Court of Appeals: City Clerk didn't violate former sheriff Manuel Gonzales' due process rights

Reversing the decision of a lower court, the state Court of Appeals ruled last week that former Bernalillo County sheriff and one-time mayoral candidate Manuel Gonzales was not denied due process by the Albuquerque City Clerk in the 2021 mayoral election.

In 2021, Gonzales sought more than $600,000 in public financing to run his campaign against current Mayor Tim Keller. But after City Clerk Ethan Watson denied his request for public dollars, Gonzales sued Watson, setting off a long legal battle.

The court’s opinion states that Watson was not constitutionally required to give Gonzales a hearing before denying the funds. Additionally, the court ruled that Gonzales is not owed attorney fees or costs.

“It was a relief to have the Court of Appeals sustain our initial determination that Sheriff Gonzales should not have received public financing,” Watson said.

Gonzales did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Timeline

Gonzales ran against the incumbent Keller in 2021. In June, Keller’s campaign manager, Neri Holguin, filed two ethics complaints against the Gonzales campaign.

One alleged that a number of the signatures gathered by Gonzales’ team were forged. The other claimed that Gonzales himself had told a signer that the campaign would cover the $5 donation. To qualify for public financing, candidates need to demonstrate community support for their campaign with a certain number of “qualifying contributions” — signatures and small donations. In 2021, the qualifying period ran from April 17 to June 19.

In the seventh week of the qualifying period, Gonzales’ team submitted 764 qualifying contributions, or more than the team had submitted in the first five weeks combined.

A Gonzales campaign attorney later told the Journal in 2021 that an internal review revealed that “it does appear, upon the Gonzales campaign’s own investigation, that many of the qualifying-contribution receipts identified (in an ethics complaint) — while comprising a tiny fraction of the campaign’s total validated number — were signed by someone other than the voter.”

Because of the complaints, Watson denied the former sheriff’s bid for public financing. Gonzales appealed that decision, and a city hearing officer sided with Watson.

Gonzales then took the issue to court. A district court told Watson he had violated Gonzales’ due process and needed to perform another hearing before denying the funds. That decision was reversed last week by the Court of Appeals.

Watson held a pre-hearing. He denied the funds a second time.

But when the former sheriff went to district court again, the court upheld Watson’s decision. Gonzales argued that Watson, a Keller appointee, was not an impartial decision-maker.

Much of the legal battle happened at the same time that the ethics complaints were being heard by the city of Albuquerque Board of Ethics, an “extremely tumultuous” period, Watson said.

“Given that there were basically four different things all related to this case going on during the final months of our qualifying period … it was a really challenging election season,” Watson said.

History of public financing

Albuquerque’s public financing program is one of a few dozen around the country. Established in 2005 and first used a couple years later, it allows City Council and mayoral candidates to run campaigns using public dollars.

In 2021, mayoral candidates needed at least 3,779 $5 contributions and signatures — 1% of the registered voters in the city — to qualify for more than $600,000 in public financing.

Cases involving public financing programs are rare, Watson said. He identified one in New York, in which a city council candidate sued the chairman of the New York City Campaign Finance Board after being denied public match dollars for her campaign — despite filing for public financing after the deadline. Her claim was rejected by the courts.

Watson said following the 2021 election cycle, the city clerk’s office has made some changes, including the first in-person audit of qualifying contributions during the 2023 election cycle. All nine current city councilors and the mayor were elected after running publicly financed campaigns.

About the candidate

Gonzales’ political career might not be over. In January, Gonzales, now a Republican, announced he is running for the nomination to challenge U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich for his seatthis November.

Gonzales has also been named by federal authorities in an alleged machine gun importation scheme during his term as sheriff. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, both Gonzales and former undersheriff Rudy Mora submitted fraudulent requests to import automatic weapons. Neither has been charged.