Mayoral field grows to 6

Continued from Page 1

Crum, 48, brings a wide variety of experience to the race. He has owned a laundry mat in San Antonio, a pizza restaurant in San Diego and excavation business in Rio Rancho around a career that included eight years in the Navy, three more in the reserves and a brief tenure as deputy director of the National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque. He also served as he project manager for Access Recovery, a state-run program that took $22.5 million of federal money to help drug and alcohol addicts recover.

“When I took the project over, it was in trouble. It was about six months behind. Morale was pretty low, and contractors hadn’t been paid,” he said. “There were only 150 people being served, and at that point it should have been above 2,000.

“In 22 months, we changed that completely around. When I left that position, there were 9,000 that were served or being served through the program.

“I see that as a confidence builder in being able to handle what is going to be a difficult job. When I worked in that program, I worked with multiple agencies. That’s one of the things a mayor has to do. He needs to be able to adapt and work with folks above personal differences that just happen, to see beyond that and work for the citizens.”

He and his wife, a registered dietician who inspects restaurants statewide, have four children. They have been married for 10 years and lived in Rio Rancho for the past eight.

“Barak Obama wasn’t the only one who was dreaming about becoming president when he was a kid,” Crum said. “It’s something I’ve always had in the back in my mind – to serve in public office, and I’ve groomed my career accordingly.

“I’ve been looking for an opportunity to serve in city government and started bouncing the idea around with friends and colleagues who know me, and it started snowballing. So we started to put a campaign together. This is one that I have my eye on for a long time.”

White got 218 votes in the District 2 city council race in 2006, far behind incumbent Patty Thomas (500) but ahead of Robert J. Gaps (118). White moved to Rio Rancho in 1998 to set up a congressional office for Tom Udall.

He did not return calls seeking comment.

MORE TO COME ON THIS STORY.