Make it a Three-way

Last week, Councilor Cadigan announced is return (after no time at all... really no time at all) to city politics by re-entering the race that he had left when he left the mayor's race due to an inability to qualify for public financing. The two-way race between Jeremy Toulouse and Dan Lewis became a three-way race.

Not surprisingly, a Democrat has surfaced to challenge the two Republicans interested in the District 9 seat. Our Eyes tell us that Democrat David Barber - who registered as a Democrat in the district in 2007 - plans on challenging the two Republicans.

It'll be interesting to see what effect the addition of a Democratic challenger has on the race. If it's anything like four years ago, Barber's participation will only have the effect of extending the election and perhaps handing it to the candidate who's not the incumbent. Runoff elections tend to favor the anti-incumbent crowd. If Barber makes a respectable showing in the October election, chances are Brasher would win the run off - that is assuming he doesn't win the election outright.

Meanwhile, two more candidates have eschewed (Yes, eschewed. Look it up.) public financing. The Eyes have it that Commissioner Brasher has decided to forgo using involuntary contributions from taxpayers in favor of using voluntary contributions from supporters who have decided that he's the best candidate for the job.

The other candidate who has according to the grapevine, decided to eschew public financing is none other than the former "clean" mayoral candidate Councilor Michael Cadigan. If true, Cadigan's change of heart may have something to do with the fact that he figured out that the new "ethical" elections ordinance does nothing but keep potential candidates out of a race.

There's little doubt that Brasher and Cadigan have the ability to raise the $30,000 or so necessary to compete against their taxpayer funded counterparts. What will be interesting to see is if the two (and Commissioner Armijo) decide to push beyond the dollar per voter limit set by Albuquerque's Unethical Elections Scheme thereby funding their opponents. If so, they'll be hurting their campaigns but potentially setting the stage for a 1st Amendment challenge to Albuquerque's public financing system.

We don't know whether either candidate will take on the city during an election year, but it's clear that the Albuquerque Open and "Ethical" Elections Ordinance is has some real Constitutional problems that need to be addressed by the courts.

Make it a three-way in two of five districts. The game is on and it's only early May! It'll be a fun election season to say the least.

----- Correction -----
We were rightly chastised for identifying the Republican candidate in District 5 as Dan East - who was the CD3 Republican candidate last year. Of course the candidate for city council is Dan Lewis. We got our Dans mixed up. It has been corrected above.

In the Crosshairs - Councilor Harris Faces Recall?

We've been hearing the rumblings from District 9 for months now. A councilor with a seemingly unerring ability to alienate just about everyone has left some in District 9 longing for Tina Cummins and her bolero (ABQ Journal - Subscription Required). Now at least a few of his constituents have decided they would like to see the back of him (ABQ Journal - Subscription Required).

Councilor Harris was elected in a run-off election against incumbent councilor Tina Cummins. One of the primary complaints about the former councilor was that she was too aligned with the main man on the 11th floor, Mayor Martin Chavez. Harris, after wracking up debts in two successive elections almost immediately jumped on Marty's money train allowing the mayor to host a $500 a plate fundraiser in early 2006 to help pay off the afore mentioned campaign debts.

It looked to our Eyes that Mayor Marty had just bought himself a councilor and no doubt his highness thought so too. His honor was disabused of that notion when Councilor Harris voted against Marty's trolley. Of course the Mayor still had the necessary 6 votes to pass the Transportation Infrastructure Tax extension and true or not, many suspected that Harris was allowed to vote against the trolley in order to placate his more conservative constituents.

Meanwhile Councilor Harris has been busy making a name for himself with legislation aimed at everything from public comment to cell phone towers. In addition, he's irritated almost every neighborhood association in the city with his plan to re-write the city's neighborhood association recognition ordinance. They all believe that he's out there with his ad hoc committee and is determined to stick his nose into their associations.

Most recently, the councilor that couldn't step straight was featured in an ad that condemned him for voting against Marty's January 1 tax cut in favor of a July 1st, 2008 tax cut.

In short, Councilor Harris has been so inconsistent in his voting and his legislation that no one seems to trust him. That's a real problem for an elected official who is supposed to represent any group of people. Harris has become the George Costanza of Albuquerque politics.

Complicating matters for George... uh, Don, is the relatively small number of signatures needed to force a run-off. Just 922 valid signatures is all it would take according to the Journal and if the recall effort is well funded and organized it wouldn't be all that hard to get the required signatures in 60 days. Remember, that's just a couple of hundred more than were required for Harris to qualify for the ballot in the first place and our Eyes tell us that some of the people involved in the recent radio ad campaign are from Harris's District 9, so funding is probably not an issue.

To our knowledge, there has never been a city councilor recalled. Councilor Cadigan faced a recall shortly after his first election and last year Councilor Mayer survived a challenge. Will Councilor Harris survive? Who knows... but this could be the most winnable recall that we've seen.

If recall proponents are successful in their efforts to oust Harris, they had better remember that they will definitely get a councilor who is a card carrying member of the Party of Marty as his honor will be selecting their next councilor. One way or the other, the next couple of years will be interesting for District 9.