Filing day for city elections isn’t for a couple of months, but already, rumors are starting to swirl around possible candidates for both the mayor’s office and the four city council seats that will be up for grabs.
Perhaps the most persistent rumor is that Councilor Robert Seeds is planning to run for mayor against current Mayor Alice Lucero. Seeds has been an erstwhile opponent of Lucero’s since both took their respective seats in 2010.
Some city officials claimed Seeds made the announcement at a party at his residence Nov. 14.
Seeds denied announcing a mayoral campaign and said that he had only been discussing the possibility of running with friends. Seeds did admit that he was seriously considering running for mayor and that many people had approached him about the topic recently. But until the decision comes, Seeds said he is focused on finishing out the rest of his term.
The rest of alleged mayoral bids are dominated by names familiar with past campaigns.
Alfred Herrera ran against Lucero in 2010 when they served on the City Council together. Herrera — who currently serves as a board member on the Northern New Mexico College Board of Regents — denied seeking the mayoralty, saying he hadn’t given the idea much thought recently.
Former Española School District Board Member Floyd Archuleta is another veteran of past mayoral campaigns, having run for the office in 1998 and 2006.
Archuleta said despite several people urging him to run, he’s decided to focus on his start-up wireless Internet business instead of seeking office.
“I don’t feel I could give the time,” Archuleta said.
Archuleta was recently named in a lawsuit file by former District Facilities Manager Mark Chavez. Among the allegations, the lawsuit accuses Archuleta of giving early bid numbers for a District project to contractor and current Councilor Cory Lewis, allowing Lewis to intentionally underbid on the project.
As with almost every mayoral election in recent years, former Mayor Richard Lucero was also floated as a possibility. He handily beat Alice Lucero and former Councilor Chris Roybal in the 2002 mayoral race.
Mayor Running Again
As the field sorts itself out, the one confirmed candidate for mayor is Alice Lucero.
Lucero said she wants to make accountability a focal point of her reelection campaign and said one of the top priorities of her second term would be to get the city’s audits up-to-date. While Lucero said the process has gone slower than she had anticipated, she wants to continue the effort beyond her first term.
Lucero stressed the economic development Española has experienced under her administration, despite a national economic downturn and an audit situation that prohibited state funding. Lucero pointed toward the recent arrival of businesses like Murphy Oil and CVS, as proof that the city is on the rise.
Lucero said the high-profile departures of department heads like James Lujan, Len Cata, Marvin Martinez and Teddie Riehl were out of her control. Lucero said many of those former employees left because of personal reasons and not her actions.
If Lucero is reelected, she could find herself short on Council support from her usual allies. Councilors Pedro Valdez, John Hernandez and Elaine Herrera are all up for reelection in 2014.
While Lucero said she would support any of their reelection campaigns, she hoped any potential challengers wouldn’t automatically join the opposition against her.
“I’m relying on the integrity of the people running,” Lucero said.
Council Races
Still Unclear
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the council seats up for election, Lucero can count on one of her allies running again. Valdez said he would run for his District 1 seat in 2014, with an official announcement to come later this month.
The incumbents for Districts 2 and 3, however, are less certain.
Hernandez and Herrera said they were still “50/50” on whether they would run for their seats again. Both were appointees who replaced former Councilors Cecilia Lujan and Greg Ortega, respectively.
Hernandez and Herrera said they would make their decisions before Christmas.
Seeds faces a decision to run for mayor or defend his District 4 seat. State law mandates no person can run for two offices at the same time.
So far, no challengers have publicly announced their candidacy for any of the open Council seats.