eNewMexican

A preliminary scouting report on the mayor’s race

Phill Casaus Commentary

Let’s say you don’t wear an “I Heart Alan” T-shirt to work. We’ll assume a “JVC Is The One for Me” sticker is not on the bumper of the GMC.

Alexis Martinez Johnson’s campaign literature? Maybe it’s still en route or in the mailbox. Or maybe not.

In any case, the following is a bitesized — and probably preliminary — scouting report on the three candidates running for mayor, aimed at the voter who hasn’t yet decided.

Surely, there are a few of you out there.

Alan Webber: The incumbent’s term has been truncated to an extent by a new state election law that pushed the voting cycle back by nearly six months. No matter. There’s not much mystery to what his term has been about.

Early on, he helped engineer a peaceful transition away from an Entrada that had created near-riot conditions in the Plaza before he became mayor. It was a diplomatic feat, and one he probably thought could be replicated with other community flashpoints, like the ugly/infamous/ beloved (you fill in the blank) obelisk, not to mention other monuments that created controversy.

But Webber, as has often happened in his term, got tangled in process — and perhaps, a need to make everyone happy. Result: A butchered attempt at creating consensus to remove the monument, a shocking Indigenous Peoples Day toppling by vandals that angered even some of his supporters, and a laborious attempt to create a reconciliation process that still isn’t off the ground.

For some, he’s a conciliator when he needs to be a hard-knuckled political brawler. For others, he’s calculating and Machiavellian when he ought to be listening.

But Webber isn’t without talking points. His response to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly as it applied to Santa Fe’s homeless, was aggressive and effective. He, like everyone else who had to make decisions during the pandemic, is left with a tough argument — “what we did kept it from being so much worse” — because he can’t directly point to a Lives Saved stat line. But the city’s moves to place homeless people at the midtown campus and other facilities almost certainly kept our numbers from expanding.

Webber has ideas. Oddly, though, many of them don’t widely connect. It’s hard to believe he hasn’t led a charge to renovate Bicentennial Pool and build a south-side aquatic center, if only to quell the loud minority that thinks it lives in Pacific Palisades or Boca Raton rather than Santa Fe. Would new pools cost an arm and a leg? Sure. But so did the Genoveva Chavez Community Center. Nobody complains about the cost now.

There’s always a whiff of race and class when Webber’s detractors — not his opponents, his detractors — talk about him. He’s wealthy and Anglo, and sadly, there will always be a layer of those who reject him on those two factors alone. But if he’s going to win reelection, he’ll need to convince the bigger and fairer hunk of the electorate that yes, he can seize the moment.

JoAnne Vigil Coppler: Her résumé is classic Santa Fe. A native of the city. Hispanic. Female. Accomplished. Well-known in both governmental and business circles. Gets the little things

that matter to some people here.

While she’ll almost certainly be outspent by Webber, she gets indirect, free advertising help from anti-Webber elements like Union Protectíva de Santa Fé, which is happy to hector the mayor from almost every angle.

Vigil Coppler has said she’ll focus on government accountability and transparency and repairing relations with the city’s public-sector unions. Beyond that, there’s little feel for what else she’d do, other than deal a business card that says: I’m not Alan Webber.

That’s her challenge in the next four-plus months — identify where she’d be different from Webber on a policy-and-practice front. Does she believe the city has too many employees? Not enough? Is the Santa Fe Police Department, or any department, being run to her satisfaction? Yes, there are more housing units in town, but a huge hunk are in apartment complexes. Is that really a good mix for the city’s long-term health?

Vigil Coppler may have thoughts on all of the above, but if so, they’re probably known only to those who’ve been tuning into City Council meetings on Zoom for the past 15 months. In other words, maybe a couple hundred people. The clock is ticking, because while she can define who she is, there’s precious little time to explain what she’d do.

Alexis Martinez Johnson:

The onetime Republican candidate for the 3rd Congressional District hasn’t said much since getting into the race. If her congressional candidacy is any indication, she’ll likely be attractive to those who are interested in a GOP-values discussion — though what that might have to do with cutting weeds, refashioning a post-COVID-19 economy or building houses is a bright mystery. The real question, though, is how she plays in a ranked-choice election. Could her voters’ second choice make the difference?

There’s your scouting report. For now.

It’ll be game time soon.

OPINION

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2021-06-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://enewmexican.com/article/281646783098585

Santa Fe New Mexican