Mayoral candidate Mayling Armijo builds platform on quality of life

From Albuquerque to Alamogordo, Mayling Armijo spent her childhood moving across the state with her airman father as he was stationed from base to base.

When she grew up, Armijo joined the Navy, where she sailed the Pacific and rounded the Horn of Africa.

Her latest mission: to be elected mayor of Albuquerque.

If successful, Armijo would be the first woman to hold the office.

She decided to run after her father called her out for too much complaining and too little action.

“It’s hard to argue with your father when you’re complaining,” Armijo said. “Because he always did that when we were growing up — he’s like, ‘Why don’t you be part of the solution instead of whining about it?’”

As mayor, Armijo said she’d focus on restructuring the Albuquerque Police Department, streamlining the permitting process for small businesses, tightening the budget and cutting costs.

“I get it,” she said. “It’s a big apple to bite, but we have to do it.”

Armijo’s campaign is privately financed and has raised $108,133. Her campaign is also supported by political action committee Safer ABQ.

In the latest Journal poll, Armijo drew 1% of voters, placing her in the back of the pack of six candidates. Of likely voters polled, 37% said they were undecided.

If elected, Armijo said she would appoint a new police chief, which she said is the first step to improving culture at APD. Armijo blames low recruitment numbers and high turnover primarily on the department’s culture.

Money only goes so far, Armijo said; if people hate the environment they work in, they’ll never stay.

While incumbent Mayor Tim Keller’s approach to improving the police department has focused on adding civilian roles like police service aides and investing in technology, Armijo said the only thing that will make a tangible difference is hiring more officers.

“If you have the information on who committed the crime, who goes and arrests that person?” Armijo said. “Or if you have information about a potential crime, who goes and prevents that? It isn’t going to be AI or ChatGPT.”

Crime in Albuquerque is one of Armijo’s biggest concerns, especially, she said, because it has hit close to home.

Armijo recalled her dissatisfaction with her hometown growing after a drive-by shooting in her family’s neighborhood and later when a shootout happened in the parking lot next to her nephew’s football practice.

“At the end of the day — quality of life is safety,” Armijo said.

Another component of public safety, she said, is increasing enforcement of public camping bans and drug use among the homeless population in Albuquerque.

Under her leadership, she said, the city would take the approach of “rehab or jail.”

Armijo said she’s supportive of the “intent and purpose” of Keller’s Gateway Center, a network of social services and shelter beds for homeless people, but called the execution a “monstrosity.”

Despite this, Armijo said if elected she would not shut down the Gateway but work to make it more efficient and organized.

“Addiction and homelessness and crime are so tied together,” Armijo said.

Another pitfall that keeps Albuquerque from thriving, Armijo said, is a lengthy permitting process that not only deters big businesses from coming to the city, but harms mom-and-pop shops.

According to a city news release, the current average commercial permit wait time is 37 days, down from 98 days last year. Armijo said that she’s heard stories of business owners being held up in the city Planning Department for up to a year.

Armijo currently works in small business lending and was the economic development director at Bernalillo County for more than 10 years. She said her career in economic development prepared her for the challenges ahead.

Additionally, Armijo credits her time in the Navy as preparation for public office. Her military service not only gave her a sense of responsibility and duty, she said, but also an understanding of how to work with other units to get things done under pressure.

“Just moving a crane in the ocean is very expensive,” Armijo said. “But you need a crane on this little island somewhere in the Pacific, for whatever reason, that crane needs to be there. So you better figure out how to get it there.”

Armijo said that city government is precariously dependent on state and federal funds, which are increasingly unreliable as President Donald Trump oversees sweeping budget cuts and state governments scramble to cover the gaps.

“I don’t want to have to roll the dice if I’m mayor,” Armijo said. “That’s just bad management.”

Behind the campaign fliers, signatures and buttons, Armijo’s campaign is largely run by her family, which consists of five siblings and her parents.

The Armijo family helped her knock on doors for signatures, order pins and go to campaign events. Her father drives around a large van bearing Armijo’s image that the family calls “the Mayling-mobile.”

“We’re all in,” Armijo said. “All of us are in emotionally, physically, financially.”