Voters to pick mayor, 3 councilors

UNM quarter cent tax increase proposal also on ballot

By Eric Maddy
The SCORE

Voters in Rio Rancho today will decide on a new mayor, three city councilors and the immediate future of the University of New Mexico.

Polls open at 7 a.m. in 16 locations representing 17 polling stations city wide, the first time city districts have offered more than one location. There are four locations n District 6, which has 9.467 of the city’s 42,456 eligible voters, and three each in districts 2, 3 and 5, where councilors will face election in two years. Two stations will be set up at Maggie Cordova Elementary for District 1 after officials at St. Thomas Aquinas School decided not to serve as an election site.

The often contentious and expensive campaign might not even end today as for the first time a runoff provision is in place that requires a candidate to get one vote more than 50 percent to prevail.

The city clerk’s office reported Monday that 710 votes had been cast during early machine voting that ended Friday. A total of 447 absentee votes had been logged in at the close of business Friday, including 357 returned by mail and 90 dropped off in person at City Hall.

A total of 941 absentee ballots were issued and will be counted if returned to the clerk’s office by 7 p.m.

Two former mayors, Tom Swisstack and Jim Owen, are among the record field of seven seeking the city’s op elected post. Also on the ballot are Navy veteran Tim Crum, retired Air Force veteran Bill White, small businessman John McKinney, systems analyst Kim Rytter and call center manager Stephen Meyer, who has yet to make a public appearance since the candidate filing day in January. Only White, the president of he Northern Meadows Homeowners Association, has sought public office before, finishing second in the 2006 District 2 city council race.

Another soon-to-be former mayor, Mike Williams, is seeking his third term as city councilor in District 1. Williams, who was promoted to mayor after the resignation of former mayor Kevin Jackson, is in a three-person race against real estate agent Peter Rivas and Rosemary Owen,  an area manager at Radio Shack and wife of the former mayor.

The longest tenured city councilor, Howard Balmer, faces a tough head-to-head race against former police officer Steve Shaw, who served as the interim chief for a six-month stretch in 2004 while the city conducted a national search to find a permanent replacement, current chief Robert Boone.

The District 6 race has three familiar faces who squared off in 2004, when Marilyn Salzman defeated Todd Hathorne by one vote in replacing appointed incumbent Alonzo F. “Lonnie” Clayton. All three are back in 2008 and running against newcomers Kathy Colley and Charles Smiroldo.

Also on the ballot is a proposal to increase sales taxes in the city by a quarter cent to fund infrastructure costs for a proposed new UNM campus in the developing downtown area. The proposal, which if passed would push Rio Rancho’s gross receipts tax rate higher than Albuquerque for he first time, comes on the heels of voter’s approval of increased taxes to fund a branch of Central New Mexico Community College in the city. The two institutions would partner in creating the higher-education facility.