Seeking to ‘save the city,’ former BernCo Sheriff Darren White takes aim at Keller in mayoral run

Darren White is back.

The former top cop for the state of New Mexico, Bernalillo County and the city of Albuquerque, under Republican Mayor Richard Berry, White has worn multiple hats in his 62 years.

He’s gone from being a television news reporter to the co-owner of a multimillion-dollar-a-year medical cannabis company. Nearly 20 years after responding as Bernalillo County sheriff to Hurricane Katrina victims in 2005, he traveled as a civilian volunteer to war-torn Ukraine in 2023 to help on a land mine detection mission.

His latest venture finds him running against two-term incumbent Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller in the Nov. 4 election. The why? Because White believes Albuquerque is in “bad, bad shape.”

“I tried hard to find somebody to run, and I just couldn’t. There was nobody running from the Republican side,” he told the Journal in a recent interview. So White jumped into the race, which is technically nonpartisan.

And White has a timetable if he wins.

“I want to do this for four years. This is not to pad a political resume. I made it really clear, OK for four years, and get out and turn it over to somebody else,” White said.

And he’s now a co-owner of a film company, Broken Ear Productions, which he ultimately plans to get back to once his term is over. White dismisses the idea that he is remaking himself.

“What you see is what you get,” he said. “I’m running to save the city from the mess that it’s in. My job is to show the voters there’s a different way.”

With his friend, political consultant Jay McCleskey, White’s campaign emphasizes his seven years as Bernalillo County sheriff, and his military service with the 82nd Airborne.

He is running second in a field of six candidates, according to a Journal Poll of proven or likely voters. But there’s a significant number of voters who hadn’t made up their minds on a candidate, some 37%, the late September poll found.

White said he wants to “unshackle” the Albuquerque Police Department to focus on fighting crime at every level.

“If you ignore the small crimes, it breeds the bigger, more violent crimes,” White said.

He said what he sees as the hands-off police approach to homelessness and drug dealing at the now-closed Coronado Park permitted the crime problem to fester to the point where homicides and sexual assaults were occurring. The park, which Keller closed in 2022, had been a hotbed for narcotic use, trafficking and organized crime.

But White said the city’s serious problems are evident.

He said he’s taken photos of people he has seen on the corner of Gibson and San Mateo, “just sitting on the corner smoking fentanyl and the officers drive by because that’s what they’re told to do.”

As for homelessness, White didn’t identify a specific model city to emulate what should be done, but says the issue is “destroying our city and some robe behind a bench is going to tell us that we can’t fix that problem?”

If elected, White said “we are going to strictly enforce the law, and if they are cited and then if they don’t leave, they’ll be arrested.”

A native of upstate New York, White began his law enforcement career with the Houston Police Department and, in 1987, moved to New Mexico and joined the Albuquerque Police Department. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant and joined an APD rock band, The Force, performing for school children to warn them about the dangers of abusing drugs.

After an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the state Legislature, White worked in the campaign for Republican gubernatorial candidate Gary Johnson, a businessman, whose election in 1994 was White’s ticket to the New Mexico Department of Public Safety. White served as DPS Cabinet secretary, which oversees the New Mexico State Police, and succeeded in lobbying the Legislature for stricter “good time” laws and abolishing the 15-year statute of limitations for first-degree murder.

At age 31, he was the youngest public safety director in the country, and made headlines when he joined the hunt for the remains of victims of convicted serial sex torturer and suspected killer David Parker Ray. White, known for not mincing words, drew criticism from defense attorneys for his statements on the case, including describing suspect Ray as “the nightmare behind bars.”

Ray died in prison in May 2002, but State Police and the FBI were unable to find any of his purported homicide victims’ bodies.

After five years in the Johnson administration, White was at a crossroads in November 1999. Johnson had publicly announced his support for the legalization of drugs such as cannabis and heroin. And White couldn’t abide, he said. After confirming Johnson’s statements, White said he wrote his resignation letter within hours.

In the private sector, White became a security consultant. And, in what critics said was an about-face, he went to work creating a security plan for a medical cannabis firm.

“OK, I was wrong on cannabis,” White told the Journal recently. “I still think that heroin, methamphetamine ... those drugs should still be illegal.”

What changed his mind on medical marijuana, he said, was severe pain from back surgery. He also has extensive nerve damage in one leg.

Ultimately, he and three partners put together $1 million to form what became PurLife, which was sold in 2021. That was the same year New Mexico legalized adult use of recreational cannabis. At the time, PurLife was bringing in $25 million a year, said White, who was CEO.

It’s been 17 years since White has run for political office; 15 years since he resigned as Berry’s public safety director overseeing police and fire departments, the emergency management office and the Safe City Strike Force.

He prides himself on his seven years as Bernalillo County sheriff, serving from 2003 until Berry appointed him as the city of Albuquerque’s public safety director.

After two years working for Berry, he left on an unhappy note in 2011.

His wife at the time was in a single-vehicle crash, and White’s response — going to the scene and taking her to the hospital — drew scrutiny.

Two inquiries found his presence at the scene was intimidating to police but not improper. His wife had been taking prescription drugs, but no sobriety tests were administered and she wasn’t injured in the incident.

“I knew I didn’t do anything wrong,” White said. He added, of choosing to resign, “It was the right thing to do ... from the standpoint that it was a distraction.”

White went on to become general manager, under Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, of the Downs of Albuquerque.

Aside from his film company with former mixed martial arts fighter Keith Jardine, White has been a program director and radio talk show host at KKOB, and before that, worked two years for KRQE as a news reporter.

White said he isn’t a MAGA Republican.

“I have always been somebody that hasn’t been afraid to call people out, who I support or don’t support. That’s what a radio talk show host does. But I will tell you I’ve been critical of President Trump,” he said. But he also has no fond words for former President Joe Biden, who he says wasn’t fit to be president.

In June, the Journal revealed that White claimed a $50,000 yearly “homestead” exemption on a home he owns in Port Joe, Florida. To receive the tax exemption, White had to declare the house he bought in 2019 as his primary residence.

White responded that the tax deduction was “inadvertent,” and the issue has since been rectified. White told the Journal his home in Albuquerque is his primary residence.

As to his multi-faceted career, White noted his love for great white sharks, which must swim constantly to breathe.

“I feel if you stop moving, you die,” he said.