Publicly Financed Candidates

Albuquerque City Charter Article XVI, the Open and Ethical Elections Code, establishes public financing for qualifying candidates.The 2013 public financing cycle has begun for Mayoral candidates.  Beginning on February 16th Applicant Candidates for public financing may collect $5 Qualifying Contributions from qualified, registered voters within the City of Albuquerque.  The Qualifying Period ends on March 31st.

In addition to qualifying for public financing, Applicant Candidates must also gather Petition signatures pursuant to the Charter and Ordinances.All candidates for City Council must gather 500 signatures from registered voters within the district the candidate wishes to represent.

Matching Funds

On June 27, 2011, the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion which effectively declared that matching funds in public financing laws is unconstitutional. Specifically the opinion provides "additional funds to a publicly funded candidate when expenditures by a privately financed candidate and independent groups exceed the funding initially allotted to the publicly financed candidate, substantially burdens political speech and is not sufficiently justified by a compelling interest to survive First Amendment scrutiny."

View entire opinion.

The City of Albuquerque Open and Ethical Elections Code has a matching funds provision.The City Clerk's Rules and Regulations also contains provisions for administering the matching funds provision.  The City of Albuquerque is subject to a permanent injunction issued from the United States District Court, District of New Mexico, from taking any action to implement the matching funds provision of the Charter Code and the corresponding rules and regulations. Accordingly, Participating Candidates in the 2013 Regular Municipal Election and in future elections will not receive matching funds from the City and will receive only the initial distribution of funds based upon $1 per registered voters the Elected Official will represent, if elected.

2013 Applicant Candidates

Mayoral Applicant Candidates

Mayoral Applicant Candidates must collect Qualifying Contributions from 1% of the registered voters of the City of Albuquerque.  As of February 13, 2013 the number of registered voters in the City of Albuquerque is 362,148.  To qualify for public financing, an Applicant Candidate for Mayor must collect 3,621 Qualifying Contributions from qualified, registered voters.  The voter registration number is used solely for the calculation of required qualifying contributions as of a specific period of time.

On April 1, 2013, the City Clerk qualified one Mayoral candidate, Pete Dinelli, for public financing.

City Council Applicant Candidates

City Council Candidates will have the Exploratory Period beginning in March 2013 and will collect Qualifying Contributions during the month of May 2013.

Applicant Candidates must receive Qualifying Contributions from 1% of the registered voters in the district the candidate wishes to represent.  The number of Qualifying Contributions required for the 2013 council races are:

District 1: 356

District 2: 477

District 3: 257

District 4: not up for election

District 5: 409

District 6: not up for election

District 7: 456

District 8: not up for election

District 9: 389

2011 Participating Candidates

• District 2: M. Debbie O'Malley
• District 4: Bill Tallman and Brad Winter
• District 6: Rey Garduno

General Information on Participating Candidates

Participating Candidates receive their financing via a transfer of funds from the Open and Ethical Elections fund initiated by the City of Albuquerque Treasury Division once the City Clerk qualifies the Applicant Candidates as Participating Candidate.

Participating Candidates may no longer receive Seed Money, but may continue to receive In-Kind contributions, pursuant to the Rules, through Election Day. They must also file Campaign Financing Reports as required by the Election Code disclosing their expenditures and In-Kind Contributions. Those reports are filed electronically and due pursuant to the deadlines in the City Charter Elections Code.

The City Clerk will notify Participating Candidates that are unopposed following the deadlines for candidates and declared write-in candidates to file their Declarations of Candidacy. Any Participating Candidate that is declared unopposed must return unspent or unencumbered public funds to the City Clerk for deposit into the Fund.

Rules and Regulations for the Open and Ethical Elections Code

The Office of the City Clerk has enacted Rules and Regulations for administering the public financing process. The Rules were updated in April 2011 after a public hearing process.

2009 General Election

Candidates receiving public financing were:

Mayor:

• Richard Romero
• Martin J. Chavez
• Richard J. Berry

City Council:

• Ken Sanchez (qualified, but returned unspent funds because no opposing candidate was certified)
• Dan Lewis
• Isaac Benton
• Michael Cook
• Don Harris