Alex Uballez seeks better implementation of 'good ideas' in bid to be ABQ mayor

As a progressive Democrat and experienced prosecutor, Alex Uballez might have just the political profile to jolt this year’s Albuquerque mayoral race.

The former U.S. attorney for New Mexico, who stepped down in February at the request of President Donald Trump, said he largely agrees with political analyses that peg him as the biggest threat to incumbent mayor Tim Keller in a possible run-off election.

But Uballez has struggled for traction in this year’s race, receiving support from about 6% of likely city voters in a recent Journal Poll.

He also failed to qualify for public campaign financing, and while Uballez has raised more than $200,000 in private donations, he and other challengers have been at a financial disadvantage to Keller, who did qualify for the public campaign funds.

In a recent interview, Uballez described money as “the problem” in politics, citing a political committee tied to Keller’s campaign that has received donations from some outside firms that have current contracts with the city.

“I think it makes a farce of a system that’s supposed to equal the playing field when he is the only one who can qualify,” he said.

As part of his mayoral campaign, Uballez is proposing a centralized, county-wide 911 system that he says would improve police response times, along with a more efficient city planning department.

He has also called for “publicly developed green housing,” or the construction of affordable housing units with solar panels installed to generate more revenue for the city.

Uballez said he voted for Keller in 2021, but said the incumbent mayor has been unable to follow through on his ideas.

“If you say the good ideas and you make the big promises but you don’t actually deliver on them, you’re making the good ideas look bad,” Uballez said. “And what happens when you make good ideas look bad is you make bad ideas look necessary.”

For instance, he said free bus fares in Albuquerque implemented by the Keller administration have led to many homeless individuals using the buses to find shelter and air conditioning.

“I really don’t believe Albuquerque has to choose between the ineffectiveness of the incumbent and the cruelness of the other challengers,” Uballez said. “They have to have an option who will actually deliver results.”

An unlikely path to Albuquerque

Uballez grew up a “working-class kid” in Southern California, the son of a Chinese immigrant mother and a Chicano father who was a music producer in East Los Angeles.

He went to high school in Oakland and met his wife, Gabrielle Uballez, at Pomona College when he was 19 years old.

Uballez followed his wife to Albuquerque, where she had grown up, and spent time working at the Philmont Scout Ranch and the state Attorney General’s Office before the couple decided to move full-time to New Mexico in 2011.

While Uballez said he was not a great student growing up, he attended Columbia University law school and began his career as a prosecutor in the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office, handling crimes against children.

He said his goal was to become a federal prosecutor, but he ended up changing his plans after being encouraged to seek the position of U.S. attorney for New Mexico. He was appointed to the position by President Joe Biden in 2022.

“The calculus was always how do I best serve this community,” Uballez said.

He also said his background was important, especially in a majority-minority state in which Hispanics and Native Americans make up about 60% of the state’s population.

“Nobody who looks like me was a U.S. attorney in the Biden administration,” Uballez said.

Much of Uballez’s mayoral campaign has been influenced by his experience running the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Mexico, which has about 200 employees.

On the campaign trail, he has cited his role in a federal investigation into a yearslong scheme in which New Mexico law enforcement officers took kickbacks for helping defense attorneys get DWI cases dismissed.

He also references a high-profile fentanyl seizure, the creation of a database for missing Native American individuals and a new court program for individuals being released from prison.

Meanwhile, Uballez’s background as a prosecutor has also factored into his opposition to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s decision to deploy National Guard members to Albuquerque this summer to assist local law enforcement officers. The decision was made after Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina formally requested such assistance.

But Uballez said the deployment would make the city’s case more difficult in the event of a legal showdown with the Trump administration over National Guard troops being deployed.

He also said he believes the New Mexico National Guard could be better utilized by directing guard members to help build housing and provide food assistance for residents.

Family a driving campaign force

Uballez, who lives with his family in Downtown Albuquerque, does not shy away from describing his three young children as a driving force in his campaign.

“There is a selfish piece to it,” he acknowledged. “I want to live down the street from my grandkids and I don’t want to have to move to some city that they choose because they didn’t find safety and opportunity here.”

“I have about 10 years to make this into a city that they choose like I chose it,” he added.

While Uballez has focused on building a grassroots campaign, his connection to several nonprofit groups has drawn scrutiny in this year’s mayoral race.

His wife is the executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, a nonprofit organization that advocates for certain child-focused policies, and his campaign has been endorsed by several progressive groups, including OLÉ, or Organizers in the Land of Enchantment, and Organized Power in Numbers.

Neidi Dominguez, the founding executive director of that group, is also the owner and CEO of Nepantla Strategies, whose staffers have been paid more than $21,000 to help run Uballez’s campaign. When asked about the arrangement, a Uballez campaign spokesman said there is a “firewall” in place to maintain separation between the two entities.

For his part, Uballez acknowledges that running for mayor and asking for political donations has been an adjustment from his previous job.

But he’s embracing the change — and hoping it leads to an electoral breakthrough next month.

“I was a public figure before, but not at this level,” Uballez said. “It’s so crazy to be having folks I don’t know stop me and talk with me.”