Santa Fe Councilor JoAnne Vigil Coppler, who has only six weeks left in the running for mayor, is stepping up her local roots and extensive government experience to oust incumbent Alan Webber.
Whether she has enough time, money, or voting results to fully outline her campaign remains to be seen.
Benny Montano looks at a flyer for JoAnne Vigil Coppler’s mayoral campaign and speaks to her as she goes door-to-door in Santa Fe on Friday.
Given a significant fundraising disadvantage, as well as a campaign landscape complicated by the pandemic and a third candidate in the running, the councilor is still working in the first term to define what she will do as mayor, despite effectively highlighting what she is saying Webber’s missteps in his 3½ years in office.
Undeterred by the financial inequality or even the notion that their platform is not well understood by many Santa Fe voters, Vigil Coppler remains confident that the race is entering the final stages.
“People who have lived here with me and stood side by side with me, as friends, acquaintances, as bosses and as employees, know me and know what I stand for,” she said. “I had a public figure here in Santa Fe; they know my work. “
Shortly after announcing her candidacy for mayor on March 28, Vigil Coppler suggested that her campaign start shortly after Labor Day. Now that the holidays have come and gone, her schedule is full – she squeezes into meetings with voters and donors between her duties as a councilor.
She said she intends to increase her advertising in the coming weeks, including mailings, flyers, and social media videos.
Your efforts will likely be far more modest than Webber’s, who reported over $ 360,000 in donations last week, compared to Vigil Coppler’s $ 112,000. What these ads will say could become increasingly important in a campaign that until recently played in ethics complaints.
Vigil Coppler said she tried to make positive efforts, noting that of the three ethics complaints filed so far, none have been filed by her.
The first came from candidate Alexis Martinez Johnson, who claimed Webber used tax dollars to promote his campaign by using a campaign email to announce his appearance at a city-sponsored summer spray-down event apply. The complaint was dismissed after the city’s Ethics and Campaign Review Panel determined that Martinez Johnson did not set out a specific violation on which she based her complaint.
Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber, center, gives Police Chief Andrew Padilla (right) a few soccer throw pointers during a city-sponsored cool-off event in Swan Park in July. The mayor faces an ethics complaint from an opponent about promoting the event through his re-election campaign. The complaint was dismissed.
Another came from Webber against the Hispanic fraternity Union Protectíva de Santa Fé and two local veterans groups, claiming the groups had participated in illegal elections on behalf of Vigil Coppler by failing to register as political action committees. The complaint was announced by Webber’s campaign in an email headed “Trump / MAGAOperatives illegally interfering in mayoral election to support Vigil Coppler”.
This complaint was also rejected by the ethics committee.
Webber complained in an interview on Thursday that Vigil Coppler failed to refuse assistance to the people listed in his complaint.
The groups paid for a newspaper ad calling Webber a “Marxist” trying to split Santa Fe. They also circulated social media posts mocking CHART, a city-led effort to address concerns about art, monuments, and history. Some of these posts have been found on courtyard signs across town.
“There’s an old New Mexico saying, ‘Show me who you’re going with and I’ll tell you who you are,'” said Webber. “In this case, it goes to the person on your team. Who are you hugging It’s the facts, it’s not just allegations. They are actual facts. “
For her part, Vigil Coppler said she was not bound by Union Protectiva, suggesting Webber’s complaints were acts of desperation.
“Those are not my values,” said Vigil Coppler. “He takes hold. He throws things away and sees if it sticks. “
The third complaint, which was not heard, was submitted by Union Protectíva, alleging that the mayor was bullying, campaigning funding violations and “general abuse of power”.
But if the first few months of the campaign seemed relatively tame, they seem on the verge of heating up.
A recent flyer circulated by Webber’s campaign picks up Vigil Coppler’s “no” vote on a citywide mask mandate. In the city council meeting in which the issue was discussed, she emphasized her displeasure with a loud “no way” when she voted.
Webber’s flyer offers this ironclad assessment: “We cannot trust JoAnne Vigil Coppler as mayor. Wrong with masks. Wrong in Santa Fe. “
In an interview, Vigil Coppler said her voice was not a voice against masks, but a voice against an unenforceable rule.
“I am against creating laws and regulations that are unenforceable,” she said. “Parts of the resolution were enforceable; there wasn’t much. ”
Mayoral candidate JoAnne Vigil Coppler will review her notes September 13th before participating in a virtual forum with the Santa Fe Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Tension between campaigns also increased during an online forum earlier this month hosted by the Santa Fe Spanish Chamber of Commerce.
After nearly an hour of rather tame and routine discussion of the city’s fate, Vigil Coppler allegedly told Webber that police should resign when protesters pulled the Soldiers Memorial from its base in the plaza in October.
Webber vigorously denied the accusation, claiming that the city council had acted on untruths – city and police officials said at the time the obelisk was destroyed it was the police who decided how to deal with the Indigenous Peoples Day protest. In a city press release the following day, Santa Fe Police Chief Andrew Padilla said the mayor had not issued such an order.
During the forum, Vigil Coppler said she got her information from a source within the police station and later defended her testimony. But she said she thought the claim was relevant to the election.
She disagreed that floating unconfirmed information during a campaign rally amounted to a negative campaign.
“The bigger question was whether that? [order to stand down] be made at all? Regardless of who made the decision, ”she said. “My opinion and that of these seasoned officers with a lot of experience… they disagree. This is not good policing. If you see your cherished plaza being demolished and you tell the police to tear it down, that’s not a good tour. “
Webber vigorously denied Vigil Coppler’s claim.
“I don’t think there is any factual evidence,” he said in an interview. “All of the testimony and public record of communications on that day contradict this claim. I think part of what Leaderboard Picks does is give people a chance to compare records – voting results and accomplishments – and I think that’s what people will look at in this poll. “
Vigil Coppler, who runs her own real estate company after a career largely in government and the judiciary, claims she will be a better manager of the city’s finances than Webber despite voting for the mayor’s 2022 fiscal year .
She claims the city does not have the right management to oversee the implementation of a service-oriented budget and promised to focus on “recruiting the best and most qualified candidates”.
“Maybe we have some of these right now,” she said. “But that’s the key, if you don’t step out of a paper bag, you won’t be effective and lead your people to a better quality of life.”
Speaking at the Candidate Forum, Webber said he would “stand by” what he called one of the most progressive budget in Santa Fe history for providing basic urban services, and cited $ 3 million in funds to repair potholes and cracks Roads, more than $ 1 million for parking improvements and additional funding to train and maintain police and fire departments, and pay increases for city workers.
He also praised his government’s efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in Santa Fe, particularly among the vulnerable homeless population. He is promoting the city’s disbursement of federal COVID-19 grants, despite Vigil Coppler claiming it was an effort by the city council.
But while Vigil Coppler is quick to criticize Webber’s record, Martinez Johnson, the third contestant in the race, notes that every problem Vigil Coppler believes plagued the city under Webber’s administration also happened during her tenure as councilor.
In response, Vigil Coppler said she was “not yet responsible”.
Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber speaks at a press conference at City Hall in June after a lawsuit was filed for the destruction of the Plaza Obelisk.
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