-being

The link to a related Dinelli article is here:

https://www.petedinelli.com/2025/05/14/stakes-are-high-to-answer-trumps-question-is-albuquerque-a-sanctuary-city-or-immigrant-friendly-city-sanctuary-city-becomes-issue-in-2025-mayors/

City Clerk Verifies Keller And Chavez Signatures To Make Mayoral Ballot; Only Keller Likely To Qualify For Public Finance; Uballez Abandons Public Finance; Impact Of Measured Finance Committees; Public Finance System Needs Major Reform

Posted on June 1, 2025 by Pete Dinelli

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.

Originally, 8 candidates applied for public finance, now there are 4 with the other 4 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.

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. 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.

Daniel Chavez was the first to secure the required 3,000 signatures to get on the ballot followed by Mayor Tim Keller. The following are the processed qualifying nominating petition signatures for each of the 11 candidates as of Friday May 30 from the highest to lowest in tabulations:

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 3,424
Rejected Petition Signatures 592
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed -0-
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 100%

ALEXANDER UBALLEZ

Required Petition Signatures 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures 2,680
Rejected Petition Signatures 455
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 320
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 89%

EDDIE VARELA

Required Petition Signatures 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures 1,998
Rejected Petition Signatures 485
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 1,002
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 67%

LOUIE SANCHEZ

Required Petition Signatures 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures 1,707
Rejected Petition Signatures 396
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 1,293
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 57%

DARREN WHITE

Required Petition Signatures 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures 1,699
Rejected Petition Signatures 150
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 1,301
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 57%

MAYLING ARMIJO

Required Petition Signatures 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures 1,084
Rejected Petition Signatures 373
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 1,916
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met 36%

PATRICK SAIS

Required Petition Signatures 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures 673
Rejected Petition Signatures 670
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 2,327
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 16
Rejected Petition Signatures 19
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed 2,984
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 May 30, the City Clerk has verified 2 candidates have collected the required 3,000 qualifying nominating petition signatures over the 49 day period from April 19 to May 30. Democrat Mayor Tim Keller and Republican Daniel Chavez secured 100% of the required verified qualifying petition signatures of 3,000.

Twenty two days, from May 30 to June 21, remain to collect the balance of the qualifying nominating petition signatures.

Democrat Alexander Uballez will likely make the ballot with 2,680 verified petition signatures secured or 89% and he needs 320 more verified. On May 30, Uballez announced during a press conference that he has collected and turned in enough signatures to appear on the ballot. However, signatures recently collected must be verified by the City Clerk.

Republican Eddie Varela is on track to secure the required 3,000 signatures to get on the ballot with 1,998 signatures collected or 67%. Varela needs 1,002 more signatures which is doable with 22 days left in the collection process.

Democrat City Council Louie Sanchez is lagging somewhat to secure the 3,000 required signatures with 1,707 verified or 57% and he needs 1,293 more signatures to get on the ballot but with 22 more days left in the collection process it still can be done.

Republican Darren White is lagging somewhat to secure the 3,000 required signatures having secured 1,699 or 57% with 150 rejected and needing 1,301 more signatures to get on the ballot but with 22 more days in the collection process it still can be done.

Democrat Mayling Armijo is seriously underwater with her collection of nominating petition signatures with 1,084 verified signatures collected or 36%, 373 were rejected and she needs 1,916 more needed to get on the ballot which will be difficult.

It appears that 4 out of 11 candidates for Mayor will not collect the required 3,000 verified signatures to be placed on the ballot with 3 having less than 15% of the required signatures and one with 22%. Those candidates who will likely fail to get on the ballot are: Brian Feger with 3% collected, Alpana Adair with 1% collected, Adeo Herrick with 1% collected and Patrick Sais with 22% collected. There is an outside chance that Patrick Sais with 22% will make the ballot, but at the rate he is going, making the ballot is doubtful

The link to the City Clerk web page is here:

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/2025-candidates-and-committees-1/2025-petition-qualifying-contribution-tally

PROCESSED PUBLIC FINANCE QUALIFYING DONATIONS

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 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 privately finance candidate and solicit private campaign donation funding until election day November 5.

Originally, seven of the eleven candidates running for Mayor were “public financed” candidates: Alpana Adair, Alexander Uballez, Darren White, Tim Keller, Louis Sanchez, Edie Varella and Adeo Herrick. Four candidates have withdrawn their application for public finance and are now considered privately financed candidates: Alpana Adair, Alexander Uballez, Eddie Varela and Patrick Sais. The four candidates who are still declared public financed candidates are: Tim Keller, Darren White, Louis Sanchez and Adeo Henrick.

The following are the processed public finance qualifying donations for the 4 candidates who remain publicly financed candidates as of Friday May 30:

TIMOTHY KELLER

Required Qualifying Contributions 3,780
Verified Qualifying Contributions 2,614
Rejected Qualifying Contributions 190
Remaining Qualifying Contributions Needed 1,163
Percentage of Verified Qualifying Contributions Met 69%

DARREN WHITE

Required Qualifying Contributions 3,780
Verified Qualifying Contributions 1,471
Rejected Qualifying Contributions 26
Remaining Qualifying Contributions Needed 2,309
Percentage of Verified Qualifying Contributions Met 39%

LOUIE SANCHEZ

Required Qualifying Contributions 3,780
Verified Qualifying Contributions 661
Rejected Qualifying Contributions 70
Remaining Qualifying Contributions Needed 3,119
Percentage of Verified Qualifying Contributions Met 17%

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:

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/2025-candidates-and-committees-1/2025-petition-qualifying-contribution-tally

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 May 30, Keller has collected 2,617 verified qualifying $5.00 donations or 69% and he still needs 1,163 donations to qualify for public finance. With 22 days left in the collection period, Keller must collect an average of 53 donations a 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 1,471 qualifying donations or 39% of the required 3,780 and he needs at least 2,309 more $5.00 donations. With 22 days left in the collection period, White must collect an average of 105 donations per day, plus an additional number to take into account city clerk rejected donations.

The odds are extremely high that Democrat City Councilor Louie Sanchez will NOT qualify for public finance. Sanchez has collected a mere 661 qualifying donations or 17% of the required 3,780 and he needs at least 3,119 more $5.00 donations. With 22 days left in the collection period, Sanchez must collect an average of 142 donations per day, plus an additional number to take into account city clerk rejected donations.

Adeo Herrick has collected 0% of the qualifying donations and 1% of the required nominating petition signatures and it is safe to assume Herrick will not qualify for the ballot nor public finance.

UBALLEZ ABRUPLTY ABANDONS PUBLIC FINANCE

On May 30, Alexander Uballez abruptly ended his efforts to seek public finance. He is the fourth candidate out of eight who applied to abandon his efforts to collect 3,780 qualifying donations to the city to secure public finance of $755,946. According to the City Clerk’s website, as of May 30, Uballez collected 812 contributions or 21% of the 3,780 donations before withdrawing.

In a news conference on May 30, Uballez eviscerated the city’s public finance system saying it favors incumbents and well-established candidates over those with less political support and name identification. Uballez said this:

“I’m the fourth candidate to make this decision. When the only candidate who appears on track to qualify for public financing is the incumbent, it’s a clear sign that this isn’t working as it should. … However, I am too encouraged by the people already supporting our campaign, the volunteers who have worked so hard, and the surge we’re witnessing to do anything but keep moving forward. The people of Albuquerque deserve a better choice than candidates who can buy their way onto the ballot or use entrenched political power to get there. The people of Albuquerque want change to make our city safer and stronger and I will officially be their candidate in November.”

“The idealist in me, which has always driven my every decision, said, ‘Yeah, this thing, [public finance] makes sense, this thing I believe in. And you know what, I think I can hit it.’ But the reality of campaigning, as I’ve learned over the past five weeks, is that it’s quite a tall order. … I still believe in public financing. … I think how it’s currently structured, and maybe the goals you have to attain, reward those with political connections and close the door on political newcomers like myself.”

The links to quoted or relied upon news source is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/article_5d5551fb-023c-4367-a7f5-429a96917917.html#tncms-source=home-featured-7-block

Uballez and other critics of the city’s public finance system have said that following the rules surrounding the $5 collections process is like running an impossible obstacle course. The qualifying period to collect both the 3,000 nominating petition signatures and the 3,780 $5.00 qualifying donations from registered voters is a 64-day period between April 19 and June 21.

OTHER CANDIDATES LASH OUT

Alpana Adair withdrew after collecting only seven verified $5.00 contributions, Patrick Sais withdrew after collecting only two, and Eddie Varela withdrew after collecting 95 of the 3,685 donations or 3%. Varela had this to say:

Varella said Mayor Tim Keller’s name recognition, combined with his built in campaign volunteer organization and established relationships with nonprofits who do business with the city, gives Mayor Keller the advantage when it comes to collecting contributions.

Democrat City Councilor Louie Sanchez and Republican former Bernalillo County Sherriff Darren White are both seeking public financing, but that too may end sooner rather than later with both also lashing out at the public finance process.

Former Bernalillo County Sherriff Darren White said this:

“The only person who has qualified for it in the past two elections is Tim Keller. And so what does that tell you? It tells you that the system is, as I said, it’s an incumbent protection plan.”

White said he is sticking with public financing for now. According to the City Clerk’s candidate’s web page, White has collected 1,471 qualifying $5,00 donations or 39% of the 3,780 donations needed to secure public finance.

City Councilor Louis Sanchez said he was considering withdrawing from public financing and would take the weekend to decide. As of May 30, Sanchez has collected 661 qualifying $5,00 donations or 17% of the 3,780 donations needed to secure public finance. Sanchez said this:

“There’s a very, very good chance that I may opt out too.”

KELLER RESPONDS TO CRITICS

In a statement, Keller took issue with his opponents’ claims that the public finance rules favor incumbents. The Keller campaign said qualifying for public financing isn’t supposed to be easy. Keller said this in a statement:

Keller’s statement notes that public financing was one of Albuquerque’s most critical democratic reforms, keeping campaigns focused on voters rather than big donors or special interests.

The link to the relied upon or quoted news source is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/article_5d5551fb-023c-4367-a7f5-429a96917917.html#tncms-source=home-featured-7-block

2021 MAYOR’S RACE RECALLED

In 2021, Mayor Keller ran against former Sherriff Manny Gonzales and Republican Radio Talk Show host Eddie Aragon. Mayor Tim Keller successfully collected more than the then required 3,779 qualifying $5.00 donations collecting 3,945 and his campaign was given $661,309.25 in public financing. Keller was the only candidate to receive public financing after the city clerk rejected Manny Gonzales’ public financing bid. The clerk’s office found that Gonzales forged voter signatures and donations, something Gonzales denied having a personal connection to. Keller’s other challenger, Eddy Aragon, relied on private financing.

2017 MEASURED FINANCE COMMITTEES SUPPORTING KELLER

Keller was first elected Mayor in 2017 when he was a very popular State Auditor. Originally there were 16 candidates for Mayor, with only 8 candidates who secured the number of qualifying nominating signatures to be placed on the ballot. Under the election code ordinance at the time, all candidates for Mayor were given three months to collect nominating petition signatures from registered voters, but only six (6) weeks to secure the 3,000 required number of $5.00 qualifying donations for public finance.

Keller proclaimed he was “walking the talk” to keep big money out of the Mayor’s race by qualifying for public finance. Once qualified, the Keller for Mayor campaign was given a total of $506,254 in public financing allowed at the time, which included financing for the first election and separate financing for the runoff. As a condition to receive public financing from the City, Tim Keller agreed in writing to a spending cap not to exceed the amount given and agree not to raise and spend any more cash to finance his campaign.

Although Keller proclaimed he was “walking the talk” by being a public finance candidate to keep big donors as arm’s length, it was a false narrative and a political facade. Keller supporters realized that more would be needed to elect Keller. Supporters formed three (3) measured finance committees that either raised money directly to spend on his behalf or indirectly spent money and supported Keller’s candidacy for Mayor financially. No other candidate for Mayor in 2017 had a measured finance committee raising or spending on their behalf.

ABQ Forward Together was a measured finance committee that was formed specifically to raise money to promote Tim Keller for Mayor in 2017. The measured finance committee raised over $663,000 for Keller. ABQ Forward Together was chaired by longtime political consultant Nerie Olguin a former campaign consultant for Mr. Keller when he ran successfully for New Mexico State Senate. $67,000 was raised and spent by the Firefighters political action committee known as ABQFIREPAC for Tim Keller. $122,000 was raised and spent by ABQ Working Families on Tim Keller’s behalf.

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

The city’s public financing system is supposedly designed to reduce the influence of large donors in local elections, but that is simply a FALSE narrative with the existence of measured finance committees that can raise unlimited amounts of money and spend it on promoting a candidate.

MEASURED FINANCE COMMITEES FOR 2025 MUNICIPAL ELEXCTION

Under the City of Albuquerque’s campaign finance laws, a Measure Finance Committee (MFC) is a political action committee (PAC), person or group that supports or opposes a candidate or ballot measure within the City of Albuquerque. Measure Finance Committees are required to register with the City Clerk. Measure finance committees are not bound by the individual contribution limits and business bans like candidates. No Measure Finance Committee is supposed to coordinate their activities with the individual candidates running for office, but this is a very gray area as to what constitutes coordination of activities, and it is difficult to enforce.

In the 2025 municipal election, four measured finance Committees have been formed thus far and are registered with the City Clerk. They are:

SAFER ALBUQUERQUE COMMITTEE (SAFER ABQ) formed for the purpose “To advocate for Mayling Armijo’s candidacy for mayor during the Albuquerque 2025 mayoral race and align with values that reduce crime, reduce homelessness, and promote job growth.”

https://campaignfinance.cabq.gov/#/exploreCommitteeDetail/M3FjOgNU2Z3h9u5VXBTrEgpRrh19RviUIoO4CmCWDAE1/null/null/2/2025

ASCEND ALBUQUERQUE formed for the purpose “To support the election of Tim Keller as Mayor of Albuquerque.”

https://campaignfinance.cabq.gov/#/exploreCommitteeDetail/VMQvJiHXaP1z-Iz2eL_papP4048PFnxLXRUfdOLcQk01/null/null/2/2025

ABQ For All formed for the purpose “To educate and advocate for or against candidates for City Council”

https://campaignfinance.cabq.gov/#/exploreCommitteeDetail/kfkMONlVQnqqDLwSKTLYnJP4048PFnxLXRUfdOLcQk01/null/null/2/2025

CIPGAW: Committee to Elect Eddie Varela Mayor of Albuquerque formed for the purpose to “Elect Eddie Varela Mayor of Albuquerque.”

https://campaignfinance.cabq.gov/#/exploreCommitteeDetail/feXJuXAYkFJVGJBhl95rMZP4048PFnxLXRUfdOLcQk01/null/null/2/2025

DIRE NEED FOR REFORM TO PUBLIC FINANCE LAWS

The fact that only one candidate for Mayor will likely 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 such as Mayor Tim Keller who have high name identification and built in campaign organizations and staff and who holds two and three press conferences a day.

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 and who are not independently wealthy.

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 be 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 or two candidates, especially incumbents, to qualify for public financing in elections for Mayor and giving the incumbent the advantage.