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Saturday, June 13, 2009
Chávez Mum on Re-Election Plans
By Sean Olson
Journal Staff Writer
Mayor Martin Chávez will not reveal until next month whether he will seek a fourth term, and that has declared candidates complaining that Chávez isn't playing fair.
The candidates contend Chávez is avoiding an announcement so he can continue to tout his accomplishments and defend against attacks without having to follow rules that govern declared candidates.
Mayoral candidate Richard Romero said the mayor would be "double-dipping" by using taxpayer-funded city resources to campaign, then collecting public financing when he later declares. "It's clear to me that he's putting his political interest ahead of the taxpayer's interest."
Chávez said he's obeying the "letter and spirit" of the law. His public appearances are just business as usual, he said.
"I haven't done anything different in the past month that I haven't done in the last two years, the last four years or the last six years," Chávez said. "... If they think that's political, that's their shortcoming."
The election is Oct. 6. The other declared candidates are Richard Berry and Donna Rowe, who's running as a write-in candidate.
Chávez has already waited longer than any other mayoral incumbent to announce his intentions in at least the past 20 years. Chávez announced his intentions in the middle of May four years ago and at the end of May in 1997 after his first term. Jim Baca announced in early June 2001; Ken Schultz announced on April 2, 1989.
The mayor gathered enough signatures and $5 donations to qualify for public financing and to make sure his name is on the ballot. He has also raised more than $40,000 since the fourth quarter of 2008 and spent about $41,000, according to campaign reports.
He said there's a chance he won't run.
If he does decide to run, Chávez would have to limit certain public activities in which the lines between his duties as mayor and efforts as a candidate would blur.
The candidates complain that the distinction between Chávez the mayor and Chávez the candidate allows him to treat any campaign attack as an attack on his administration and to use city employees or resources to respond.
"After 12 years, most of us in Albuquerque are used to (Chávez's) political games," Berry said. "He is a slick politician, and this is just more of the same from him."
Chávez said the complaints are "sour grapes" from the candidates, upset because they can't pick when he declares.
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