Webber’s second term in office.

Whether it’s a string of late audits, lingering strife over the toppling of the Soldiers’ Monument, lack of affordable housing or the construction of largescale apartment complexes with high rents, some Santa Feans are unhappy — and many lay the blame squarely on the mayor.

“I think it comes with the territory,” Webber said in a brief telephone interview Friday. “I read a lot of political biographies of people I admire — Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt. Everybody in a position of executive responsibility gets criticized, and it’s just part of the job.”

Webber said people who think the November election will be a referendum on him are “sadly misinformed.”

“I’m not campaigning, and each of the people who is running ought to run on their own record of accomplishments and on their agenda for the future,” he said. “It’s really not about me. It’s about each candidate making their best case to the people of Santa Fe.”

The mayor said he was unaware of a push to link him to certain candidates, which he called a “very divisive tactic.”

‘I make my own decisions’

The balance of power on the City Council, which is currently in Webber’s favor, is unlikely to change despite four council seats that are in play.

In fact, Webber’s alliance has the potential to grow.

Only two incumbents are running for reelection, and one of them — District 4 City Councilor Jamie Cassutt — is seen as aligned with Webber and expected to win her race.

Cassutt is running a privately financed campaign against Joel Nava, a political neophyte who jumped into the race late and failed to qualify for public financing.

While Cassutt raised almost $39,500 in the first campaign reporting period, Nava reported only $52 in contributions, money that came out of his own pocket for paper and stickers for flyers.

Cassutt acknowledged she regularly votes in line with the mayor but said that’s generally the case for all city councilors since some 90% of their votes are unanimous.

“There are times that I agree with the mayor, and there are times that I don’t agree with the mayor, and I vote accordingly,” she said. “I make the decision on my votes based on what I feel and what I am hearing is best for my constituency and the community.”

Cassutt said she’s received positive feedback from voters on the campaign trail.

“They have not mentioned whether or not or how the mayor impacts my work,” she said. “I think they recognize that I am a very hard worker for them, that I am an independent thinker, that I make my own decisions and that I do have creative solutions to some of the biggest issues in our community.”

Cassutt’s donors have close ties to Webber.

They include Jarel LaPan Hill, Webber’s former city manager; Mary Freitas, the mayor’s former executive assistant; and Sascha Anderson, a Santa Fe school board member who served as Webber’s spokeswoman during his reelection campaign two years ago.

Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, a Santa Fe Democrat, also contributed to Cassutt’s reelection campaign. He is married to City Councilor Carol Romero-Wirth, who is considered part of Webber’s alliance, too.

District 2 City Council candidate Phil Lucero also received campaign contributions from LaPan Hill, Freitas and Anderson — as well as from Sandra Wechsler, who was Webber’s campaign manager and is now serving as Lucero’s.

“The only person I’m loyal to is my wife,” Lucero said when asked whether he’s an ally of the mayor’s.

Lucero is running against incumbent Michael Garcia, who regularly challenges Webber on the dais.

Lucero said he’s not “Team Webber” but “Team Phil.”

“My opponent tries to tear apart the mayor in the newspaper, but he votes with him over 90% of the time, so to be quite honest, I see a lot of theater on City Council right now,” he said. “I bring a willingness to listen to voters. I bring a willingness to work with anyone.”

Lucero said he’s working with Wechsler because she grew up in the district and has a solid track record of running winning campaigns. He called Anderson, a communications consultant, a paid staffer.

“What [Anderson] does as an elected official is her business, and I don’t agree with her on everything, and I strongly disagreed with her proposal on fiestas at the school board,” Lucero said, referring to a controversial proposal to prohibit the Fiesta Court from visiting public schools ahead of the Fiesta de Santa Fe.

“I have to live my values, and my values tell me that we need to work together to solve problems in Santa Fe and ensure that Santa Fe is both true to who we are as a community with our values and cultures intact,” Lucero said. “We can’t keep people out of our community just because we don’t agree with them.”

‘Look at the votes’

Garcia, who is running a publicly financed campaign, said he’s hearing “loud and clear” as he campaigns door to door that his constituents are not happy with some of the actions of the Webber administration.

“What’s at stake [in the election] is having a community lose their voice,” he said.

“We don’t need a City Council that rubber-stamps a mayor’s administration,” Garcia said. “That is not productive for any type of government, whether it’s this current administration or any future administration. A City Council needs to be independent of the mayor, and the City Council needs to ultimately represent the views and moods of their constituents, not be there advocating solely for the administration’s needs.”

Garcia said some councilors are closely aligned with the mayor while others are “very independent in their thinking.” As an example, he pointed to a recent proposal he and outgoing City Councilor Renee Villarreal sponsored to ban a so-called fee-in-lieu provision at the city-owned midtown campus that allows developers to pay a fee rather than build a certain number of affordable housing units in their projects.

“I would just ask the public to look at the votes to identify who is in what camp,” Garcia said.

Cassutt, Romero-Wirth and Councilors Signe Lindell and Amanda Chavez sided with the mayor in voting down the proposal. Garcia, Villarreal and Councilors Chris Rivera and Lee Garcia were on the losing side.

Michael Garcia said “the evidence is there” that Lucero will be a Webber ally. At a recent forum, Garcia said, candidates were asked whether they would accept any contributions or use any of the mayor’s past or current political consultants in their campaigns, and Lucero and District 1 candidate Geno Zamora answered “yes.”

“That just shows evidence that they are in support of the mayor’s agenda, and that is something that the voters need to be well aware of as they cast their ballot,” he said.

So far, Webber has contributed money to only one candidate: Zamora, a former city attorney who is running for the seat Villarreal is vacating.

“While he hasn’t asked for an endorsement, I do support him,” Webber said.

Asked whether he supports any other candidates, the mayor said he’s been “very careful” to stay out of the election.

“My job is to stick to my knitting and continue to try to get things done for the city,” he said.

Zamora, who also is running a privately financed campaign, has raised nearly $52,000 so far — more than any other candidate.

Zamora said he’s his “own person” when asked whether he is aligned with Webber.

“My desire, part of why I’m running, is to be aligned with a governing body as a whole,” he said. “As a governing body, we need to work together better. We need to make decisions sooner, and we need to get the work of the city done. My alignment is with a strong governing body with nine separate members.”

Zamora is in a four-way race with Alma Castro, Brian Gutierrez and Katherine Rivera.

Gutierrez, a former city planning commissioner, ran for District 1 in 2021 and lost to Lindell, who is perhaps Webber’s strongest ally on the City Council.

“I am an ally of the people of District 1 that we are there to do our service for,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez, who was initially appointed to the Planning Commission by the late Javier Gonzales, described his relationship with Webber as cordial.

“If I see him at City Hall, if I see him at an event, I say hello to him,” he said. “I know he knows my face, but I don’t know if he really even knows my full name.”

The facts, Gutierrez said, point to “a very strong possibility” Zamora will be an ally of the mayor’s if he’s elected. They include Webber’s contribution and Zamora’s campaign staff.

Zamora said his campaign finance report shows he has strong support throughout the community.

He said Wechsler is a seasoned political expert who has won elections for three Santa Fe mayors and dozens of candidates in New Mexico.

“I’ve known my campaign manager’s work for over a decade, and she has the local expertise to help our campaign succeed and serve the people of Santa Fe,” he wrote in an email.

The Webber effect

The District 3 race pits Pilar Faulkner, a Planning Commission member and government affairs liaison, against Louis Carlos, a former Santa Fe police officer and Española police chief who now works as a private investigator.

Carlos said voters he has encountered on the campaign trail are “fed up” with the Webber administration.

“I don’t know if you know what my campaign slogan is, but it emulates the general feeling of the mayor’s failure,” he said.

His slogan — ¡Ya basta! — is roughly translated “enough is enough.”

“I am absolutely not on the same page as our current administration,” he said. “It’s time that people start asking those hard questions and having those hard conversations about how our government, how our elected mayor, is failing our constituents.”

Carlos said only Faulkner can answer whether she would be an ally of the mayor’s, but he noted that some of her contributors “are part of ‘Team Webber.’ ”

“When I started this election, she and I had a very cordial conversation … and she portrayed herself as not being a fan of the mayor,” he said. “I am finding it hard to believe that she’s keeping up to what she led me to believe at the beginning of the campaign.”

Faulkner said she received donations from a wide cross section of people and that voters shouldn’t read anything into a $50 donation from Wechsler.

“I’m not a yes person to anyone,” she said. “If you look at my voting record and some of the things I say and do on the Planning Commission, it’s clear that I don’t follow the party line. If someone tries to tell me to do something and I don’t want to do it, I don’t do it.”

Faulkner said Webber will be a factor in the election.

“Clearly, it’s going to [be a factor] because people are accusing me of being a Webber plant, and I’m not, so obviously it’s playing in,” she said.

The Webber effect was a factor in the last city election two years ago when Abeyta, who was viewed by many as a shoo-in for a second term, lost to Lee Garcia.

“I think that was a huge message, not necessarily to Councilor Abeyta, but to the mayor himself,” outgoing City Councilor Chris Rivera, who also represents the south side district, said of Abeyta’s loss to Republican Lee Garcia in November 2021.

“When [Abeyta] ran for reelection, I think a lot of people thought about his affiliation with the mayor and how close they were, and I think that factored into it,” he said.

Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.

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I’m not campaigning, and each of the people who is running ought to run on their own record of accomplishments and on their agenda for the future. It’s really not about me. It’s about each candidate making their best case to the people of Santa Fe.”

Mayor Alan Webber