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Albuquerque's first ever government-financed election fails to deliver
Published on October 11, 2007
by Michael Schrimpf
File Under: "Clean" Elections, Faulty Assumptions
On Tuesday, October 2nd, Albuquerque conducted it first ever campaign using a government-financing program - with predictable results. The city spent more than $135,000 subsidizing politicians in order to re-elect every incumbent who ran by extremely large margins. Additionally, in the race for the two open seats, one candidate was elected without opposition and the other won by more than 26 percent. And voter turnout was just 10 percent of registered voters.
In district 2, incumbent Debbie O'Malley took government financing and won by 45 percent.
In district 4, challenger Paullete de'Pascal took government funds and lost by 63 percent.
In district 6, an open seat, 3 candidates took government funding, including the winner by 26 percent Rey Garduno.
In district 8, also an open seat, the promise of a government handout did not encourage anyone to run against the privately-financed Trudy Jones who won with 100 percent of the vote.
Overall, the average victory margin was a whopping 58.5 percent.
