Paul McKenney
Paul McKenney (Libertarian Party) ran for election to the New Mexico House of Representatives to represent District 21. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.
McKenney was a nonpartisan candidate for District 9 representative on the Albuquerque City Council in New Mexico. McKenney was defeated in the general election on October 3, 2017.
Biography
McKenney holds associate degrees in culinary arts and accounting. As of 2017, he was working towards a bachelor's degree in business. He served in the United States Air Force, and his professional experience also includes cooking and construction.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: New Mexico House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for New Mexico House of Representatives District 21
Incumbent Debra Sariñana defeated Paul McKenney in the general election for New Mexico House of Representatives District 21 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Debra Sariñana (D) | 69.8 | 4,950 |
| Paul McKenney (L) | 30.2 | 2,142 | ||
| Total votes: 7,092 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for New Mexico House of Representatives District 21
Incumbent Debra Sariñana advanced from the Democratic primary for New Mexico House of Representatives District 21 on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Debra Sariñana | 100.0 | 1,659 |
| Total votes: 1,659 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Libertarian primary election
Libertarian primary for New Mexico House of Representatives District 21
Paul McKenney advanced from the Libertarian primary for New Mexico House of Representatives District 21 on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Paul McKenney | 100.0 | 18 | |
| Total votes: 18 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2017
The city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, held elections for mayor and city council on October 3, 2017. The filing deadline for mayoral candidates was March 31, 2017, and the filing deadline for city council candidates was May 31, 2017.[2]
Incumbent Don Harris defeated Byron Powdrell and Paul McKenney in the Albuquerque City Council District 9 general election.[3]
| Albuquerque City Council, District 9 General Election, 2017 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Don Harris Incumbent |
57.29% | 5,621 |
| Byron Powdrell | 26.49% | 2,599 |
| Paul McKenney | 16.23% | 1,592 |
| Total Votes | 9,812 | |
| Source: City of Albuquerque, "Municipal Election Official Results," October 13, 2017 | ||
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Paul McKenney did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
2017
McKenney participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 survey of municipal government candidates.[4] The following sections display his responses to the survey questions. When asked what his top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:
| “ | My top priority is public safety. To improve public safety we need to hire more police officers. To recruit the officers we need, the department's public image needs to be improved. I think this is accomplished by completing the DOJ consent decree, having meaningful civilian oversight and having real transparency in the department.[5] | ” |
| —Paul McKenney (July 7, 2017)[1] | ||
Ranking the issues
The candidate was asked to rank the following issues by importance in the city, with 1 being the most important and 12 being the least important: city services (trash, utilities, etc.), civil rights, crime reduction/prevention, environment, government transparency, homelessness, housing, K-12 education, public pensions/retirement funds, recreational opportunities, transportation, and unemployment. This table displays this candidate's rankings from most to least important.
| Issue importance ranking | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking |
Issue | Candidate's ranking |
Issue |
| Recreational opportunities | K-12 education | ||
| Environment | City services (trash, utilities, etc.) | ||
| Public pensions/retirement funds | Unemployment | ||
| Housing | Government transparency | ||
| Transportation | Civil rights | ||
| Homelessness | Crime reduction/prevention | ||
Nationwide municipal issues
The candidate was asked to answer questions from Ballotpedia regarding issues facing cities across America. The questions are in the left column and the candidate's responses are in the right column. Some questions provided multiple choices, which are noted after those questions.
| Question | Response |
|---|---|
| Very important | |
| None | |
| Increased police presence/activity | |
| Create a more competitive business climate | |
| The one thing that stands out to me is the people of the city. Albuquerque is a multi-cultural inclusive city with a lot of great people. No matter where I have lived in this city I have had great neighbors. | |
| I would like the police department to complete the DOJ consent decree. I don't think we will be able to effectively recruit the officers we need until we complete it. |
McKenney's website highlighted the following campaign themes:[6]
Community policing
- Excerpt: "District 9 is in the Foothills area command of APD. The foothills area command has the most community involvement of all the area commands in Albuquerque. We need to continue strengthening the partnerships between the communities and the police department. Allocating resources for these programs is a top priority for the budget."
Budget
- Excerpt: "Albuquerque has a bad tendency of passing budgets with more spending than expected revenue. The people of Albuquerque have to find a way to balance their budgets, and the government should do the same thing. The answer is not to raise taxes in an attempt to increase revenue."
Economic prosperity
- Excerpt: "The way to economic growth is through making it easier for small businesses to open in Albuquerque. The easiest place to start is by cutting regulation and licensing requirements. The second thing that the city can do to encourage growth is to decrease the fees that are charged for opening and running a business in the city."
Immigration
- Excerpt: "I think that Albuquerque needs to comply with immigration holds, and needs to report those that get arrested and are not in the country legally. However, spending our resources to aggressively pursue deportation of illegal immigrants is the wrong direction to go."
Minimum wage
- Excerpt: "An increase in minimum wage also creates an increase in cost to the business owner. The business owner may take some cuts to profits but ultimately they will have to raise prices to cover the higher costs. Now that prices have been increased the person making minimum wage now finds themselves in the same position they were in before there was an increase in the minimum wage."
See also
2020 Elections
External links
- Albuquerque City Council
- Campaign website
- Social media
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ballotpedia's municipal government candidate survey, 2017, "Paul McKenney's Responses," July 7, 2017
- ↑ City of Albuquerque, "2017 Election Calendar for Candidates," accessed May 7, 2017
- ↑ City of Albuquerque, "2017 City Council Candidates," accessed June 30, 2017
- ↑ Note: The candidate's answers have been reproduced here verbatim without edits or corrections by Ballotpedia.
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Paul Ryan McKenney campaign website, "Issues," accessed July 11, 2017
