OPINION: Q&A lie should disqualify Garcia for City Council

I don’t like pulling back endorsements. If I did that every time a candidate disappointed me, half of my endorsements wouldn’t stand.

In my near six years with the Journal, we’ve never unendorsed a candidate. Whether written as a personal endorsement or that of the Journal Editorial Board, we’ve stuck by our endorsements time and again and hoped for the best.

Historically, the Editorial Board has put a lot of time and effort into its endorsements, interviewing candidates individually, going over their Q&As and campaign materials, talking to people who have known or worked with them, and sometimes having heated internal discussions before reaching a decision.

The goal of the Editorial Board, which this year discontinued its endorsements in favor of individual endorsements from Ed Board members, has always been to reach a consensus decision, although arriving there has sometimes required some give and take. Our endorsements of Republican Mark Ronchetti for U.S. Senate in 2020 and for governor in 2022 are still lively topics of discussion at cocktail parties. And we stuck by them, both times.

But now, I believe rescinding one of my personal endorsements is necessary. The integrity of the newspaper demands it.

The Journal’s Q&A for Albuquerque’s municipal candidates ended with the same question: “Have you ever been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of drunken driving, any misdemeanor or any felony in New Mexico or any other state?”

City Council District 3 challenger Teresa Garcia answered “no” in her Q&A published on the Journal website on Sept. 26.

But that’s not the case, I learned on Monday. Not only has Garcia been arrested, she stood trial on a misdemeanor charge of domestic violence involving her then-husband in 2015, and was found not guilty in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court after a jury trial on Aug. 21, 2015.

Garcia told the Journal last week she answered “no” to the question because she didn’t think it was anybody’s business.

“I didn’t feel that I needed to share that in any platform or in any questionnaire, because I was exonerated,” she said. “I was acquitted, and it was, it should have been, expunged out, but they found it.”

So maybe we need to update and clarify the question to: Have police ever handcuffed you, put you in the back of a police vehicle, driven you to jail, and booked you on a criminal charge? It would be pretty hard to deny all that, regardless of the outcome of the case.

I am very disappointed with Garcia. I gave her my personal endorsement in my Nov. 23 Sunday Journal column. I don’t know her well, but from everything she had told me in our conversations, she won me over, until Monday.

City Councilor Joaquin Baca, who I am still backing for the next City Council president, explained his arrest record in his Q&A two years ago. Baca disclosed he had been cited for disorderly conduct in 1998 when he was 22 and was arrested after not completing 24 hours of community service.

Mayor Tim Keller disclosed his arrest record in this year’s Q&A. “When I was in high school, I was charged with a petty misdemeanor for being at a party with underage drinking,” Keller disclosed. “The charge was promptly dropped.”

Two years ago, we even had a City Council candidate, Abel Otero, lie that he had a felony conviction and had done prison time when neither were true.

Talking about one’s past can be difficult. There are always at least two sides to every story. But any candidate for public office should know better than to misrepresent their arrest record. On Day 1 of their campaigns, they should be prepared to address any indiscretions.

In Garcia’s case, her Feb. 22, 2015, arrest is particularly relevant, and ironic. Until October, she was chair of Albuquerque’s Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Commission. Before that, Garcia was director of training and communications for the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence from December 2019 through 2022.

Garcia currently works remotely as a digital marketing and communications specialist for the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence. I wonder if any of those agencies knows Garcia stood trial 10 years ago after being arrested and charged with aggravated battery against a household member. I’m thinking about submitting public records requests for her job applications to see if she whitewashed her arrest record with them as well.

According to court records, Garcia punched her ex-husband over photos of women on his phone and struck him in the forehead with a “Bible holder,” causing a cut over his right eye. Garcia contends she is the victim of domestic violence.

“I was not the offender,” she told the Journal. “I was the victim and that was proven. I was exonerated and acquitted.”

Well, not exactly. Juries find defendants either guilty or not guilty. They don’t exonerate anyone or find people innocent.

I cannot and will not back any candidate who is untruthful in their Journal candidate questionnaire. At the same time, I cannot endorse Garcia’s opponent in the Dec. 9 runoff election, District 3 Councilor Klarissa Peña, whose 12-year tenure on the City Council is clouded by conflicts of interest regarding the Route 66 Visitor Center.

District 3 voters in the Southwest Mesa have a tough choice between two flawed candidates.

I stand by my endorsement last week of Joshua Taylor Neal in the City Council District 1 runoff race against Stephanie Telles. To the best of my knowledge, Neal hasn’t lied to us about anything. The young man is anxious to serve his community and I hope West Side voters will give him the opportunity. As a land development engineer, Neal can have a meaningful impact helping companies navigate the permitting process and site-plan approvals for housing and commercial projects.

I don’t mind endorsing progressive candidates like I did Garcia. I maintain managing a city is more about police response times and making the buses run on time than it is about MAGA or anti-MAGA.

Lying to the local newspaper, however, is without absolution in my view. Allowing Garcia to maintain my endorsement would be a disservice to Journal readers and other candidates who have told the truth about their arrest histories.

Garcia should have answered the arrest question truthfully and explained the situation before Election Day, not afterward. If a candidate can’t answer a simple question truthfully, it raises all kinds of concerns about their credibility on other issues.

And if they can’t be trusted to tell us the truth during the campaign, how can we trust them if they’re elected?

Jeff Tucker is a former opinion editor of the Albuquerque Journal and a member of the Journal Editorial Board. He may be emailed at jtucker@abqjournal.com.