A Choice of One Out of One

Three of four Santa Fe City Council candidates assured victory due to lack of challengers

Santa Fe's upcoming March municipal election has about as much excitement to it as an ice cream shop that only serves vanilla. With the city clerk having certified petitions and released those results this week, we can now see the field of candidates shows a stunningly small turnout, the lowest in at least 20 years. Three of four City Council races are uncontested.

"It's very depressing to see only one of four races in play. Somebody is going to become a councilor because nobody else is running and the incumbent is retiring, so there's no competition," says Viki Harrison, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico, an advocate for transparent and accountable governing.

Few candidates equates to low voter turnout, as demonstrated by a recent municipal election in Albuquerque, which saw a turnout of just 8 percent.

"If the guy is already going to be my councilor, what is motiving me to go vote for him?" Harrison asks. "When people don't have a choice, they're going to become disengaged, they're going to say, what does my vote count? It's not good for democracy."

In elections held from 1996 to 2006, all four districts saw multiple candidates, but declining participation has particularly led to District 4's candidate running unchallenged. That area, with 12,411 registered voters as of Nov. 12, also historically reports low voter turnout. Councilor Bill Dimas, who has decided not to seek re-election, won the seat in 2012 with just 1,757 votes. That year, every district had at least two, if not three, candidates to choose from.

But options of that kind have been low in supply, particularly in the last decade. Just one person ran for District 4 in 2008 and in 2010, both Councilors Carmichael Dominguez and Ronald Trujillo were unopposed in Districts 3 and 4, respectively.

With a governing body comprised of citizens—councilors are paid stipends, but not enough to give up their day jobs—and in a city where public campaign financing was meant to make these seats and the costs of running for them more accessible, there's also a need for some kind of educational resources. And namely, how far to going above the baseline requirements is really required to get the job done.

New Mexico has seen both state and now City Council elections where the field was narrowed because although a candidate turned in a petition with enough signatures, the number disqualified knocked that person out of the race. That was the case with Donald Ramon Vigil, who sought to challenge incumbent Councilor Christopher Rivera for his seat representing District 3. Vigil needed 33 valid signatures, turned in 41 and only 27 proved valid, the New Mexican reported earlier this week.

Elections have also become more intimidating in the face of heavy involvement by independent groups and political action committees, as the 2014 mayoral race saw.

"When I talk to people who have thought about running, they're like, 'Well, I don't know if I want to do that now, because we've got all these independent groups and PACs who are going to trash me and my family,'" Harrison says. "People aren't even worried that much about the candidates they're running against anymore. They're worried about outside groups and what they're going to do."

While Rivera, Councilor Peter Ives (who runs unopposed for District 2) and Michael Harris, the only candidate running for Dimas' District 4 seat, are clear winners here, there's a long list of people who lose when elections play out this way.

"The citizens are the ones who are losing by not having competition, because they don't have a couple candidates coming to their door, asking their opinions and finding out what's important to the voters," Harrison says. "And it's not the candidates' fault. It's the fault of system that has no competition."

What Harris, Ives and Rivera undertake in the way of campaigning between now and the March 1 election remains to be seen. Practically, there's little justification for doing anything at all.

The only competitive City Council race is the one to replace longtime District 1 Councilor Patti Bushee, who decided to retire this year, citing family concerns. Running to replace her are Kathryn Kennedy, a partner at Skylight Santa Fe; Renee Villarreal, a former planning commission member; returning candidate Marie Campos, who was recently redistricted from District 3 to District 1; and Frank Montaño, a former city councilor and school board member. Villarreal has Bushee's endorsement.

One other competitive race is an unsung hero position—municipal judge. With Judge Ann Yalman retiring this year, Ignacio Gallegos and Virginia Vigil are running for the job. Vigil is a former county commissioner, and Gallegos is a lawyer who for the last year has been an administrative law judge at the Motor Vehicle Department, hearing license revocation appeals. Few candidates for City Council will likely affect turnout for that race as well.

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