Donations large and small from family members, real estate developers and cannabis companies helped the leading challengers to incumbent Mayor Tim Keller raise a combined $170,000 in just under 30 days, but all of that effort was dwarfed by Keller’s single contribution: a $733,000 contribution from the city’s public financing account.
Candidates for all city offices reported their most recent fundraising totals and expenses on Monday. The reports show a widening gap between Keller, the incumbent, and seven challengers who have themselves begun to separate into two tiers of candidates on track to fund expensive advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts later this fall. Early voting begins in early October for the Nov. 4 Election Day.
Only City Councilor Louie Sanchez and former sheriff Darren White enter the next fundraising period with more than $100,000 in cash on hand.
Sanchez raised just $6,746 in new donations for this period, running from July 8 through Aug. 4. Over $5,800 of Sanchez’s donations came from a single donor from Texas. But Sanchez ends the period with $163,969 on hand thanks to a $150,000 loan he provided to his campaign earlier this summer.
White ends the period with $116,486 in cash. The Republican former sheriff, cannabis company owner and radio host led individual fundraising with 116 new donations totalling $105,993. White’s largest contributors were $6,000 from Pierre Amestoy, a local developer, and $5,000 each from entities associated with the Pitre family’s automotive businesses, cannabis companies Truforia and Elevated Labs, and Peterson Properties run by Doug Peterson, a frequent and vocal critic of Mayor Keller. White also reported a $10,000 donation from Progress Healthcare based in Louisiana, though the city’s limit for contributions to mayoral candidates is $6,000.
White told City Desk the extra $4,000 has been returned, but since the check was sent back after the reporting deadline, it won’t appear until next month’s report.
Further behind, Mayling Armijo, a former Bernalillo County economic development director, secured $39,500 in new donations from 42 donors. Almost half of her total donations came from Armijo family members, including $6,000 each from Joseph, Mia and Beelien Armijo, and $4,000 from Beeling Armijo, all of Albuquerque. Her largest donor not named Armijo was $6,000 from Walter Groadhi, a housing developer based in Oregon. She has just $37,727 cash on hand.
Former United States Attorney Alex Uballez, a Democrat, ended the period with $29,778 in cash on hand after raising over $19,000 in new contributions but spending over $40,000 during the same period. Among 103 new donations, Uballez’s largest contributors were $962 from Miranda Viscolli, leader of the nonprofit New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, $1,203 each from Brian Colón, former state auditor and managing partner of the Singleton Schreiber law firm’s New Mexico office, and his wife Aleli Colón and multiple donations under $500 from local attorneys.
Daniel Chavez, a conservative parking lot company owner who launched his campaign with a $100,000 donation from personal funds, ended the period with just $8,267 in cash available. He had previously reported spending over $40,000 on paid signature collectors and campaign consultants.
Eddie Varela, a Republican former firefighter, reported a negative cash balance of -$443 at the end of the period. He reported spending over $1,000 on “Food, Beverages and Meals” and raised just $227 this period.
Patrick Sais reported no donations or expenditures and filed a cash balance of $403.
Incumbent Mayor Tim Keller was the only candidate to qualify for public financing. His reelection campaign received $733,968 in public funding on July 17. He ends the period with $684,237 on hand after spending $26,000 with a Chicago-based campaign consulting firm and $12,945 with local consultant Neri Holguin, among other smaller expenses.
A recent poll from the New Mexico Business Coalition found that ⅔ of voters are unhappy with the direction of the city, but most challengers to Keller are still unknown to voters.
Is it legal that Keller gets $733,000 from the city and nobody else does?