The Office of the City Clerk certified the publicly financed candidates Monday, with four incumbents and two newcomers earning the right to receive lump-sum grants from the city’s Open and Ethical Elections Fund to run their campaigns through November’s election.
City Clerk Ethan Watson’s office announced that the following candidates qualified for public financing: Ahren Griego and Daniel Leiva in District 1, Klarissa Peña in District 3, Dan Lewis in District 5, Tammy Fiebelkorn in District 7 and Renee Grout in District 9.
In Albuquerque, candidates who qualify for public financing receive a lump-sum grant to run their campaigns—no big donors required.
To qualify for public financing, candidates must collect and properly document 1% of qualifying contributions from registered voters in their district. These are $5 donations made in a candidate’s name to the Open and Ethical Election Fund.
City Council candidates had from June 2 through July 7 to collect these qualifying contributions. The 2025 Regular Local Election will be held on November 4, 2025.
Six additional candidates chose to run privately financed campaigns across the five districts. Unlike publicly financed candidates, who may only spend the funds distributed by the City, privately financed candidates have no fundraising or spending limits, though individual contribution limits still apply.
The privately financed candidates include Stephanie Telles and Joshua Neal in District 1, Christopher Sedillo and Teresa Garcia in District 3, Athenea Allen in District 5, and Melani Buchanan Farmer in District 9. Fiebelkorn is running unopposed in District 7.
Qualified candidates also had to submit more than 500 petition signatures from registered voters within their district. The City Clerk will distribute public financing funds to certified candidates on July 30.
The privately financed candidates have until August 26 to file their declarations of candidacy.
Districts 2, 4, 6, and 8 are not elected in the 2025 Regular Local Election because Albuquerque staggers its city council elections.
Albuquerque is one of only two New Mexico cities with municipal public financing systems, along with Santa Fe. Nationally, fourteen states and 26 localities now offer public campaign financing options.
Albuquerque’s public financing system was enacted in 2005 and helps keep Albuquerque elections fair, local, and focused on the issues that matter to our community, according to the City Clerk’s office announcement.
For more information about the 2025 election, contact the Office of the City Clerk at 505-924-3650 or visit cabq.gov/vote.