Funding for New Mexico in Focus is provided by: Viewers like You >>Nash: This week on New Mexico in Focus, City Councilor Michael Garcia for the win.

The Mayor-Elect looks to the work ahead after getting a promotion from Santa Fe voters.

>>Garcia: It's an absolute honor to stand here, to be your next Mayor.

The Mayor of the city we all love.

[Crowd cheering and applause] >>Nash: Plus, Election Day lingers on in Albuquerque, where Darren White and Tim Keller prepare for a Mayoral Runoff next month.

New Mexico in Focus starts now.

Thanks for joining us, I'm Nash Jones.

Another busy, local Election Day has come and gone in New Mexico.

And our crews were out to document some of the most watched races in both Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

We're going to take you there over the next hour.

Voters picked a new mayor and a pair of rookie councilors in the capital city.

But the governing body will have an empty chair until Mayor-Elect Michael Garcia picks a successor to represent the District 2 slot he left open on the council.

A few Election Night surprises cropped up in Albuquerque.

The City Council appears poised for a progressive shift, and a union-backed candidate ousted the president of Albuquerque Public Schools board.

But in the state's largest city, all eyes now turn to December 9th.

That's when incumbent Mayor Tim Keller will go for an unprecedented third consecutive term against longtime public safety boss and cannabis entrepreneur Darren White.

Over the next hour, we are going to convene two groups of journalists and political experts to chop up some of these results and ramifications.

First up is Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

But you are seeing this now three days after polls close.

So, let's start with a bit of a wider view.

On a night when the conventional wisdom of careful election watchers largely prevailed in top of the ticket races, the number of New Mexicans who cast ballots emerged as perhaps the top story of the night.

Across the state, nearly 350,000 of the almost 1.5 million registered voters participated in nearly a thousand contests on various ballots.

That's a tick north of a quarter, and according to early unofficial results from the Secretary of State's office.

It marks a 22% increase in turnout from the State's last local election in 2023.

Turnout this year was up even more from 2021, the last time mayoral races were on the ballot in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

That year, about 100,000 fewer voters showed up.

Now that's for the whole state and speaking of, Albuquerque and Santa Fe weren't the only cities to pick top executives.

In Gallup, Marc Depauli, won his race to become the mayor with close to 60% of the vote, Daniel Barrone snagged half of the votes to become the new mayor of Taos, while David Romero held on to his seat in Las Vegas, as did Mayor Tim Jennings in Roswell.

Now, let's drill down into some of those turnout numbers, starting with Santa Fe County.

When voters re-elected Mayor Alan Weber in 2021 about 25,000 of them cast ballots.

This year, that number jumped to 36,000, an increase of 44%.

Albuquerque voters can get out the pompoms for more participation as well.

Tim Keller won his second term in 2021, when 135,000 people ink ballots in Bernalillo County.

That was 33% of eligible voters.

This time, around, 13,000 more people, or roughly 34%, chose their favorite candidates.

Now, Keller wants a third term in what's technically a non-partisan race, but the liberal mayor will have to wait until December 9th to learn whether voters want it for him.

That's when he'll go head to head with conservative former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, in a runoff election.

The mayor finished Tuesday night in first place with 36% of the vote, far short of the 50% it would have taken to win the race outright.

White outperformed expectations, or at least the most recent public polling, to come in close on Keller's heels, with 31% of the vote, a mere 6000 vote difference.

Progressive former U.S.

Attorney Alex Byers finished third, with 19% of ballots falling in his favor.

A somewhat surprising result for the political newcomer, along with the disappointing 6% of voters City Councilor Luis Sanchez garnered.

Mayling Armijo also got 6% and Eddie Varela finished in last, with 2 [percent] Our team hit watch parties for Keller and White on Tuesday night to watch the candidates and their supporters react to the tallies as they rolled in.

White's event at the Courtyard Albuquerque Hotel was sparsely attended early on, but things picked up when the candidate and his team showed up.

Keller's supporters gathered downtown at Arrive Albuquerque Hotel and there were more of them.

The mayor made his way around the room to shake hands and chat as the results rolled in, though, it was pretty clear he'd be headed for a runoff when the first batch of results hit around 8:30 [PM] The top two finishers both took the podium to rally voters to the polls on December 9th.

We were there to capture those speeches.

Take a listen.

>>Keller: Are we ready for a runoff?

>>Crowd: Yeah!

[Cheers and applause] >>Keller: Yes, we are!

>>Keller: Big change does take time.

It takes hard work.

I see the challenges that we all see every day.

All around our city.

But we also see the answers.

We're going to defend our city.

We're going to stand up for what we believe in.

Whether it's inside our city or whether it is against Washington, D.C., and their efforts to divide us.

>>White: We will unite change-minded voters regardless of party.

I will only serve four years.

And let me tell you why.

I'm not interested in padding my political resume.

And I'm not trying to punch my ticket to higher office.

I want to go in on day one.

I want to roll up my sleeves and get to work with my team, and clean up the mess that has been created over the last eight years.

>>Nash: Okay, we have hit you with a lot of numbers as well as names and comparisons here at the top of the show.

So, let's get to the fun part, the analysis.

So, to break down the action in Albuquerque, I'm joined by former City Councilor and UNM Political Science Professor Eric Griego.

Jaden McKelvey-Francis, Editor and Chief of the Daily Lobo student newspaper and a familiar face to in Focus viewers and my former boss, KUNM News Director, Megan Kamerick.

Megan, Jaden, Eric, thank you so much.

Eric, I want to start with you.

Sizable turnout for a local election.

What did we see in Albuquerque and any sense of why we saw so many folks turnout?

>>Griego: Yeah, it was record turnout 135,000.

Just looking at the numbers, which is -- I think 15-20,000 more than the last -- last mayoral election.

>>Nash: What's going on there?

I think, you know, first we had six candidates.

You had pretty active campaigns.

this is historic, a third term for a sitting mayor -- >>Nash: Third consecutive term.

>>Griego: A third consecutive term, exactly.

We've had mayors try it before, but we're not successful.

So, this was a big deal, and, you know, we've got a lot of -- I think there was an external factor, as well, right?

There's a lot going on in the country.

I think that drove some of the turnout, and the last thing is -- you know, there was a lot of mobilization from sort of, community groups to really get, voters out, especially for Alex Uballez, who was a -- like a late surge of real of turnout, really kind of -- affected especially the Election Day turnout.

>>Nash: We'll break some of the numbers down -- Uballez coming in at around 19%, far above what he polled at.

>>Griego: Yeah.

>>Nash: Jaden, what was the mood at UNM?

What did you see in terms of turnout, and, kind of vibes?

>>McKelvey-Francis: There was quite a lot of turnout.

At UNM, the polling place on campus had long lines kind of throughout the day, stretching around the building and staying until after polls closed.

But it was great.

There were a lot of, like, first time voters, as you would expect from the college campus.

There's been a lot of campaign visits to the university over the course of the campaign with Alex Uballez, who has made a couple of visits.

There was a forum hosted, so that kind of helped drive turnout at the university.

>>Nash: Was there energy, particularly around Uballez?

Is that what you were seeing?

>>McKelvey-Francis: Yeah, especially around Uballez.

He had made multiple campaign stops in the SUB, talking to students, talking to voters.

And then -- he had kind of a social media focused campaign to try and help reach that youth vote, as well.

>>Nash: And, Megan, we're going to a runoff for the mayor's race.

What do we expect in terms of this energy staying engaged staying upbeat for a runoff election when it's just going to be between incumbent Mayor Tim Keller and his challenger, conservative, Darren White?

>>Kamerick: Well, apparently the turnout for runoffs is historically lower.

I talked to UNM Political Science Professor Tim Krebs, and he he mentioned that.

I asked why.

I'm like, I guess, you know, well, I've already done that, voted.

But I think this year, I mean, we've seen this dynamic play out where Uballez has basically told Tim Keller, like, you need the support of the people who backed me to win and sort of telling them you should be doing these things.

And he hasn't endorsed him.

>>Nash: So some agenda setting -- coming pressure -- from the Uballez campaign?

[Altogether] Yeah.

Yeah.

>>Griego: Dr.

Krebs is absolutely right.

Except we were talking about before the show in 2017, we had the same turnout, in the runoff as in -- as in the first round.

So, yeah, if we have that kind of turnout again, that's that is an anomaly, though typically we've had much lower turnout.

>>Nash: But it is, maybe, the best apples to apples comparison we had because it was the last time that we had a mayoral runoff.

This was Tim Keller's first election in 2017.

And so it's possible that we could see a strong turnout again in December.

>>Griego: I think it depends on what happens with this sort of this block of voters that, that I think were really pushed to the polls.

I mean, I think one of the things that the community kind of groups did that were supporting, primarily supporting, Alexa Uballez turned out a lot of voters on Election Day, a lot of younger voters, a lot of, you know, first time voters or occasional voters, a lot of -- to your point about sort of a lot of texting, a lot of sort of social media.

So kind of a different demographic that really turned out.

So the question is, are they going to are they going to show -- >>Nash: Did they show up just to vote for Alex versus, they're going to shift to one of these two?

>>Kamerick: Yeah, that's the big question.

>>Griego: That is the big question.

>>Kamerick: So, I don't know.

I mean, you do have pretty polor opposite candidates now in the runoff, right?

Darren White, former sheriff, has taken on, especially, what he calls, sanctuary city status under Tim Keller.

It's an immigrant-friendly city.

So, you know -- >>Nash: And White did considerably better.

He had a strong showing than he had been polling initially.

I mean he was only, what, like around 6000 votes behind Keller with that final result.

Any sense of why they were so close?

>>Griego: Well, I think that what happened is -- honestly, there was a split -- some folks were supporting Luis Sanchez, even though he's a Conservative Democrat.

And I mean, frankly, I think when they sort of saw the debates and saw that he was really not getting traction, I think the smart Republican, Conservative money said, well some of them are even not crazy about Darren White, but they moved back to Darren White.

And, so, I think what likely happened and what likely will happen in the runoff is that, sort of conservatives, whether they're Democrats or Republicans, will, you know, sort of hold their nose and go with, especially, the anti-Keller, sort of faction will go with Darren.

I think that's why his numbers were a little bit higher.

Now can he sustain those?

That's the question, right?

That's the question.

>>Nash: Now some people may look at Keller getting 36% of the vote and say, you know, two term incumbent should be doing better than that.

Do you see a 36% turn out for Keller as a poor performance?

>>Griego: Yeah, I do, he had some problems with his favourability.

he's trying to do something historic here, which is running a third consecutive term, when Marty Chavez tried doing that that also didn't go his way.

But, you know, we've got some serious issues, like a lot of American cities.

And, you know, he's the incumbent.

And so I think -- that's really sort of dragged his numbers down.

Now, again, I think there's a larger national narrative going on here like, are people going to show up -- in a Democratic city that was overwhelmingly for Kamala Harris.

Like, are they really going to show up just to sort of voice their opposition to what's happening nationally?

>>Nash: We saw that somewhat nationally.

Yeah, I mean -- >>Girego: I think -- >>Nash: Particularly progressive Democrats had a strong showing -- >>Griego: But even just to -- [Unitelligible] >>Griego: I think that Keller's going to send a Thank You note to the White House because like -- Trump's going to drive turnout as much as anything.

I think he -- in the runoff for sure.

>>Nash: Right, and despite not being on the ballot, he's still a factor.

>>Kamerick: Yeah.

This is a nationalization of local elections, technically non-partisan elections.

>>Nash: Let's talk a little bit about the issues -- you mentioned, Luis Sanchez, when when Sanchez and also Mayling Armijo were on this program, they both took issue with the idea that Keller was running on that crime is down in Albuquerque, pointing to APD and FBI statistics.

They didn't buy those statistics, despite any kind of pushback on whether they were accurate or not, or how those things were weighed.

Jaden, what were you seeing amongst young voters, UNM students, around whether crime was a priority for them and whether they were buying the idea that crime is actually dropping in Albuquerque.

>>Jaden: So while crime for most Albuquerque voters was the major issue, among youth, youth photos and among the university community, there was actually I felt, wider topic of issues.

A lot of people were concerned with, inflation, like, prices around the city, public transportation, things like that.

So I and-- a lot of the focus from most of the candidates was on crime, but I think, specifically Alex Uballez he tried to talk a lot about those other issues besides crime, affordability, things like that.

And that's why most of the youth vote probably went to him.

>>Nash: Okay.

What might that mean for this runoff when we're now down to just Keller and White?

>>Jaden: Yeah.

I think it'll mean, aside from Alex, probably Tim Keller was the other one who tapped in the most to the youth vote.

He also made multiple campaign stops to the university trying to talk to students.

Again, with kind of a social media focused campaign, trying to have a new media strategy.

And then he'll also probably try and, continue to run on his background, but also try and shift some of the issues away from crime because of his opponent of Darren White, being having all that former law enforcement experience.

>>Nash: And so we've got about a month until this runoff election making any sense of like, what we can expect this next month of campaigning to look like, >>Megan: I think it's going to be pugilistic.

I mean, they've already signaled that the gloves are off.

I did hear one of the Democratic strategists, say, you know, Tim doesn't usually go negative on campaigns.

That might be a stretch for him.

I don't know, but I think he's signaled he's going to.

>>Nash: Well, I think he told your reporter Jeanette at his watch party that, he said it's going to be a slugfest.

I think is a direct quote.

>>Megan: Yes, yes, yes he did.

>>>Eric: I think I think people want him to to spine up in the sense of being more, but but there's two, two entities typically that the attackers are going to be this pack right.

So the pack's going to really go for the jugular in terms of the campaign, the media and so on.

I think Tim's going to be a bit more directly going to have to sort of confront, Darren, and I have to say, Darren, that's more his strength.

So it's gonna be interesting in the debates that are coming up, you know, how they how that sort of, plays out.

In terms of media?

I think really the heavy lifting is going to be done not by the Keller campaign officially.

It's going to be by this pact.

It's a measure finance committee, but there's a political act and they can they can spend lots of money on it.

I think the same is going-- >>Nash: And going on some distance from the candidate.

>>Eric: That's the idea you want.

You don't ever want to be the, you know, you want to be tough.

I think they want him to be tough.

But I don't think you want to be, you know, putting the dirt out there as the candidate as much.

And so I think they'll have surrogates, I think I think, Darren would probably do the same thing.

>>Nash: Now, the mayor's race isn't the only one going to a runoff.

We've also got some city council races that were, that didn't pass that 50% threshold.

Jaden, what were some of the notable city council races?

What do we see there?

>>Jaden: So, districts one and three are headed to a runoff.

District one, of course.

Louis Sanchez was the councilor for that after his mayoral.

Mayoral run.

He's not running again for at least this election for that seat.

So Stephanie Telles and, Josh O'Neill, I believe, are the candidates for that one.

>>Nash: Anything you can tell us about Telles and Neal?

>>Jaden: Well, Telles is actuall a professor at, adjunct professor at UNM.

So she has been fairly active with with the university community.

Neal as well has has also tried to tap into the youth vote a little bit, but, the it was also, the most populous race in the city.

There were four candidates, because of the fact that it was an empty seat.

Yeah.

And then of course, the other ones, five, seven and nine, the incumbents all were able to, to hold their seat >>Nash: and then, Klarissa Pena's race as well as going to a runoff.

What did we see there?

>>Megan: yeah, she's a-- This would be her fourth term.

She's a moderate Democrat.

South Valley.

And her challenger is Teresa Garcia, who is, more to more in the progressive wing, Mexican-American.

So, yeah, I think we've seen kind of that push around the country.

Right.

Against moderate Dems challenged by progressives.

But it's close.

It's really.

>>Eric: Yeah.

It was I think it was closer than they thought.

So the, the the the dynamic between Alex, Teresa Garcia in District three and, and Stephanie Telles in district one was the there was a lot of sort of joint effort by this community.

And he has endorsed and he's endorsed him and they're working together.

And a lot of his folks are likely to go into probably Teresa's race because Stephanie's running against her.

I he's officially DTS, but he's a Republican.

That's a very Democratic district.

I don't think they're taking anything for granted.

She's a strong candidate.

But I think the action is going to be in district three because, a lot of the a lot of the sort of anti-incumbent, even younger, even more progressive voters, this is where they're going to put their energy.

And, and this is, this would be a big, a big, big upset if they can take, Pena out.

But I think it's it's very, very doable.

>>Nash: And so what could this mean for the balance The ideological I mean, I want to say partizan balance, but they are nonpartisan races that I guess the ideological balance of the council, which has, you know, weighed more towards the conservative with our, a liberal mayor.

So there's been that tension there.

>>Eric: Yeah, Pena was kind of a swing vote.

She often she often worked with the Republicans.

Louis was almost always with the Republicans.

So even though it was sort of this five four Republican thing, often Pena was, aligned, on not all issues, but a lot of sort of economic issues.

You know, she was against paid sick leave.

She so, so, so I think the change is the big change is going to be in that district.

If it's if it's if there's an upset that's another progressive vote.

And then if Stephanie, who's likely to win in district one.

So you could see a five, a solid five progressive Democratic coalition on council, which depending on where they're-- who's the mayor that could really play out-- >>Nash: Really depends on who's the mayor.

>>Megan: Yeah, exactly.

>>Nash: All right.

And, Eric, even further down the ballot, there was a pretty big surprise that president of the Albuquerque Public Schools board was ousted.

Danielle Gonzales.What happened there?

That was a crazy race, you know, Danielle, I think the big factor was this external money that came in there was this, external PAC that really was funding what they considered reform minded candidates, but they were sort of branded as corporate, corporate backed business business pro-business.

Since this that we've changed and have this the school board elections the same time as as local city elections.

The power of of the unions because they were, you know, when there was an off year action was sort of a small election.

Mostly the unions paid attention, but this was really a battle between sort of external reformers business, a business school board candidates and the union.

Right.

The unions very obviously very important to them.

And I think they sort of, they, they were able to sort of brand Danielle as someone who's too sympathetic to mostly because of her business background, and she's been very reform minded on the, on the school board.

So, I think they picked up that was a big, big, pickup for the, for the, for the sort of pro-union pro teachers sort of faction.

>>Nash: And so, my understanding is that the majority of the board will now be union backed.

What does that mean for, how it might behave?

>>Eric: Well, they like to think of it as their pro teacher.

Right.

So I think the big ideological difference between the sort of the business minded would, they were much more open to reform.

They were not pro voucher per se.

That was sort of a little bit of a, of a mischaracterization.

But they are certainly more open to charter schools, more open to school choice, meaning like, you know, having some flexibility, more sort of testing, accountability based, you know, that narrative for teachers sometimes comes across as, you know, the teachers are the problem, right?

And the union is like, we need more support for teachers.

We need more investment in teachers.

We mean more time for planning and training and so on.

Basically, pro teacher versus sort of pro-reform.

>>Nash: We may see a more pro teacher board.

>>Eric: Yeah, yeah, I think I think that's what I think That's what folks are hoping.

Right.

>>Nash: There weren't there were plenty of bonds on the ballot in Albuquerque.

There weren't any ballot measures, but there was actually supposed to be one.

What what happened there?

Megan, do you have a sense of of >>Megan: Yeah.

Shout out to downtown Albuquerque News broke that first Peter Rice, I actually, I am not clear Nash but somehow the clerk didn't put it on.

>>Nash: I believe the clerk said that there was a they took responsibility for that, the city clerk, that it was a clerical error, that they were going to try to get to the bottom, >>Megan: But it was supposed to be for a downtown arts center, I believe.

>>Nash: So my understanding is, yeah, the city charter has, a piece in it that, requires a vote if there's going to be an investment in a performing arts center over a certain amount of $10 million.

That has remained in there.

Eric, do you want to speak to this a little more?

>>Eric: Yeah.

I mean, I don't know all the details other than, there was an effort to to invest more in arts and cultural facilities.

Somehow this idea of having a downtown performing arts center sort of didn't get cleaned up in the last round of sort of reforming the city charter, because that's way in the weeds, right?

Like, and it was it was really clean up.

It was just to make it possible to sort of have this possibility of not having to go to the voters if, if in fact, they wanted it-- >>Nash: So, what now?

>>Eric: So I actually don't know, I asked that legally.

I think Councilor Baca, who's been the big champion of this, thinks that they can put it on the runoff, on the runoff ballot But there also is some legal sort of, wrangling going on there.

Do they want because, you know, not everybody, including some of the other councilors, want this idea of, of huge capital investment to go to a downtown performing arts center.

And so, I think they could do it.

I think they have to make the legal case that they can do it.

He's he's also going to have support from, from, the mayor and the advisory council.

>>Nash: We will see.

Eric, Jaden, Megan, thank you so much for breaking down, a big election, despite it being a local election, a big one for the city of Albuquerque.

>>Everyone: Thank you.

>>Gene: I see the office is kind of tightening this circle, bringing in a lot of the African-American disparate communities together.

There's the clergy, the business community, the, you know, regular citizens, volunteer efforts.

There's a lot of really good things going on out there in the community, but we're just sort of doing our own thing in these all, you know, circles, and that's okay.

But someone has to bring this all together.

>>Nash: You'll hear from Gene Grant, my predecessor here on In Focus to talk about his new job at the bottom of the hour.

And thanks to Eric Griego, Megan Kamerick and Jaden McKelvey-Francis for helping us wade through those Albuquerque election results.

Things shook out a little different in the race to lead Santa Fe than they did in Albuquerque, and that is because, unlike Tim Keller, Mayor Alan Webber opted not to run for a third term.

That led to a crowded field of eight jumping in to compete for the capital city's ranked choice election.

City Councilor Michael Garcia came out on top, hauling in 36% of first choice votes that pushed him past Oscar Rodriguez.

The surprising 23% total wasn't enough.

Former city Councilor Ronald Trujillo finished in third with 14% of voters support County Commissioner Justin Greene was among the race's big spenders, but finished a distant fourth, rounding out the field in order, where Joanne Vigil Coppler Tarin Nix, Letitia Montoya and Jean O'Dean >>Announcer: and Michael Garcia won.

>>Nash: I was in Santa Fe for Garcia's watch party.

The mood was upbeat after polls closed, either due to the towering churro bar or because Garcia was up by double digits or likely both.

But counting the Election Day votes took hours, and some of Garcia's supporters, who included friends, family and even some current and former city officials, began to trickle out.

A little after 10 p.m., one voter told me she planned to set an alarm and check the final results from then.

But moments later, the county clerk's office went live on YouTube to begin the ranked choice voting process, projected onto a big screen for the dozens remaining to gather round, one supporter frantically searched for Garcia, who was doing a live radio interview in the other room, County Clerk Katherine Clark began clicking a button that knocked the last place contender out and redistributed their voter's second choice to those other candidates.

After seven quick rounds of ranked choice voting, she announced Garcia the winner to cheers and hugs around the room.

I caught up with Garcia for an interview after he thanked supporters.

Mayor elect, how do you feel?

>> Garcia: I'm feeling amazing, feeling amazing, excited and ready to get to work.

>> Nash: And, what do you say to your supporters?

>> Garcia: I'm just beyond thankful for having the confidence in me and ultimately, giving me the trust and confidence.

And ultimately the responsibility to be their mayor.

I mean, it means a lot to have somebody lead the city, and, I think it's one of those things I'm going to wake up, a different person tomorrow, being the mayor elect.

It's going to be a whole new role for myself.

So I'm excited.

I'm ready.

And truly, tomorrow I'm going to be reaching out to the Weber administration saying, let's get to work.

Let's begin this transition.

Because ultimately, I do want a successful, smooth transition.

>> Nash: You said during your speech, the theme of your campaign is unity.

What do you say to those who did not vote for you?

>> Garcia: I'm still going to be your mayor, and I'm going to work just as hard for those folks.

Yeah, it's one of those things, whether you voted for me, or you didn't even cast a vote for me, or you didn't even vote in the election, I am going to be working my tail off for you.

>> Nash: And now you are going to be shifting from serving on the city council, the legislative branch, to the executive branch.

What's your message to City Council as you take the mayor's office?

>> Garcia: So it's going to be the same as always.

Work collaboratively together.

I mean, I've always been a councilor who wanted to work with others in regards to finding common ground and getting work done.

Now, as a mayor, I get to do that even more so and really want to empower the councilors to get their work done.

And trying to get their agendas completed on behalf of their constituents.

>> Nash: What's day one, as the mayor of Santa Fe?

>> Garcia: Day one begins, January, January, day one, we really begin to reshape our budget that will ultimately provide resources that work for the residents of Santa Fe.

That means working to ensure we have more police officers, to have a safer community working to ensure we have more resources for affordable and workforce housing development.

I want to begin to develop a plan to actually build housing.

That is my priority.

We've been getting it.

We've, in the past allocated resources.

Now I want to develop the actual homes where people can live in.

>> Nash: The mayor's race, as always, is top of mind for most voters.

And while Santa Fe is getting a new chief executive, the result in the race that got him there wasn't particularly suspenseful.

But there were more races and questions on the ballot for voters in the city different this year, including one that will rein in the mayor's powers going forward.

Former politician and longtime political analyst Eric Griego is back to help me sort through what happened in the capital city, as is Carina Julie, the Santa Fe, New Mexican's City government reporter whose byline appeared on much of the paper's election coverage this year.

Eric, Carina, thank you so much for joining us.

>> Carina: Thanks for having me.

>> Nash: So we've been talking basically all show long about turnout.

I mean, we kind of see that is the big story of the election, not only statewide but in local elections.

Karina, how did things tend to run in Santa Fe with so many people coming to the polls?

>> Carina: Yeah, we actually had a bit higher turnout this year than in the last two mayoral elections.

There were about 25,500 voters this year.

Which was, I think close to 5,000 more than in, the last mayoral election in 2021.

There were there were a lot of people on Election day specifically.

>> Nash: Yeah, a lot of people on Election Day, almost as much as you might see on not just a local election.

Right.

Like maybe one where, the president was on the ballot.

>> Carina: Yeah, actually, more people voted, on Election Day, on Tuesday than voted on Election Day in last year's presidential election.

>>Nash: Are you serious?

>> Carina: This is pretty remarkable.

>> Nash: That is super remarkable.

Well, did it affect how the election ran?

Did things go pretty smoothly?

>> Carina: They seemed to.

Yeah, it was sort of a, kind of hurry up and wait vibe a little bit.

Because we got a big dump of initial results basically right after the polls closed.

>> Nash: Right.

>> Carina: And then they kind of trickled in through the rest of the night, but the the numbers didn't really change.

And then a little before 10:30, they, you know, they had all the initial votes, so they went ahead and did sort of the instant runoff ranked choice, process for the three races that have that.

And, that's took pretty much all of a minute and bam, the race was over.

>> Nash: I know it was, It was like I was at the, Mike Garcia, who is now mayor elect.

I was at his watch party, and it was a lot of waiting around for a long time.

And then when it happened, it happened really fast.

The ranked choice process, it, the county clerk, Catherine Clark, was live streaming it.

It was maybe a little glitchy.

It appeared to me, as I was watching it that that maybe she was somewhat unfamiliar with the software.

Can you talk any at all about, how that ranked choice process went?

>> Carina: Yeah.

Well, I guess for for those who don't know, ranked choice, it's also called kind of an instant runoff.

But basically, you people can rank as many candidates that are on the ballot as they want, kind of from their first choice downwards.

And then, once all of the first, the first choice votes are, are tallied, the person who had the lowest number of votes will be eliminated and their votes will be redistributed.

And that continues until one person has over 50%, Sante Fe started doing that in 2018.

But some voters are still kind of, don't fully understand it.

I did talk to, Clerk Clark yesterday, and she said it was her intention to kind of kind of walk people through step by step how that was going, which is why she kind of asked them to do it round by round.

But I think it did, unfortunately, look to some people as if she, didn't really know how to work the software.

>> Nash: Okay, I see, >> Carina: but that was what she said.

>> Nash: Well, after several rounds of ranked choice voting, Michael Garcia, the, current city councilor, now mayor elect prevailed.

Eric, he told me that he plans to work closely with the Allen Weber administration during this transition period.

I could imagine that that could be somewhat tense.

Do you agree?

>> Eric: Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I think he was, you know, he prided himself in sort of being an independent voice, but, you know, he was pretty critical.

He was pretty hard on Weber.

And, I think he tried to, from what I understand, sort of stick this kind of, middle ground between, you know, kind of left and right.

I mean, you know, Santa Fe's a little more of a progressive city, but, I think he's, you know, I think he's trying to be an honest broker in terms of what happens next.

I've heard he's talking to people, you know, on all sides of the sort of spectrum and even some opponents that he's had, on council and, you know, and, you know, Mayor Weber is leaving, but, you know, he's he's got a lot of experience and certainly some lessons, right, that, maybe they can sort of share, like what to what to do a little differently and, and maybe work together on the transition.

I hope they will.

>> Nash: Where do they differ in any significant way?

>> Eric: I mean, I think that, you know, Michael prided himself in being, you know, a guy who was born and raised.

There was much sort of community is the word he like he, I think he felt like he often said he was much, sort of much more in line with what was happening in the community.

>> Nash: Weber was from New York originally?

>> Eric: Yeah.

I mean, he's been there a long, long, long time.

Right.

But I think, some of his challenges were that he, you know, I think often had a hard time figuring out how to come down on some of these issues and, you know, Michael, I think had some deeper relationships, has deeper relationships in the community.

And, you know, he's his view of public services.

You know, he came up as someone who to done sort of youth engagement and civic engagement his whole career.

He's very you know, he's very big on affordable housing was a big issue for him.

So a lot of sort of social justice, community engagement, not to say, Mayor Weber wasn't, but I think, you know, Mayor Weber was background was much more of a business economic development, sort of frame.

And with that in mind, Carina, what, if anything, does Garcia's election say about how Santa Feans feel about the Weber administration?

>> Carina: That's a good question.

I mean, we've heard loud and clear over the past couple of years and even in the 2023 election, when he wasn't on the ballot, that, residents are really frustrated.

You know, he wasn't on the ticket because he's not running for a third term.

But, you know, in many ways, the candidates did, all kind of trying point themselves in opposition to Weber.

And I think that gave Garcia a very strong advantage because, I mean, he's been doing that on the council for, about six years already.

>> Nash: Speaking of some of these other candidates, Oscar Rodriguez had maybe a better showing than people expected.

He came in second in that first round was only about 12 percentage points behind Garcia.

He came he finished off well ahead of candidates who spent a lot more money, had arguably maybe not even arguably much more name recognition.

Was it surprising to you how well Rodriguez did?

>> Eric: You know, it's hard to say, because, you know, I'm in Albuquerque, but I was getting his.

He was really active on social media, so I think his, first of all, he's a very competent guy and, you know, works in finance for the state.

And, you know, it's I think so he's well regarded professionally.

I think he had this great, combination of, being seen as competent, but also having a real, again, community sensibility.

I mean, he made a couple of mistakes on the campaign trail, but I think I think he actually addressed those very, very earnestly.

Very well.

And I, I didn't know him well, but I was surprised at some of the support he was getting from members of the community.

Right.

And, I actually didn't think he was going to do I thought he was maybe going to come up third, but, I was surprised that he kind of surged there.

>> Nash: Yeah, our team had I mean, we ranked our the candidates for our coverage purposes based on, petition signatures and fundraising without any of their own donations.

And we had ranked Rodriguez as a lower tier candidate.

And so I know that that our team was quite surprised to see how well he did.

>> Eric: He ran a good campaign.

I think he really did.

>> Nash: Well, as Garcia takes the mayor's office, he's going to be charged with replacing, his seat on the city council.

I was able to talk to him about what his approach to that process will be at his watch party on Tuesday.

Let's take a look at that.

>> Garcia: Now that I know, I'll be, appointing a replacement for district two, I'm going to be working with the residents of district two to find a replacement counselor that is going to work for them.

I'm not going to be a mayor who is going to pick a replacement counselor that is going to follow my agenda.

The agenda that this person is going to follow is the agenda of the district two residents.

>> Nash: Carina, what might the agenda of district two residents be?

I mean, what are the values?

What are the priorities in that district?

>> Carina: That's a good question.

I mean, I don't think it's that different from really what people, citywide are feeling, which is just real pressures on cost of living.

Especially when it comes to, you know, affording rent.

Santa Fe is a severely restricted housing market, as well as concerns about crime and homelessness.

>> Nash: And, speaking of city council, let's talk about how those races end up.

There were two contested races in district one and two.

How did those turn up?

>> Carina: Yeah.

Well, those were both also ranked choice elections because, in district one, there were three candidates running, that was won by Pat Feghali She's an attorney and an urban planner.

She actually used to work in the city attorney's office.

And she moved to Santa Fe in 2019.

From Ohio.

So she's actually a more recent, >> Nash: Pretty new.

>> Carina: Quite new.

Yeah.

And she's definitely on the more progressive side of things.

She was endorsed by the local, DSA, the New Mexico Working Families Party, kind of a slate of progressive organizations backed her.

And then in district two, there were four people running.

So that was the busiest race.

And, Liz Barrett, won that race.

She raised the most money of anyone running for city council.

The cycle was about $32,000.

Somewhat interestingly, she's actually the wife of Phil Lucero, who ran unsuccessfully against, mayor elect Garcia in 2023.

But she had more success.

And she, she's a school social worker, and she has really -- her campaign slogan was actually, “Mom's Get it Done.” She talked a lot about kind of being, kind of being a parent and kind of taking some of those kind of, you know, smarts and skills that you, you develop as a parent kind of into the political realm.

>> Nash: Okay.

And so, some fresh faces on the city council in Santa Fe, these two newly elected city coucilors are taking over for some -- folks who held the seat for a long time.

We now have, Michael Garcia's seat, up for grabs as well.

Eric, what, if anything, could we be seeing in terms of a partizan or ideological shift on the on the council?

>> Griego: Well, I think Michael, like Garcia, I think is, you know, I think he's trying to again, I think he's trying to chart this sort of, you know, conciliatory middle of the road path in terms of, you know, Santa Fe politics are not be not be as I think is I think there's going to be plenty of progressive voices, especially these two new council folks on there.

But I think, I don't know.

I think if it depending on what happens with the I know we're going to talk about the, the, the other sort of ballot measures if, if, depending on what's happened to the power of the mayor and how much influence how this is going to really influence how much power the mayor will have, right, in terms of the the actual agenda of the council?

I could see it.

I could see it shifting left if the if the council in fact, is more powerful in terms of really being able to sort of govern, some of the initiatives maybe, maybe serve more progressive than, than before.

Some of the backlash toward Weber.

I mean, folks sometimes thought that Weber was a little bit ahead of where the majority of Santa Fe ins were in terms of his progressive sort of agenda.

But, it'll be interesting to see.

I mean, it's always great to have, you know, both of these women seem very, you know, very progressive and very competent.

And I think they both have some strong ideas about what they want to do.

So I think it's going to be a I think it's gonna be a strong council for sure.

>> Nash: Alright And you mentioned the ballot measures.

Yeah.

Let's get into it.

And so, two ballot measures passed with overwhelming majorities.

That shift, some of the power on the council.

You mentioned, Weber's role on the council.

Mike Garcia's role is going to be quite different as Mayor.

Carina, can you break down?

What did voters approve?

>> Julig: Yeah, so there are two ballot measures that were both kind of, put forward by sponsors as sort of a way of, sort of reshaping kind of of the balance of power between the mayor and the city council.

One of them and I think the more significant one actually removes the mayor's ability to vote, except in the case of a tie.

Whereas now, you know, the mayor can introduce legislation and also vote on everything, as well as being the chief executive.

>>Nash: Some of the viewers of our show may be surprised if they're not in Santa Fe.

That that's right now the current situation, the mayor basically has a seat on the council has a voting seat on the council.

That's not exactly a traditional structure.

>>Julig: No, definitely not.

>>Nash: So, they'll switch to a tie-breaking vote only.

When I spoke with, at the time, candidate Garcia on the campaign trail, he actually said that he supported that initiative.

>>Julig: He did.

He was actually one of the sponsors of the initial resolution to get it onto the ballot.

>>Nash: And do you think that's related to the fact that he has a history on the council and, and some kind of frustration between, maybe a lack of separation of powers there?

>>Julig: I think so.

I mean, when he initially declared his campaign, he said he was running because, you know, he felt really, as a councilor, very, you know, kind of stymied in some of the things that he wanted to do.

You know, I spoke to him yesterday about, you know, how now that you're going to be mayor, I guess, how how do you feel about these?

And, you know, he reiterated, that, you know, he, you know, he he does want a stronger council.

He wants a much more kind of, collaborative approach between the mayor and the council and not kind of in his perception, a situation where kind of the mayor and their allies really set the agenda.

>>Nash: Well, it's maybe, interesting that voters so overwhelmingly approved this when just back in 2014.

They approved their strong layer system that only rolled out in 2018.

It hasn't been in place all that long.

Eric, why do you think now, there was this swell of support for limiting the mayor's power on the council?

>>Griego: Well, I mean, this is a this is a fight that happens in a lot of cities, right?

And a lot of it has to do with, the views of the relationship between city, between the mayor and city council.

I mean, Albuquerque has a strong waveform of government, you know, veto -- the Mayor can veto things.

And the mayor, you know, gets to pick most of the senior officials.

But Albuquerque's gone through the same thing is what is the what is the division of power between what council can do in terms of oversight, but also, you know, this idea that, you know, supermajority to sort of over, you know, the, you know, mayor in, Albuquerque is a much, much stronger form of government because he can he can really like, like the executive at the state level or at the federal level, veto.

He appoints all of the senior official and executive, Santa Fe's a little bit of a mix, right, because, it technically a strong form of government, but but the mayor sits on council so, sort of this hybrid.

So I think it's, I think the movement in this direction that the voters passed is certainly saying we want the legislative branch in this case to sort of be, which is supposed to be more representative, maybe representing the various interests in Santa Fe, be a little bit more empowered to sort of set the agenda.

And also, the other ballot measure was to remove, you know, there's been some scandals, as you know, in, on the staffing side of city government to the ability to really sort of remove officials when that really was typically is an executive power.

>>Nash: So, we've got a strong mayor in Santa Fe and maybe now a stronger legislative body as well.

>>Griego: It's a good way to look at it.

>>Nash: Eric, Carina, thank you so much.

>>Julig: Thank you.

>>Nash: Thanks to Eric Griego for hanging out to talk local elections in Albuquerque and Santa Fe this week, and to The New Mexican's, Carina Julig for helping us zero in on the City Different.

We end this week's show with a conversation with someone beloved and surely missed by viewers of this show.

Gene Grant anchored election coverage and a million other topics here at [New Mexico] in Focus.

From 2005 to 2023.

He was a mainstay in this studio and on your screens for nearly two decades.

After a short stint at Animal Protection New Mexico, Gene has landed a new gig.

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, last month, named him, Director of the State's Office of African-American Affairs.

Gene had only been at the job a few days when he dropped in for our interview, but he's already got big ideas for the office.

Here's that conversation.

>>Nash: Gene Grant.

It is such a trip to be welcoming you as a guest on New Mexico in Focus.

But welcome back to the studio where you hosted this program for nearly 20 years.

>>Gene: Thank you, Nash.

I'm so glad to be here.

It's amazing to just look around here.

I can feel the ghosts of me -- [Both laugh] and you're doing a wonderful job.

I get so many wonderful notes and emails saying Nash is doing wonderfully, So, congrats to you -- >>Nash: That means the world to me -- >>Gene: Absolutely.

>>Nash: Thank you, Gene.

But enough about your old job here.

Let's talk about your new job.

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has appointed you the Executive Director of the State's Office of African-American Affairs.

Congratulations, first of all, for those unfamiliar with the office, what are you charged with doing?

>>Gene: We've been around for a while.

People don't realize we've been around since ‘99, the office, but it's interesting My particular job is to be that linkage between the legislature, the governor's office other entities out there in the black community.

It's really kind of simple.

So we work on a number of issue areas where policy, education, finances, home ownership, all kinds of different things that we do out there with different programs.

But it's important for me to report out things about the community to decision-makers.

That's the number one job.

I see the office is kind of tightening this circle, bringing in a lot of the African-American disparate communities together.

There's the clergy, the business community, you know, regular citizens, volunteer efforts.

There's a lot of really good things going on out there in the community, but we're just sort of doing our own thing in these all -- you know, circles.

and that's okay, but someone has to bring this all together -- yeah, yeah, we're that neutral third party.

>>Nash: Has the work of the office changed over the years?

>>Gene: A little bit.

Our first director was the long missed Dr.

Harold Bailey.

He was the first director from ‘99 to 2003.

And, Doctor Bailey really set the tone.

And I think what's happened is we had an interim director for a couple of years, about two and a half years previously to me coming on board.

So a lot of the work that we had been starting to do just sort of fell away just a little bit.

But we're bringing back a lot of those, programs.

We do a lot of youth work with APS, with a lot of work with other schools around the state.

And don't forget, good time for me to say we're a statewide agency.

Folks tend to think of us as an Albuquerque centric type of an office, because the African American African-American Performing Arts Center also falls under my purview.

Right it down on San Pedro.

But no, no, no, no, we're active in Hobbs, Clovis, Alamogordo, Las Cruces, all over the state.

Where of this African-American folks.

>>Nash: And you mentioned you had an interim director in right before you.

You've also had a bit of turnover since 2020.

I believe you're the the fourth director since, about over the last little over five years now.

How has that impacted you mentioned maybe some programing slowed down, but has it impacted, the office's visibility, its relationship with the community?

Are you seeing that?

>>Gene: Yeah, that a little bit I appreciate you putting it that way because that actually is part of a void.

You're going to fill that back in.

And that has happened with those directors kind of coming and going over five years.

The beauty of what we're doing now in the vision I laid out to the governor and her staff, how I saw the office functioning really was what got this going.

You know, I made a about a 30 page presentation to the.

Nash: Wow.

>>Gene: Oh, yeah.

I had all kinds of things I want to do with the office.

We had a good discussion about it.

I've had, you know, working with, you know, lots of staff inside the governor's office were figuring it out to get to your to your point, but we have about a year and a month to do this.

Since the end of her term is coming in about a year in a month.

So I'm not even thinking about what comes after.

And I'm telling our staff that as well >>Nash: in terms of who will be elected the next governor.

>>Gene: That's right.

We can't-- I can't even think about that.

That's just really not an issue.

It's getting things done for Governor Lujan Grisham to get this over the finish line of what I've promised the governor and others is a healthy department that is stood up, that is financially stable, that is volunteer stable, that is staff stable.

We have about 3 or 4 people coming on in November.

So we're getting there.

>>Nash: And that stability, may may actually influence your longevity.

Speaking of the governor's race next year.

>>Gene: Yeah.

You know, it's interesting.

I-- we know who the candidates a for the Democratic side, certainly the Republican side.

We'll see how it goes.

That's about the best we can do at this point.

>>Nash: Back in 2020, when, former director William Scott Carruthers resigned, community leader Bishop David Cooper had, told the Albuquerque Journal that several administrations had stymied efforts, kind of a groundswell among the community, to make the office of African-American affairs a state agency, a cabinet level agency.

Would you push for that change to happen?

>>Gene: Personally?

No, just with a year and a half to go, I don't think I would want to go down that road.

That is a bit of a process, and it entails a whole lot of things to be a completely separate agency.

Now we're under the auspices of HCA, health care authority I'm sorry, I'm so acronym heavy in my job now.

But they've been wonderful.

They really have been wonderful.

There are folks still pushing along with, Bishop Cooper, who you mentioned, who do want to see this agency as a standalone, if that in fact does happen.

Being a cabinet secretary, that's also another large leap from executive director.

There's a whole bunch of things that have to go into that.

Honestly, I can't think about it with a year to go, not my part-- yeah.

>>Nash: So let's talk about what are your priorities as you start, this game.

What are one of the first things you want to get done?

>>Gene: I really want to start talking about homeownership for the African-American community.

It is the path, as we know, in the United States, to financial stability.

We need to have more of that in our state.

We need much more economic development in areas where there are African-American deep populations that have access to that.

I've told the governor's people, I'm really excited about the new things that are coming on board through the governor's efforts to bring a lot of interesting new technology companies here.

And the reason I bring that up is, Nash traditionally in African-American world, when things buck down to the dollar per hour range, that's usually when we get in on things I want is much more towards the front of that line when things opportunities start happening in New Mexico and we can do that, doesn't mean we have to step in front of anybody.

That's not what we're looking for here, just to be in that space when, yeah, when opportunity comes around.

Now that means we also have to be opportunistic when there are opportunities out there that we have to take advantage of.

So there's that.

Education is probably a very close number two, we still have a big gap for black students in New Mexico in all kinds of areas.

You know, interestingly, the Martinez/Yazzie situation we're in now that we're trying to reform and our our public education department is doing a great job trying to get this worked out.

But for black kids, this would be typical were a voice is needed with PED and with others who are making these decisions saying, hey, let's look at the numbers.

How can we figure this out?

This is not working.

In some ways.

It's working in some other ways.

Let's make us part of the mix.

Let's not be an afterthought here.

>>Nash: Your office can connect the black community with the public education department.

Do some of that advocacy.

>>Gene: That's exactly right.

>>Nash: This is a pretty unique moment nationally for the work that your office does.

The Trump administration has, worked to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, policies Dei at the federal government level, also putting pressure on universities, on the private sector to follow suit.

What does that mean for, your work in the office?

The office is standing here in New Mexico.

>>Gene: That's right.

You know, interesting.

You would think we'd be a target.

And I had told the governor, this is a time to be brave.

If people want to come and ask for the work that we're doing, you know, let them, you know, we can push back.

There's really not something I'm afraid of.

It's not something I'm worried about.

I don't think the office is going to close from any internal pressure here in New Mexico.

Certainly, that's for sure.

But the work continues.

I mean, we cannot stop our DEI efforts.

We cannot stop our efforts just because of what's happening in the federal government.

That could change.

You know, we have a congressional, you know, midterm coming up.

A lot of things could happen.

We just have to put our head down, stick to it, keep moving forward and not worry about what's coming out of Washington.

>>Nash: Of course.

Okay.

How do you think, if at all, your work, having hosted this show for nearly 20 years, will show up in how you approach your work?

>>Gene: I get asked that a lot.

I like that question because you can relate to this.

There's so much research that goes into any given show you're going to host here.

You have to really folks don't realize how much work you have to do before the show even airs.

Well, I take that same approach to this work as well.

I want to be armed with information, with facts, not folklore, with, you know, what we need.

I want to be able to back it up factually.

And I think that comes from being here and being prepared in a subject by being deep into it and realizing what's going to have to go into it, I like it, I like bringing that to the job.

And I think, it's paid off so far.

>>Nash: And I mean, obviously you're you're quite an accomplished speaker.

You're used to that kind of work.

You also have significant visibility, having hosted this show for as long as you did.

Do you think that that might, elevate the profile of the department, give it more visibility?

Because folks know who you are?

>>Gene: I think so, you know, it cuts both ways, though.

Not everybody's a fan, so, you know, it goes both ways.

But it does help to get folks to even pick up the phone, take a meeting.

You know, even, you know, try to find out just general information.

I do get my phone calls picked up.

And I do appreciate-- >>Nash: Sure the Gene Grant is on the phone.

>>Gene: But that can only last for so long.

You got to prove yourself in the new job.

At the old job people don't care about.

After a while, >>Nash: We'll be excited to keep watching and see what you're able to do with the, with the office.

So congratulations and thanks for coming on to explain it all to us.

>>Gene: Thank you.

Nash, I appreciate the opportunity.

>>Nash: You got it.

Thanks to Gene Grant for dropping by his old home to talk about his new job, and to our panelists for helping us make sense of a jam packed local election.

And what comes next.

Thanks also to our crew for bringing you closer to Election Day action for New Mexico PBS, I'm Nash Jones until next week, stay focused.

Funding for New Mexico in Focus is provided by Viewers like You