Candidate One of ‘Common People’

Heh, 66, will become the second candidate to enter Albuquerque’s mayoral race today, when he announces his campaign at City Hall. He’s a Republican but says he’s disillusioned with both major parties.

“This is not the America we grew up in,” Heh said.

In 32 years as a police officer, including 24 with APD, Heh occasionally found himself in the news, sometimes because of how much he made in overtime.

Heh and Pete Dinelli, a Democrat and former city councilor, are the only candidates who have announced campaigns. Mayor Richard Berry, a Republican, hasn’t said yet whether he will run this year, though many expect him to.

Albuquerque city elections are nonpartisan, meaning party affiliation doesn’t appear on the ballot and there are no primary elections to winnow the field.

Election Day is Oct. 8, though the top two candidates might end up in a runoff the following month, depending on how much support they get in the first round of voting.

Heh said he would tackle Albuquerque’s economy.

“We’re not approaching the cliff. We’re over the cliff,” he said.

Heh said he would take a “common-sense approach” to the problem. He envisions sending a “team of salesmen” across the country and world to promote the city.

“We have to advertise Albuquerque,” he said. “We have to go out and seek the business. We’ve got to go knocking on their door. I can do that.”

Targeting drug and property crime will help economic development, he said. The drug problem is out of control, he said.

Addicts drive property crime, because they’re looking for things they can easily sell or trade, Heh said.

A potential solution, he said, is a test program in which people convicted of property crimes are sentenced to time in a rehabilitation center, where they will learn a trade. The community, in fact, needs trade schools that prepare people for blue-collar jobs, he said.

“Any cop would tell the mayor — which his chief should have done — that you’re not going to get a handle on property crime until you get a handle the drug problem,” Heh said.

Heh said the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation into APD is a sign of Berry’s mismanagement. Federal officials are looking at whether APD has a pattern of violating people’s civil rights, specifically through officers’ use of force.

Berry has said the city will cooperate fully with the DOJ investigation and that his administration has already initiated dozens of policy changes, many of them addressing the use of force.

Heh, a Northeast Heights resident, said he will seek public financing for his campaign. The qualifying period to win city funding begins in about a week.

As for his political philosophy, Heh said: “I lean conservative. I’m not so far to the right that I don’t listen to reason.”

Former Lt. Gov. Diane Denish and City Councilor Ken Sanchez, both Democrats, are potential candidates. Pastor Steve Smothermon, a Republican, said he’s been encouraged to run.

Heh is no stranger to controversy:

Heh’s attorney at the time said he had no ax to grind and was just doing his job.

Heh said Friday that he was in charge of the Crime Stoppers tip program and that his inquiry was appropriate.

“Why wouldn’t it be? I’m a police officer,” he said.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal