Mayoral election in Albuquerque, New Mexico (2017)
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| 2017 Albuquerque mayoral elections |
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| Election dates |
| Filing deadline: March 31, 2017 |
| General election: October 3, 2017 Runoff election: November 14, 2017 |
| Election stats |
| Offices up: Mayor and city council |
| Total seats up: 6 (click here for other city elections) |
| Election type: Nonpartisan |
| Other municipal elections |
| U.S. municipal elections, 2017 |
In New Mexico, the city of Albuquerque held an election for the mayor's office in 2017. Incumbent Mayor Richard Berry (R) did not file for re-election. New Mexico Auditor Timothy Keller (D) defeated Albuquerque City Councilman Dan Lewis in the runoff election on November 14, 2017, after they took the top two spots in the general election on October 3, 2017. Although the election is officially nonpartisan, Lewis is considered a Republican.
In a poll conducted the day after the general election, 49 percent of respondents said they would vote for Keller, 36 percent favored Lewis, and 14 percent were undecided. Keller was endorsed by Our Revolution, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the policies of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), as well as Democratic state senators Jacob Candelaria and Mimi Stewart. Lewis was endorsed by Republican state senators Craig Brandt and Candace Gould, and state representatives David Adkins and Monica Youngblood. See more endorsements in the race in the Endorsements tab below.
Eight candidates filed to run for mayor, including Bernalillo County Commissioner Wayne Johnson (R) and Brian S. Colón, a former chairman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico. Colón raised over $800,000—the most money of any candidate leading up to the general election. Albuquerque also held an election for five city council seats; click here for more information about those races.Elections
Runoff election
Candidates
- Note: Mayor Richard Berry (R) did not run for re-election.
☑ Timothy Keller - Democratic state auditor of New Mexico
☐ Dan Lewis - Republican member of the Albuquerque City Council
Results
| Mayor of Albuquerque, Runoff Election, 2017 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Tim Keller |
62.20% | 60,249 |
| Dan Lewis | 37.80% | 36,615 |
| Total Votes | 96,864 | |
| Source: Ballotpedia staff, "Email communication with Albuquerque Office of the City Clerk," December 18, 2017 | ||
Polling
| 2017 Albuquerque Mayoral Election | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poll | Timothy Keller | Dan Lewis | Undecided | Margin of error | |||||||||||||||
| Carroll Strategies (October 4, 2017) | 49.2% | 36.4% | 14.4% | +/-4.1 | |||||||||||||||
| Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org. | |||||||||||||||||||
General election
Mayoral candidates had to file by March 31, 2017. To qualify for the ballot, they needed to collect 3,000 signatures from registered voters in the city, and those were due on April 28, 2017. A candidate would have needed to receive over 50 percent of the vote in the general election in order to avoid a runoff election.
Candidates
- Note: Mayor Richard Berry (R) did not run for re-election.
☐ Brian S. Colón - Former chairman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico
☐ Michelle Garcia Holmes
☐ Wayne Johnson - Republican member of the Bernalillo County Commission
Timothy Keller - Democratic state auditor of New Mexico
Dan Lewis - Member of the Albuquerque City Council
☐ Augustus "Gus" Pedrotty
☐ Susan Wheeler-Deichsel
☐ Ricardo Chaves - The week before the general election, Chaves dropped out of the race and endorsed Dan Lewis. Despite dropping out, Chaves still appeared on the general election ballot.[1]
Results
| Mayor of Albuquerque, General Election, 2017 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Tim Keller |
39.35% | 38,163 |
| Dan Lewis |
22.93% | 22,241 |
| Brian S. Colón | 16.37% | 15,879 |
| Wayne Johnson | 9.64% | 9,346 |
| Gus Pedrotty | 6.84% | 6,638 |
| Michelle Garcia Holmes | 3.87% | 3,752 |
| Susan Wheeler-Deichsel | 0.51% | 491 |
| Ricardo Chaves | 0.49% | 475 |
| Write-in votes | 0.01% | 5 |
| Total Votes | 96,990 | |
| Source: City of Albuquerque, "Municipal Election Official Results," October 13, 2017 | ||
Polling
| 2017 Albuquerque Mayoral Election | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poll | Brian S. Colón | Michelle Garcia Holmes | Wayne Johnson | Timothy Keller | Dan Lewis | Augustus "Gus" Pedrotty | Susan Wheeler-Deichsel | Ricardo Chaves | Undecided | Margin of error | Sample size | ||||||||
| Albuquerque Journal (September 23-26, 2017) | 14% | 4% | 10% | 29% | 18% | 4% | 1% | 1% | 18% | +/-3.9 | 618 | ||||||||
| Albuquerque Journal (September 11-14, 2017) | 14% | 4% | 7% | 25% | 13% | 3% | 1% | 1% | 32% | +/-4.3 | 516 | ||||||||
| KQRE News 13 (August 26-27, 2017) | 10% | 6% | 8% | 22% | 11% | 1% | 1% | 5% | 36% | +/-4.4 | 500 | ||||||||
| AVERAGES | 12.67% | 4.67% | 8.33% | 25.33% | 14% | 2.67% | 1% | 2.33% | 28.67% | +/-4.2 | 544.67 | ||||||||
| Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org. | |||||||||||||||||||
Campaign finance
Albuquerque provides public financing for qualifying candidates. Timothy Keller was the only publicly financed candidate in the 2017 mayoral race. The rest of the candidates were privately financed.[2]
In order to qualify for public financing, candidates must collect signatures and $5 contributions from 1 percent of registered voters in the city. In 2017, candidates hoping to qualify needed to collect 3,802 valid signatures, along with the $5 donations, from February 16 to March 31. The $5 donations go into the public finance fund. Candidates that qualify for public financing receive $1 for each registered voter in the city—about $380,000 in 2017—minus the seed money the candidate collected before qualifying.[3]
According to KRQE News, 10 of the 14 candidates who were trying to get on the ballot initially indicated that they were interested in qualifying for public financing, but all of the candidates except for Keller eventually switched to private financing. Several candidates expressed frustration with the public financing qualifying process. "The time that you have to collect those $5 contributions is ridiculous, it’s borderline insanity," said former candidate Elan Colello. "It seems designed to assure that candidates, for the most part, fail, or to only give opportunities to those who are previously already very, very well connected," said Susan Wheeler-Deichsel.
But former Albuquerque City Councilor Eric Griego, who helped create the system, said it's not meant to be easy. If you want public financing, he said, "you’ve got to show me that you have the experience and enough people that 1% of the voters think you’re qualified and that 1% of the voters know and support you."[4]
Endorsements
The table below shows endorsements for the 2017 Albuquerque mayoral runoff election.
| Endorsements for Albuquerque mayoral runoff candidates | ||
|---|---|---|
| Endorsement | Timothy Keller | Dan Lewis |
| Groups | ||
| AFSCME Council 18 |  |
|
| Albuquerque Police Officers Association | |
|
| New Mexico Building and Construction Trades Council | |
|
| ABQWest Chamber of Commerce | |
|
| EQNM - Equality New Mexico | |
|
| Planned Parenthood Votes New Mexico | |
|
| Sierra Club | |
|
| Our Revolution | |
|
| Federal politicians | ||
| U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D)[5] | |
|
| U.S. Sen. Tom Udall (D)[6] | |
|
| U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce (R)[6] | | |
| State politicians | ||
| New Mexico Lt. Gov. John Sanchez (R)[6] | | |
| New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas (D)[6] | |
|
| State Sen. Michael Padilla (D)[6] | |
|
| State Sen. Craig Brandt (R) | | |
| State Sen. Candace Ruth Gould (R) | | |
| State Sen. Jacob Candelaria (D) | |
|
| State Sen. Mimi Stewart (D) | |
|
| State Rep. David Adkins (R) | | |
| State Rep. Monica Youngblood (R) | | |
| Former mayoral candidates | ||
| Brian S. Colón[7] | |
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| Ricardo Chaves[1] | | |
| Wayne Johnson[6] | | |
| Michelle Garcia Holmes[6] | | |
| Eddy Aragon[6] | | |
| Albuquerque City Council members | ||
| Albuquerque City Councilor Trudy Jones[6] | | |
| Albuquerque City Councilor Don Harris[6] | | |
| Albuquerque City Councilor Brad Winter[6] | | |
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: New Mexico elections, 2017
The general election for mayor of Albuquerque shared the ballot with general elections for five of nine seats on the Albuquerque City Council.
Issues
Campaign videos
Keller
Lewis
About the city
- See also: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is a city in Bernalillo County, New Mexico. As of 2010, its population was 545,852.
City government
- See also: Mayor-council government
The city of Albuquerque uses a strong mayor and city council system. In this form of municipal government, the city council serves as the city's primary legislative body while the mayor serves as the city's chief executive.
Demographics
The following table displays demographic data provided by the United States Census Bureau.
| Demographic Data for Albuquerque, New Mexico | ||
|---|---|---|
| Albuquerque | New Mexico | |
| Population | 545,852 | 2,059,179 |
| Land area (sq mi) | 187 | 121,312 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White | 73.9% | 74.8% |
| Black/African American | 3.3% | 2.1% |
| Asian | 2.9% | 1.6% |
| Native American | 4.7% | 9.6% |
| Pacific Islander | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| Other (single race) | 10.6% | 8.6% |
| Multiple | 4.4% | 3.3% |
| Hispanic/Latino | 49.2% | 48.8% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate | 89.7% | 85.6% |
| College graduation rate | 35.2% | 27.3% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income | $52,911 | $49,754 |
| Persons below poverty level | 16.9% | 19.1% |
| Source: population provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census" (2010). Other figures provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2014-2019). | ||
| **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Albuquerque mayor election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Albuquerque, New Mexico | New Mexico | Municipal government | Other local coverage |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 NM Political Report, "Chaves drops out, endorses Lewis days before election," September 28, 2017
- ↑ City of Albuquerque, "2017 Publicly Financed Candidates," accessed June 29, 2017
- ↑ Albuquerque Journal, "Keller qualifies for public funding," April 1, 2017
- ↑ KRQE News, "Albuquerque mayoral candidates say rules for public campaign fund are unfair," April 6, 2017
- ↑ Albuquerque Journal, "Sen. Heinrich endorses Keller for Albuquerque mayor," October 12, 2017
- ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 Albuquerque Journal, "Lewis, Keller secure more endorsements," October 26, 2017
- ↑ NM Political Report, "Colón endorses Keller in ABQ mayoral race," October 18, 2017
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