(c) City Desk ABQ. Republication is available by request to kevin@newmexico.news
According to his campaign website, Albuquerque mayoral candidate Patrick B. Sais graduated from UNM with a degree in political science, was elected to the Albuquerque City Council and earned endorsements from a local business owner, firefighter and educator in his campaign for Albuquerque mayor.
That type of education, experience and community support make a solid platform on which to run for mayor. Except it is all a lie.
Sais is no stranger to New Mexico politics. He ran and lost races for the state house in 2022 and 2024 and finished last among four candidates for Albuquerque mayor in 2021. He failed to secure enough signatures to qualify for the 2025 mayoral ballot but he has launched a bid to be a write-in candidate, the same path he pursued for mayor in 2021.
But the biography and campaign materials Sais is using in his 2025 campaign for mayor describe an entirely different – and made-up – candidate.
“It’s going to be corrected”
Sais’s campaign website, sais4mayor.com, explicitly states in his biographical timeline that he was “Elected to City Council” in 2018, where he “championed policies for sustainable urban development.” But there were no municipal elections in 2018 and hundreds of hours of public meeting videos make it easy to confirm that he was never in office.
On the campaign’s home page, endorsers include “Maria Martinez,” described as a “Community Leader,” and “David R. Jones,” listed as a “Retired Educator.”
However, on the website’s about page, the same photographs show “Maria Gonzales” identified as a “Local Business Owner” and “David Lee” described as a “Retired Firefighter” — completely different names and occupations for what appear to be the same people.
Sais’s site also claims that he graduated with honors and “earned his degree in Political Science from the University of New Mexico, laying the foundation for his future in public service.”
Reached by phone this week by City Desk, Sais now says he attended PIMA Medical School, a private for-profit medical certificate training program, not UNM, though he did not confirm any of the details of his PIMA education.
“I hate bullshitters like that”
The pattern of false biographical claims mirrors those made by George Santos, the New York Republican who admitted in December 2022 to fabricating major elements of his background during his successful congressional campaign.
Santos falsely claimed to have graduated from Baruch College and New York University, when he had never attended either institution. He also falsely stated that he worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup — claims both companies denied. Santos additionally fabricated details about his heritage, falsely claiming his grandparents were Holocaust survivors and made up stories about employees dying in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.
The Santos scandal led to federal charges and his eventual expulsion from the House of Representatives in December 2023, making him only the sixth member ever expelled from Congress.
When asked about being compared to Santos, Sais told City Desk, “No, I hate bullshitters like that. I apologize for that, but it’s going to be corrected.”
Sais acknowledged the false information on his website and said he was unaware of the fabricated claims until contacted by City Desk ABQ.
“I had some youngsters build that website. They built it for me. They embellished it, and I told them, ‘Don’t do that, because that’s not who I am.’ But they did. You’re the first one that brought it to my attention,” Sais said, adding that he never reviewed the website after it went live because “I was just too busy.”
“I’m just a normal person, man,” Sais said. “I’m not special. I didn’t go to anything like these other guys did. I’m just a normal person trying to make a change.”
Campaign finance reports filed with the city do not show any expenditures for website design.
Sais confirmed he was never elected to city council and said he was working to correct the website. “He’s going to go through the website, get things removed and put it back the way it’s supposed to be,” Sais said, referring to someone helping him fix the site.
The false website raises questions about basic campaign management and candidate oversight. Sais said he trusted the website developers and gave them simple biographical information to use.
“Look, I’m 57 years old, born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico… just the basic normal American,” Sais said.
When asked about reviewing the website before launch, Sais said, “I didn’t know how to do it. I didn’t know how to do that. So I believed in them.”
But the inaccuracies aren’t only about his education and political experience.
According to his site, Sais was born in 1985, making him about 40 years old, and raised in Albuquerque, “instilling in him a deep connection to the city and its people.” Sais said his employment history includes work as a truck driver, school bus driver and youth sports coach, not policy analyst or community foundation coordinator as indicated on his site.
Sais has had the opportunity to correct these fake credentials in media interviews before City Desk spoke with him. During an interview with KCHF-TV, a local religious broadcasting channel, posted to YouTube on Aug. 6, the host introduces Sais by reading portions of his background from the website on the air, including that he “earned his political science degree from UNM.” Sais did not correct her. The host went on to say, “you started the Albuquerque Youth Empowerment Program,” another claim that appears on his campaign website. He describes in detail his work raising money to help fund youth intervention and drug prevention programs. Several local nonprofits and a professional counseling service all have programs with similar names, but City Desk could find no record of his work with any of them.
When pressed by City Desk about the seriousness of having false information on his campaign website, Sais deflected by making unsubstantiated attacks against other mayoral candidates.
“We got [Mayor Tim] Keller, Ulibarri (Most likely referring to former U.S. Attorney Alex Uballez), that are communists, that are just like the guy in New York,” Sais said. He also called fellow candidate and former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White “the drug dealer” without providing any evidence for the claim.
Sais made similar unsubstantiated attacks against other candidates, calling City Councilor Louie Sanchez corrupt and saying retired Fire Chief Eddie Varela “doesn’t know anything about politics.”
Sais’ social media accounts frequently share conservative gun rights rallies and far-right-wing conspiracy theories promoting MAGA ideology and 9/11 misinformation.
This year, Sais officially filed paperwork with the city to run for mayor, but did not qualify with 1,052 verified signatures, well short of the 3,000 valid signatures required to be on the ballot. Sais said he is now working to qualify as a write-in candidate for mayor.
According to the city clerk’s office, “to run for Mayor as a write-in, the candidate must file a Declaration of Intent with the Bernalillo County Clerk on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., along with nominating petitions containing 3,000 valid signatures from registered City of Albuquerque voters. The Bernalillo County Clerk is the filing officer who determines whether those requirements have been met. Qualified write-in candidates are treated the same as other candidates in the election process, but their names will not appear on the printed ballot. Voters would need to write it in for it to count.”
Keller, first elected in 2017 and reelected in 2021, is seeking an unprecedented third term. Other declared candidates include White, Varela, Uballez, Sanchez, President of Parking Company of America Daniel Chavez and former director of Economic Development for Bernalillo County and deputy county manager for Sandoval County, Mayling Armijo.
Help us expand the reach of City Desk reports. Share this on your favorite platforms now.
Think ABQ needs more reporting like this? Help us find the next story about how the city works (and doesn’t) by becoming a donor today.
A Republican lying BEFORE he’s been elected. You know what to expect if you do the dumb thing and elect him.