It's the issues not making headlines in today's Rio Rancho mayoral run-off election that catch the eye of New Mexicans who may harbor a streak of envy. 

In that sprawling suburb of of 112,000 souls, ensconced a hop and a skip away from Big Burque, hardly a peep can be heard about drug addiction, crime--juvenile or otherwise--or the homeless. Those, of course, are the perennial problems that bedevil their neighbors. 

Instead the big issue in the City of Vision is the respective candidates' vision for making the car-clogged roads easier to navigate. Really? Yep. That's it. 

That may make the political class stifle their yawns but Mr. and Mrs. New Mexico would probably give away a freezer full of green chile to have a Rio Rancho election election of their own. That's not to be because Rio Rancho is unique. 

IN THE BEGINNING. . .  

The city was founded in the 1960's by a real estate company who populated it with retirees from the New York area who gladly gobbled up the desert acreage to escape the ravages then sweeping across big city East Coast life.

Those emigres were primarily Anglo working class--retired cops and firefighters, schoolteachers and others. That DNA is still in the city today with a conservative streak dominating politics. There are now more Hispanic voices as the city became attractive to ABQ and Santa Fe working class voters tired of overpriced homes, schools that didn't deliver and the insidious creep of drugs and crime. 

Given that backdrop it would be quite the upset if Democrat Alexandria Piland were to defeat Republican Rio Rancho City Councilor Paul Wymer today but not unimaginable. Both have been on their game as they campaign widely and energetically while raising close to $80,000 each to woo voters. 

FOLLOWING THE MONEY 

Wymer and Piland

Digging into the finance reports we find Republican Wymer's donations lean heavily on the ABQ development community that does considerable business in the city including on those aforementioned roads. 

Roadrunner Redi Mix donated $5,000 to Wymer's effort. JPR Decorative Gravel also came with $5,000 as did ABQ land developer Garett Price and ABQ contractor S& S Enterprises. 

Piland, a former official with the Sandoval County Democratic Party, saw her campaign receive $5,000 from that party. Offsetting Wymer's development money, she received $20,000 from various labor groups including $5,000 each from the Central NM Labor Council, the Plumbers and Pipefitters union, the IBEW PAC and the NM Building and Trades council. 

Piland also reports significant individual donations with $8,000 coming from Corrrales couple Peter Coha, a retired Intel engineer, and his wife Nicki Norwark.  

RIO RANCHO VS. ABQ 

Rio Rancho Mayor Greg Hull held the office starting in 2014. He ended his long run this year to run for the '26 gubernatorial nomination. Hull gets his fair share of praise for ably governing the city and keeping away the big city evils that often thrive on the doorstep. But a direct comparison of Rio Rancho to ABQ is apples and oranges. 

Rio Rancho is in so many ways a homogeneous community easily united by a population that moved there for the specific purposes of low crime, affordable middle-class housing and decent schools. There has been very little disagreement over the city's destiny since it was first incorporated in 1981. 

On the other hand, ABQ is a beehive (some would say a hornets' nest) of diverse opinions and population that is exceedingly difficult to get on the same page on anything. But the city does offer a more zestful and varied quality of life than Rio Rancho even as it struggles with a challenging set of social ills. To each his own as the saying goes. 

Today's mayoral run-off election won't settle much. Both Wymer and Piland have inherited that DNA from the original settlers who sought a quiet refuge that had features of a city but at heart was and is an escape from one. 

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