With the June 21 deadline looming, Albuquerque mayoral candidates are in a final push to meet the requirements for ballot qualification in the upcoming November 4 Regular Local Election.
Candidates for mayor must gather a significant number of petition signatures and, for those seeking public financing, qualifying contributions to secure their spot on the ballot.
The number of required qualifying contributions, spending and aggregate limits for candidates is tied to voter registration numbers in the district, extracted each February of an election cycle. Mayoral candidates need 3,780 qualifying contributions and must gather more than 3,000 petition signatures from registered Albuquerque voters.
The qualifying period for Mayor candidates began on April 19 and concludes on June 21 at 5 p.m. On June 21, mayoral candidates must submit their petitions to the Office of the City Clerk and publicly financed applicant candidates must submit their Application for Certification.
As of June 13, the most recent update, several candidates have successfully met the petition signature requirement:
- Incumbent Mayor Tim Keller (Publicly Financed): 4,433 verified signatures (100% met)
- Eddie Varela (Privately Financed): 3,510 verified signatures (100% met)
- Daniel Chavez (Privately Financed): 3,427 verified signatures (100% met)
- Alex Uballez (Privately Financed): 3,281 verified signatures (100% met)
Louie Sanchez (Privately Financed) is close to meeting the petition signature requirement with 2,981 verified signatures, needing just 19 more.
In terms of qualifying contributions for public financing, Keller is currently at 98% with 3,688 verified contributions, needing 92 more to reach the 3,780 threshold. Darren White (Privately Financed, withdrew from public financing) had 2,000 verified contributions before his withdrawal.
Several mayoral hopefuls have withdrawn from public financing or from the race entirely:
- Adeo Herrick (Publicly Financed) withdrew from the mayoral race on June 17.
- Varela, Patrick Sais, White, Sanchez, Alpana Adair, and Uballez all initially applied for public financing but have since withdrawn and are now privately financed.
- Brian Fejer withdrew his candidacy for mayor in May.
The current list of active mayoral candidates includes:
Privately Financed:
- Mayling Armijo
- Eddie Varela
- Patrick Sais
- Darren White
- Louie Sanchez
- Alpana Adair
- Alex Uballez
- Daniel Chavez
Publicly Financed:
- Tim Keller