Mayor Tim Keller Qualifies For Ballot, Short On Qualifying $5 Donations; Sheriff Gonzales Still Struggles With Petition Signatures And $5.00 Qualifying Donations; Sais Not At All Likely To Make Ballot

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From April 17 to June 19, 2021, publicly financed candidates for Mayor must gather both 3,000 signatures from registered voters within the City and 3,779 qualifying donations of $5.00 to secure $661,309.25 in public financing.

EDITORS NOTE: Privately financed candidates for Mayor must gather more than 3000 nominating petition signatures from registered voters within the City from June 8 โ€“ August 10, 2021.

PROCESSED PETITION SIGNATURES:

As of May 28, following are the updated City Clerk numbers for Processed Petition Signatures starting with the candidate with the most and ending with the least collected:

MAYOR TIM KELLER

Required Petition Signatures: 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures: 3,219
Rejected Petition Signatures: 446
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed: 0
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met: 100%

SHERIFF MANNY GONZALES

Required Petition Signatures: 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures: 2,098
Rejected Petition Signatures: 294
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed: 902
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met: 70%

PATRICK BEN SAIS

Required Petition Signatures: 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures: 543
Rejected Petition Signatures: 478
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed: 2, 957
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met: 18%

NICHOLAS BEVINS

Nicholas Bevins has announced his withdrawal from the race and is no longer listed on the City Clerkโ€™s tally.

https://www.facebook.com/Nicholas.D.Bevins

PROCESSED $5.00 QUALIFYING CONTRIBUTIONS

As of May 24,with more $5.00 qualifying donations, following are the updated City Clerk numbers for Processed $5.00 Qualifying Contributions starting with the candidate with the most collected and ending with the least collected:

MAYOR TIM KELLER

Required $5.00 Qualifying Contributions: 3,779
Verified $5.00 Qualifying Contributions: 3,034
Rejected $5.00 Qualifying Contributions: 214
Remaining $5.00 Qualifying Contributions Needed: 745
Percentage of Verified $5.00 Qualifying Contributions: 80%

SHERIFF MANNY GONZALES

Required $5.00 Qualifying Contributions: 3,779
Verified $5.00 Qualifying Contributions: 2,110
Rejected $5.00 Qualifying Contributions: 154
Remaining $5.00 Qualifying Contributions Needed: 1,669
Percentage of Verified $5.00 Qualifying Contributions: 56%

PATRICK BEN SAIS

Required $5.00 Qualifying Contributions: 3,779
Verified $5.00 Qualifying Contributions: 3
Rejected $5.00 Qualifying Contributions: 1
Remaining $5.00 Qualifying Contributions Needed: 3,776
Percentage of Verified $5.00 Qualifying Contributions: 0%

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/2021-candidates/petition-qualifying-contribution-tally-1

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

It is now official that Mayor Tim Keller has made the ballot having collected the 3,000 qualify nominating petition signatures. With 21 days remaining to collect $5.00 qualifying donations, Mayor Tim Keller is in a very good position to collect the remaining $5.00 qualifying donations. The Keller campaign has collected 3,034 of the 3,779 required or 80% with 745 qualifying donations remaining to be collected. Collecting the remaining 745 donations is very doable, but still difficult, and will require collecting an average of at least 37 donations a day as a cushion for the next 21 days.

MANNY GONZALES

With 21 days remaining to collect both qualifying petitions signatures and the $5.00 qualifying donations, it is likely that Sheriff Manny Gonzales is beginning to panic so much so that he announced on May 25 on his FACEBOOK page:

โ€œ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐๐ž๐š๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ž ๐ข๐ฌ ๐š๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐š๐œ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐  ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ˆ ๐ง๐ž๐ž๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ก๐ž๐ฅ๐ฉ! We need more signatures and $5 dollar contributions to get on the ballot. โ€ฆ .โ€

https://www.facebook.com/MannyForABQ

Gonzales has collected 2,098 of the required 3,000 signatures, or 70%. Gonzales needs to collect another 902 verifiable signatures, which is doable, but it is cutting it short timewise given the disqualification of 478 signatures he has collected.

The more serious problem for Gonzales is that his campaign is struggling to collect the verified $5.00 Qualifying Contributions. The Gonzales campaign has collected 2,110 verified $5.00 Qualifying Contributions or a disappointing 56% and he needs to collect another 1,669 donations or at least 79 to 80 qualifying donations a day for the next 21 days.

If Gonzales does not qualify for public finance, he could declare he will seek private financing and stay in the race but it will be a major setback to his campaign. Gonzales will no doubt ramp up private donation efforts but donors will be reluctant to contribute to both him and a measured finance committee. Another impact of failure to qualify for public finance will be to dry up private contributions to the two measured finance committees set up to promote him.

Sources are also saying that Republican political operative and consultant Jay McClesky, known for his nasty slash and burn tactics, is managing the Gonzales campaign and for that reason may be trying to turn things around for the Sheriff by tapping into Republican support for Gonzales. Mc Clesky managed both former Republican Mayor Berryโ€™s campaigns for Mayor as well as both campaigns for Republican Governor โ€œShe Who Shall Not Be Namedโ€.

THE CHALLENGES WE FACE

The city is facing any number of problems that are bringing it to its knees. Those problems include the coronavirus pandemic, business closures, high unemployment rates, exceptionally high violent crime and murder rates, continuing mismanagement of the Albuquerque Police Department, failed implementation of the Department of Justice reforms after a full six years and millions spent, declining revenues and gross receipts tax, increasing homeless numbers, lack of mental health programs and little to none economic development.

The city cannot afford another mayor who makes promises and offers only eternal hope for better times that result in broken campaign promises. What is needed is a mayor who actually knows what the hell they are doing, who will make the hard decisions without an eye on the next election, not make decisions only to placate their base and please only those who voted for them. Whatโ€™s needed is a healthy debate on solutions and new ideas to solve our mutual problems, a debate that can happen only with a contested election.

There is plenty of time for other candidates to run as privately financed candidates and raise private campaign donations. Privately Finance Candidates for Mayor must also gather 3,000 signatures from registered voters within the City. The time for privately financed candidates for Mayor to collect signatures is from June 8 to August 10, 2021.

Anyone one interested in running for Mayor and who has a real love for this city and is concerned about what is happening is encouraged to contact the City Clerkโ€™s office.

The link to the city web site for candidates is here:

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/2021-candidates

https://campaignfinance.cabq.gov/PublicSite/SearchPages/CommitteeSearch.aspx

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About

Pete Dinelli was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is of Italian and Hispanic descent. He is a 1970 graduate of Del Norte High School, a 1974 graduate of Eastern New Mexico University with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and a 1977 graduate of St. Mary's School of Law, San Antonio, Texas. Pete has a 40 year history of community involvement and service as an elected and appointed official and as a practicing attorney in Albuquerque. Pete and his wife Betty Case Dinelli have been married since 1984 and they have two adult sons, Mark, who is an attorney and George, who is an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). Pete has been a licensed New Mexico attorney since 1978. Pete has over 27 years of municipal and state government service. Peteโ€™s service to Albuquerque has been extensive. He has been an elected Albuquerque City Councilor, serving as Vice President. He has served as a Workerโ€™s Compensation Judge with Statewide jurisdiction. Pete has been a prosecutor for 15 years and has served as a Bernalillo County Chief Deputy District Attorney, as an Assistant Attorney General and Assistant District Attorney and as a Deputy City Attorney. For eight years, Pete was employed with the City of Albuquerque both as a Deputy City Attorney and Chief Public Safety Officer overseeing the city departments of police, fire, 911 emergency call center and the emergency operations center. While with the City of Albuquerque Legal Department, Pete served as Director of the Safe City Strike Force and Interim Director of the 911 Emergency Operations Center. Peteโ€™s community involvement includes being a past President of the Albuquerque Kiwanis Club, past President of the Our Lady of Fatima School Board, and Board of Directors of the Albuquerque Museum Foundation.