pat@newmexico.news, Author at City Desk ABQ

Baca interviews for Gov. cabinet post

Albuquerque City Councilor Joaquín Baca has two more years left to serve in his council term, but he could be leaving sooner than that, City Desk has learned. Baca has interviewed with Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham for consideration to fill the governor’s vacant cabinet position for secretary overseeing the state’s Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources […]

Albuquerque Community Foundation picks Native New Mexican to lead

For the first time in 20 years, the state’s largest community foundation has a new leader — and they didn’t have to go far to find her. Marisa Magallanez officially took the helm of the Albuquerque Community Foundation and the New Mexico Community Trust as president and CEO on Jan. 1. Magallanez, a native of […]

Battle for the 5th vote: Conservatives eye majority, progressives fight for control through Westside runoffs

Commentary & Analysis in City DeskPat Davis is the founder and publisher of citydesk.org. He is a recovering politician having served eight years as an Albuquerque City Councilor and, in another life, served as a police officer and nonprofit organizer. Citywide, turnout for runoff elections ending Tues. Dec. 9 is strong, but that’s not the […]

Opinion: Could Tim Keller lose? The data says it’s closer than you think

Commentary & Analysis in City Desk We ask experts and reporters covering local news to share their takes on how it all fits together. Analysis by Editor Kevin Hendricks, City Hall Reporter Jesse Jones and Publisher Pat Davis By the time early voting ended Saturday night, 82,013 (22% of eligible voters) had turned out in […]

Creator of viral ‘Tim Killer’ AI video claims satire, not deception

Would you be fooled? Watch for yourself belowA video circulating on social media just days before the city’s runoff election appears to feature Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller narrating a driving tour past homeless camps, watching surveillance footage of carjackings and trashing critics – except Keller never said any of those words. When KOB TV first […]

The Tumbleweed Snowman is 30 years old. See how he’s changed since 1995

OK, Albuquerque, do you know what today is? Yes, it’s #GivingTuesday (an important day in a nonprofit newsroom) but it’s also Tumbleweed Tuesday, the day the Tumbleweed Snowman claims his holiday perch alongside the busy westbound lanes of I-40 next to the AMAFCA offices near the “Big I.” This year is also the icon’s 30-year […]

Uballez urges votes for Keller, sort of

When Alex Uballez lost his bid for mayor in Nov., he quickly endorsed candidates in two of the city’s three runoff elections, both for Westside council seats, scheduled a month later — but not for mayor. That changed, sort of, this past weekend when Uballez penned a lukewarm endorsement of his former rival in the […]

Commentary: From conflict to collaboration — How a New Mexico transmission line will protect power delivery and prairie chickens

Opinion in New Mexico Political ReportIn his role as Executive Director for Audubon Southwest, Jon Hayes oversees the National Audubon Society’s operations in Arizona and New Mexico—including two nature centers, a research ranch, and a team of scientists, educators, and advocates all working to advance bird conservation in the Southwest. The Crossroad-Hobbs-Roadrunner Transmission Project, a 345 […]

We asked readers to tell us whether City Desk mattered. Here’s what they said.

Our team at nm.news and City Desk ABQ outside our new Nob Hill office, July 2025 From Pat Davis, City Desk founder & publisher When voters elected me to Albuquerque’s City Council in 2015, I promised to serve no more than two terms. In that time, we’d navigated the city through COVID, brought APD to […]

Outside groups spent over $1 million to influence ABQ’s elections in 2025

In the months before a federal judge struck down part of the city’s election transparency laws last week, outside groups had already spent more than one million dollars to influence Albuquerque elections in 2025. A City Desk analysis of city campaign finance data shows that Albuquerque’s 2025 local elections were among the most expensive in […]