School board election: ex post coverage

I’ve blogged here before about concerns that were raised in December when only one candidate filed to run for the school board in the newly created District 5 on the West Side. Sitting board members and other APS officials said they were disappointed that after the West Side advocated hard for more representation on the West Side, there wasn’t any competition for the new seat. I speculated at the time that potential candidates might have just been scared off by the prospect of celebrity competition.

A little update on this: I’ve spoken to former state Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, D-Albuquerque, who was rumored to be considering a run but didn’t file. She said she decided not to run for personal reasons. And Cynthia Chavers, who filed to run but withdrew her name just hours later, also said she withdrew for personal reasons.

Rep. Moe Maestas, D-Albuquerque, is a prominent West Side figure who backed lone candidate Steven Michael Quezada during the election. Maestas said people shouldn’t think there was a lack of energy on the West Side. Specifically, he had this to say:

“There was no lack of interest; there was no lack of leadership and no lack of interest. What you’ve got to understand is that the West Side is a tight community, it’s a relatively nonpartisan community, we were nonpartisan when it came to redistricting.

There were several people very interested in running, but the people interested in running met with one another. Senator Bernadette Sanchez was interested, a woman named Chavers, I think … these people sat down, they talked about it, they figured out who was the best candidate. And if a candidate’s not pursuaded the other guy’s the best, then they obviously will run. But in this particular situation the candidates agreed Steven would be the best candidate.”