In an invite to a July 27 volunteer kick-off event the Gonzales campaign says the meeting will be a meet and greet with Manny and cover specific areas that volunteers can take part in. Among the areas listed are making phone calls, going door-to-door and "holding a fund raiser."
The political pros, Alligators, insiders and wall-leaners at City Hall are also scrutinizing the city's current public finance rules in the wake of the Gonzales mess.
I feel the need to comment on the oft-cited fact that murder rates have increased in Albuquerque. While this is true, murder rates are up across the country. This is not an Albuquerque-specific problem. It's more of an inner city-specific problem, as much of it takes place in areas where incomes are low and public resources are scarce. Much of it also seems to be pandemic-related, as the recession has hit hardest those communities that were already hurting the most.
Please see these articles here and here for more on this nation-wide epidemic:
Gonzales would not be in need of any fundraisers if he were to win his appeal over public financing before a city hearing officer. That hearing will be held later this month. If he loses there Gonzales can appeal to district court.
If any volunteers were recruited by the campaign to hold fundraisers for that outside committee supporting Gonzales (Save Our City), they would be in violation of city election laws. The individual campaigns are prohibited from co-ordinating with outside committees advocating for them. The sheriff sure doesn't need another money mess.
The Mayor Keller campaign has presented powerful evidence that the Gonzales campaign at best blundered and at worst committed fraud in gathering the required 3,779 individual $5 donations (accompanied by the voter's signature) to secure public financing. They've gathered affidavits from voters and investigative reporters are confirming the foul-ups.
Camapign pros agree that because of his widespread name ID and the city's controversial crime rate, Gonzales will not be finished if he must privately finance his campaign, but that doesn't mean he can operate on a shoestring. The pros say Manny will need around $450,000 in private money to keep pace with Keller's $661,000 in public financing. Coming up much short of that and he could be drowned out on the airwaves come October.
Could he raise that kind of money in short order? Quite the challenge but with so much money cascading through politics, you never know.
REFORM NEEDED?
Putting aside whether the Sheriff engaged in intentional wrongdoing in getting those $5 donations, there is discussion about amending the public financing law that has been in effect since the 2009 mayoral race.
A City Hall watcher says only six mayoral candidates have qualified for public financing since its inception, including Keller this year. That's too high of a hurdle, the argument goes, and one made by Mark Fleisher, veteran Dem consultant and former chairman of the Arizona Dem Party:
The nearly 4,000 is too high. The requirement was put in to remedy the problem of having too many non-serious candidates cluttering the ballot. But it's clear that we have gone too far. I think around 2,000 donations to qualify for the money would keep the nonserious candidates away but still ensure that voters get adequate choices.
Back in the day--before public financing--mayoral candidates were required to get over 5,800 petition signatures to make the city ballot. That was lowered to today's 3,000.
Perhaps following the Nov. 2 election we will see an effort at City Council to amend the public financing requirement. It would be timely.
CRIME AND COPS (CONT.)
Reader Sharon Kayne writes:
Not all cities are experiencing a spike in their murder rates and ABQ's homicides were escalating even before the pandemic. But as one of those articles we linked to points out, other crimes such as auto theft have been on the decline.
Given the national trends, a tricky question in this mayoral campaign is how much of the crime can local officials be held accountable for? There could be as many answers to that as there are voters.
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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2021
(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2021