Back To The Action: Early Voting In ABQ Runoff Election Starts Today; One More Mayoral TV Debate Tonight, Plus: Uballlez With Late Endorsement Of Keller, And: Caught In The Questionnaire: City Council Race Ignites Over Garcia's Arrest Denial

ABQ River of Lights

Early voting for the ABQ runoff election and one more TV debate between the mayoral contenders is on tap this first day of December when the focus starts on the holidays and candidates have to scramble to get their attention. 

 

Here's the lowdown from the county clerk on how to cast your ballot early and then get back to your shopping or whatever before the official Election Day December 9: 

 

Early Voting begins today at 17 locations across the city. The runoff includes contests for Mayor and City Council Districts 1 and 3 after no candidate in these offices received more than 50 percent of the vote in the Regular Local Election. 

 

“Early Voting gives residents six days to cast their ballot--Dec 1-6 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m daily,” says BernCo Clerk Michelle Kavanaugh. 

 

Only voters who reside within the City of Albuquerque may participate in the runoff. You do not need to have voted in the Regular Local Election to vote in the runoff. Voters can confirm their eligibility at NMVote.org. Same Day Registration is available at all early voting locations.

DEBATE TONIGHT

 

The KOAT mayoral debate Nov. 24 was billed here as the final one between Mayor Tim Keller and challenger Darren White but it turns out there is one more and will air live at 6 p.m. today on FOX New Mexico, It will also be streamed live on KRQE-TV's website and the KRQE app and be available to view after the one hour debate concludes. The debate will be moderated by longtime news anchors Dean Staley and Jessica Garate. 

 

TRAIL DUST 

 

Uballez 

On the campaign trail mayoral hopeful Alex Uballez, a progressive favorite who finished third in the November 4 election, has now endorsed Keller for a third consecutive term. He had held back his endorsement for a month during which he made several demands for his endorsement but which Keller rejected. Uballez writes:

As mayor, White would return Albuquerque to the worst mistakes of its past: cutting core public services, criminalizing homelessness and mental illness, turning our immigrant neighbors over to the Trump administration, and inviting new scandals that put his interests above the city’s needs. . .Our charge is clear: Keep Darren White out of City Hall. Then keep organizing after Election Day so that Keller delivers for the people of Albuquerque.

Not exactly a resounding endorsement of the incumbent but it gets Uballez off the bench. 

Meanwhile Indivisible ABQ is the latest progressive group to give Keller their backing, joining the NM Working Families Party that has also given him the nod: Indivisible says:

We asked our members to vote on this endorsement and the response was overwhelming. We support Tim Keller and urge you to vote for him. His opponent in this run off Dec 9 will be disastrous. 

 

It now appears all of the major progressive groups that supported Uballez in the initial election are now in Keller's corner.  

 

White has lined up the support of fellow Republican and mayoral candidate Eddie Varela who finished the regular election with 1.6 percent of the vote. 

 

Varela said: "Daren is a proven leader but most important Darren has the courage to be our Mayor. . .He can help fix our beautiful city." 

 

QUESTIONNAIRE STRIKES AGAIN

Teresa Garcia

It's happened yet again. The simple and direct ABQ Journal candidate questionnaire has snared another politico. 

This time it is Dem ABQ city council District 3 candidate Teresa Garcia who ran afoul of the questionnaire, in use for decades but still tripping up candidates who don't learn from the past and continue to fudge their answers. 

For Garcia it was her "no" answer to this question that ignited campaign controversy:

Have you ever been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of drunken driving, any misdemeanor or any felony in New Mexico or any other state?

But it turns out that Garcia, locked in a tight runoff race with three-term Dem moderate Councilor Klarrissa Peña, has indeed been arrested--back in 2015 on a misdemeanor charge of aggravated battery involving her then husband. The kicker is that she was found not guilty by a Metro Court jury. 

Garcia's misstatement led to the dreaded follow-up where the paper reported in detail her arrest, likely brought about by opposition researchers who monitor answers to the questionnaires as if protecting their first born. 

Garcia's campaign went into instant attack mode, accusing the Journal and Peña of weaponizing domestic violence, a subject she has since become expert in. She says she works remotely as a digital marketing and communications specialist for the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence. 

Garcia said in a news release:

(These are) deeply harmful political attacks that have weaponized my history as a survivor of domestic violence to shame and revictimize me and my family. I will not be intimidated, and I will not back down. Survivors deserve dignity, respect, and safety — not public humiliation for political gain. A Message to Survivors: “To every survivor reading this: You are not alone. I see you. I believe you. I stand with you. You deserve safety, dignity, and justice — not shame or silence. Your experience matters, and as your next City Councilor, I will continue fighting so that no survivor is ever treated as a political pawn or forced to endure what my family and I are facing today.

 

Asked directly by the paper why she answered no on the questionnaire arrest question, Garcia said:

I didn’t feel that I needed to share that in any platform or in any questionnaire, because I was exonerated. I was acquitted, and it was, it should have been, expunged out, but they found it. 

 THE RESPONSE

Councilor Peña

Councilor Peña had this take: 

Domestic violence is real for so many of us. My own mother was a survivor. That is why I sponsored legislation that created the Domestic Violence Commission--and why I appointed my opponent to that commission. . .But that is not what this is about. Voters deserve honesty. My opponent, Teresa Garcia, was arrested in 2015. She was acquitted by a jury--and that is a matter of public record. The issue is not the case itself. The issue is that she told the Albuquerque Journal she had never been arrested. Every candidate is required to answer that question truthfully. I did. My opponent did not. . ..This isn’t about re-litigating an incident from years ago. It’s about honesty with the people you want to represent. 

Garcia joins a long list of candidates who have fudged the truth when answering the questionnaire.. 

One of the latest was in 2023 when City Councilor Brook Bassan when for the second time she inflated her educational credentials on a Journal questionnaire. She was narrowly re-elected to her Republican leaning District 4 NE Heights council seat. 

Garcia's operatives and the candidate herself surely must be aware of the peril the seemingly innocuous questionnaire represents. Garcia ran and lost a state House District 13 primary in 2024. She's been around and her campaign is being supported by leading progressives. Her campaign has been endorsed by First endorser and Senator Martin Heinrich.

(The Journal does not list any candidate questionnaires received from Garcia or Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero who Garcia challenged in that primary).

AVOIDING A FALL 

Garcia could have made the issue a nonevent if she had simply written of her arrest:  

I was arrested for battery in a domestic case. A jury acquitted me of the charge. 

That would be more than enough to back off the opposition researchers as well as the media.  

Garcia will receive empathy for her plight. As she states it was a traumatic incident she was involved in and led her to withhold the arrest. However, that she did not truthfully answer the question is not in dispute and that the public has a right to know is inviolable. 

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