District 6 — Crowded candidate race thins, runoff predicted

In the beginning, there were six.

Of all the hopefuls vying for four City Council seats, almost half were competing for the District 6 seat, which will be vacated by outgoing Council President Pat Davis.

Now four candidates remain in the district, which makes up Southeast Albuquerque, including Nob Hill and the International District. One of the original six failed to meet the number of qualifying signatures; another withdrew after moving to a different state.

Then, last week, Abel Otero — who had Davis’s endorsement — announced he would be ending his campaign. Otero is not officially pulling out of the race and plans to vote for himself. But, following the publication of a Journal article which found he had no record of prison time he claimed he had served, Otero announced he would stop “actively campaigning.”

“I think Abel did the right thing,” Davis said. “I don’t think anybody was voting for Abel because of that particular piece of his history. But I think it does matter who we elect, and people have to trust that they’re making smart decisions based on their real experiences. I think he’ll live to serve us in another way, another day.”

Davis said he will wait before making a second endorsement — especially if the race heads into a runoff election, which he said many expect.

“I want to see how the community responds to our other candidates,” Davis said. “We have three very strong, good candidates — any one of which could be a city councilor.”

In addition to Otero, the District 6 candidates are Nichole Rogers, Jeff Hoehn and Kristin “Raven” Greene. All are members of the Democratic Party.

Only Cuidando los Niños Executive Director Hoehn is privately financed, after withdrawing from the public finance program. According to his annual campaign finance report, he raised $30,938 and has spent $28,987.

Hoehn’s largest contributions primarily came from individuals. For privately financed candidates, donations are capped at 5% of the salary of the position. Hoehn brought in donations of $1,683 from William Hoehn, Lillian Hoehn, William Itoh and Douglas Lopez, according to campaign finance reports.

Of the publicly funded candidates, freelance writer and independent contractor Greene spent the most of the allotted $40,000 for District 6 candidates.

Greene spent $31,258, barbershop owner Otero spent $25,792, and business consultant and financial adviser Rogers spent $20,685.

For all four candidates, the costliest expenditures were for strategic communications providers.

In a Journal questionnaire asking respondents to name the biggest issue in District 6, answers varied.

Greene identified “disenfranchisement and lack of economic investment.” For Hoehn, it was crime.

Rogers and Otero had the same answer: poverty.

“Too many families don’t have what they need to survive, much less thrive,” Rogers wrote.