Albuquerque's Mayoral Race: A primer for the Republican Candidates
This is part one of a three part series on the eight candidates who have qualified for the ballot for this October’s local election in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Albuquerque, New Mexico is a city with a number of serious challenges facing its next Mayor, a stagnant economy, frightening crime rates, and an inability to keep the young people its University educates. Mayor Richard Berry (R) is finishing his second term, and as promised, he isn’t running for re-election. Eight candidates qualified for the ballot last April, including three Independents, three Republicans and two Democrats.
Ricardo Chaves (R)
Parking Company of America founder Ricardo Chaves, 80 describes himself as a “self-made businessman” He graduated from the University of New Mexico with a degree in accounting.
Chaves’ platform focuses on reducing crime: He plans to do this by hiring a new police chief, fully funding the department while also cutting wasteful spending in order to get more officers on the beat. However, Chaves doesn’t disclose how many officers he plans to hire. He plans to ask the Department of Justice to remove its oversight of the APD and allow local leadership to make the changes to the department it deems necessary.
Chaves also opposes making Albuquerque a Sanctuary City, aligning themselves with the Berry Administration, who removed the distinction from the city in 2010.
Chaves also plans to cut taxes and eliminate regulations on business in an effort to jumpstart the local economy and create jobs, stating that “Albuquerque is ready to grow if we can just get the city government bureaucracy out of the way.”
In order to fight waste and fraud, he will conduct audits on every department in the government, cut unnecessary fees, unfair regulations and roll back red tape. As a result, Chaves believes that current businesses will grow faster and new ones will be easier to start. He also plans to sell off city buildings and land that are currently not being used, in order to get them off of the city expense sheet and back on the tax roll.
To solve the transportation problems that Albuquerque is currently facing, Chaves plans to outsource the currently under construction Albuquerque Rapid Transit system to the private sector, a move he believes will allow it to run more efficiently. He plans to replace all parking meters in the city with two hour parking signs, so that the money that was previously going to meters can be spent in small businesses instead, as well as allowing the police to focus on more important issues.
The Chaves campaign believes that Albuquerque Public Schools needs to follow the lead in cutting wasteful they plan to set and undergo a thorough audit and make sure that the money goes to teachers instead of educational bureaucracy. He also plans to continue support of afterschool programs in the city as he believes those programs can augment the shortcomings of the current APS Administration.
Ricardo Chaves wants you to know that he won’t be bought. He isn’t accepting outside funding for his campaign, which includes special interest groups, city contractors and lobbyists. He wants to make the process of awarding city contracts more fair and transparent, which he believes will lead to restored faith in city government.
Dan Lewis (R)
Dan Lewis is a current City Councilor and the Executive Vice President of Desert Fuels Inc, a wholesale petroleum supplier based in Albuquerque. He has served two terms on City Council, originally being elected in 2009 before winning a second term in 2013. He is also the Founding Pastor of Soul Rio Community Church.
To address crime, Lewis’ plan revolves around keeping repeat offenders locked up, by working with state agencies to strengthen laws that keep criminals locked up. He wants to ensure that the police and firefighters have everything they need in order to do their jobs, as well as unifying the city and county departments in an effort to improve efficiency and protect the city. He plans to increase the number of officers on the street to 1200 from the 832 that are currently on the force.
In an effort to create jobs, Lewis will make sure that the city helps small businesses as well as reforming the bureaucracy to prevent it from hindering healthy economic growth. He also wants to make Albuquerque a platform city for innovators and entrepreneurs, so that the city becomes a collaborative launching pad. He wants to improve the city’s infrastructure, including fixing up neighborhood streets and upgrading intersections. He references the new I-25/Paseo Del Norte interchange, which he, along with two other Councilors, helped to put in front of the voters for their approval. Getting young people a seat at the table is also a priority for Lewis, who wants to enable them to start new business so that they can shape the future of the city. He wants to make Albuquerque a leader in sports tourism by partnering with community and business leaders in order to attract a professional sports team to Albuquerque.
Lewis wants to dismantle Albuquerque Public Schools, and replace it with a system that puts the students first. However, Lewis doesn’t elaborate on what exactly that might look like. He plans to allow private industry the opportunity to train and prepare local high school students for jobs in the “entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
In an effort to restore community trust, Lewis will strength the Office of Neighborhood Coordination to help neighborhoods become organized and informed. He also wants to empower the small business commission so that they can provide input on policy that impacts business creation.
Next, he wants to increase transparency in the city government, allowing people access to the information created by city employees except in circumstances where legal matters prevent it. The last part of Lewis’ plan to restore trust is to remove partisan labels from campaigns and City Hall.
Wayne Johnson (R)
Wayne Johnson is currently the County Commissioner for Bernalillo County and the President of Vista Media, a company started by his mother, Nancy Johnson. Johnson graduated from the University of New Mexico with a degree in University Studies.
Johnson doesn’t have a platform on his website, though he does list some of his achievements as county commissioner. However, the links that the Johnson Campaign provides to said resolutions don’t work. He’s passed legislation to ensure transparency in the county, legislation that he says is the strongest in the state. He also passed a bill that allows the seizure of vehicles from people who have previously been convicted of a DWI. He’s also written a number of op-eds for the Albuquerque Journal, which can be found on his website. Many of them are about various ways to help the private sector grow, including various arguments against raising the minimum wage. Johnson also makes arguments for keeping taxes as low as possible.
