Q&A Albuquerque Mayor Alex Uballez

Name: Alex Uballez

Political party: Democrat

Age: 39

Education: Bachelors Degree from Pomona College, Law Degree from Columbia University

Occupation: Former U.S. Attorney, head of the highest federal executive office in the state, and 15-year prosecutor for the people of New Mexico and Albuquerque

Family: I fell in love with my wife when we were 19 years old and we have been together ever since. She is a ninth-generation New Mexican and a pillar of community service. We are raising three children, Adelaida, Ines, and Amado, ages eight, six, and four, along with our pets.

Relevant experience: From 2022 until January of this year, I was New Mexico’s chief federal law enforcement officer, leading an office of nearly 200 staff and overseeing all federal criminal investigations and prosecutions in the state. I’ve taken down cartel leaders, led the largest fentanyl bust in the history of the DEA, and spearheaded the investigation that ended 30 years of corruption in the DWI Unit at the APD. I also launched the DOJ’s first Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons’ program and built the first federal reentry court in New Mexico. I did this during the single largest budgetary shortfall in the DOJ's history, and while moving the entire office from a paper-based to electronic file system. Over the previous decade, I served in state and federal government as a crimes against children prosecutor and a cartel investigator.

Campaign website: alexforalbuquerque.com

1. What is the biggest issue facing the city of Albuquerque today, and how would you address it?

The biggest issue is local government is not serving the people of Albuquerque as it should. We can resolve homelessness, create safety, reduce the cost of housing, generate opportunity, and restore trust in government by operating with transparency, coordinating crisis response with providers, publicly developing green housing, and producing new apprenticeships and pathways to quality jobs.

2. What is your strategy for improving public safety?

Empower police to do police work. Pair smart enforcement with violence prevention so that we are stopping crime, not just reacting to it. Centralize 911 so we send the right response. Resource ACS so it actually operates to meet the need. Address the root causes of poverty to stabilize communities and reduce crime overall.

3. Under what circumstances, if any, would you support raising taxes?

Mr. Keller has driven the city into deficit, missed grants, spent on vanity projects, and rushed tax-giveaways to millionaire developers. The average person in Albuquerque shouldn’t be made to pay more for his mismanagement. There are long-term opportunities for revenue the city can implement aside from taxes. We should protect the pocketbook of the average taxpayer.

4. What specific industries should the city target with economic development incentives?

We can make our city a hub for commerce, entertainment, and innovation. We can incentivize construction done with community benefit agreements and green energy initiatives that save the city and homeowners costs, drive us toward our state’s climate goals, and harness New Mexico’s unique environment.

5. What are your economic development strategies for boosting small, local businesses?

Apply a customer service approach. Cut the red tape, target incentives, incubate innovation, speed up inspections and licensing. Increase effective efforts for homelessness and public safety to reduce deterrents and insurance costs for store owners. Partner with our schools and our labor organizations to increase training, have a ready workforce, and generate opportunity.

6. What steps would you take to increase affordable housing and address a growing homeless population?

We have to preserve our city’s culture while building her future. Thoughtful rezoning, building more housing, and starting a publicly developed, self-funded green housing initiative to lower the cost of rent and home ownership. Expand shelters to transitional options to get off the street. Importantly, partner with and support service providers to create a coordinated approach.

7. When it comes to mental health and substance abuse issues, which services would you prioritize under a new state behavioral health law?

Albuquerque should invest heavily in outreach and intervention, both before law enforcement contact and during, work with the Courts to provide support for those identified during criminal proceedings, and build a robust reentry program to help those returning to our community as recommended by the sequential intercept model.

8. Do you support Albuquerque’s current immigration policies in light of the U.S. Department of Justice’s determination it is a sanctuary jurisdiction? How would you instruct local law enforcement to work with federal immigration officials?

As US Attorney, my casework relied on: The trust of victims and witnesses that is threatened if police are perceived as deportation agents. Coordination between law enforcement agencies which is made harder when such agencies are used for politics instead of for safety. The immigrant friendly ordinance is essential to facilitating trust and creating community safety.

9. What large infrastructure projects would you push for in the city's next capital implementation program?

The city can come to life with a vibrant downtown entertainment center and bringing businesses back to fill the vacant buildings. We can be our own source of revenue by investing in municipal solar that generates credits and can power the entire Southwest, lower the cost for homeowners, and fund broader initiatives here at home.

10. What plans do you have to raise the quality of life for Albuquerque residents?

The people of Albuquerque should be able to afford to live here. Our jobs should provide. Our neighborhoods, safe. Parks, well maintained. Downtown, a thriving city center instead of sitting vacant. Safety and community combine with robust community centers, after school programs, youth jobs, and neighborhood liaisons to care for our children and our elderly.

11. What specific metrics would you use to gauge your success?

Government transparency in how the money is spent. Increase in public safety: Smart policing and prevention makes us all safer. Increase in opportunity: More jobs with better wages. A more unified city: We’re not divided, we’re disconnected. A government that works for you: departments that work hard to get to yes.

12. What differentiates you from your opponents?

I won’t self-serve like Mr. Keller or throw half the city in jail like other candidates are proposing. I’m a life long public servant with real solutions and an interest in making this a city all our children choose to make their future in.

13. Name one issue not mentioned in the questions above that you would plan to tackle.

At every campaign stop, families tell us there needs to be more programming for young people to provide recreation, community connection, and alternatives to getting into trouble.

Personal background

1. Have you or your business, if you are a business owner, ever been the subject of any state or federal tax liens?

No

2. Have you ever been involved in a personal or business bankruptcy proceeding?

No

3. Have you ever been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of drunken driving, any misdemeanor or any felony in New Mexico or any other state?

No