Kathy Korte says she will never return to a church for political support.
That’s after clashing with some Legacy Church members, she said.
Korte, who won a seat on the Albuquerque Public Schools board this year, said it started when a friend encouraged her to meet with a group at Legacy before she had decided whether to run for office. Korte says 12 people were there, including Pastor Steve Smothermon and Teri Baird, a member of the church who is also a former chief of staff for former Mayor Martin Chávez.
Smothermon, in an interview, said the initial meeting with Korte wasn’t a church function and that “almost none of (the group members) were related to Legacy Church.” They meet at different places from time to time, he said.
Korte said Smothermon later announced from the pulpit that he would vote for her. But after winning the election, she disagreed with some church members over the placement of a West Side school stadium.
One angry email – from a Legacy Church address, but not Smothermon’s – suggested she would face a “greater judge” for her position on the stadium, Korte said. She received other emails saying church members had supported her and that she needed to fight the stadium on their behalf, she said.
“That’s not how I operate,” Korte said in an interview. “I am going to do what I think is best for this district as a whole, not for Legacy Church.”
The stadium was also the focus of a public spat between Korte and Sheriff Dan Houston, a Legacy Church member. Houston was an outspoken critic of the stadium, which would be built near his West Side home.
At one point he threatened to revoke the arrest powers of school police officers unless the district entered into a written agreement with his office. It was needed for liability reasons, he said, but Korte accused him of retaliating over the stadium issue.
Smothermon said the stadium isn’t a church issue. Legacy lies on Central Avenue, between Coors and Unser. The stadium is planned for a site farther west, near 98th and Ladera, north of Interstate 40.
Smothermon said he assured Korte in person that if someone is sending her negative emails, “that doesn’t represent me at all or represent our church.”
But there are nearly 20,000 church members, he said, and “I have no control over what people say to her or do” in their capacity as regular constituents.
Smothermon said if he learns someone sent emails to Korte from a church account, “I would stop that immediately.”
— This article appeared on page A6 of the Albuquerque Journal
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