Bernalillo County Sheriff Manuel Gonzales said he would run the city of Albuquerque much like his current division if voters elect him to be mayor this fall. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis / )
Prideful of his political prowess, Manuel Gonzales says he has been fascinated by public office since childhood after Richard Nixon’s impeachment.
He said he learned from both watching and his own experience as elected sheriff of Bernalillo County that party lines are not impenetrable barriers.
As a lifelong Democrat, Gonzales has sparked the ire of some within his own party at the company he runs – perhaps most notably former President Donald Trump – but he sees political flexibility as an asset.
When he runs for mayor of Albuquerque, his hometown, he believes voters will too.
“I intend to do something very different from my observation of what is going on in Albuquerque; (that is) bringing people together – whether they are Republicans, Democrats or Independents, “Gonzales said in a recent Journal interview. “I will have the most diverse administration in Albuquerque history, so I believe this will be the most successful administration in the history of the city.”
Gonzales won his campaigns for the District Sheriff in 2014 and 2018 as a Democrat, but said he rarely speaks about his political affiliation.
He disagrees with the more progressive element of the party, but still identifies with its “traditional” worker values and a willingness to raise people in need – as long as the aid provided does not create what is known as “dependency”.
Gonzales, 58, remains a registered Democrat and said he had not considered changing his Republican affiliation.
“Never,” he said. “I never would.”
But his tenure as sheriff has raised questions about his underlying ideology. That includes when he visited the White House last year when Trump and then Attorney General Bill Barr announced a federal crime-fighting initiative targeting select cities, including Albuquerque. A senior New Mexico Democrat, US Senator Martin Heinrich, called on Gonzales to step down as sheriff of the state’s most populous district. Meanwhile, Trump tweeted a thank you message to Gonzales.
And Gonzales hired political strategist Jay McCleskey for his mayoral campaign. McCleskey is best known as a political advisor to former New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, and has also worked with a number of other Republican officials, candidates, and organizations. Gonzales said he hired McCleskey for the campaign because he heard he was “very good” but that if Gonzales won, he would not play a role in the city administration.
The sheriff believes he is more than capable of navigating the political landscape on his own.
“I think I have a political mind,” he said. “I think I’m a pretty good political strategist, otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here and talking to you (as a candidate for mayor).”
Gonzales, 58, would hold the highest office in Albuquerque after decades of law enforcement.
He joined BCSO in 1989, but it was his father – who had worked for the city’s garbage department and ran a lounge in northeast Albuquerque – who encouraged him to consider positions beyond the deputy. In the years leading up to his death in 1995, Gonzales’ father urged his son to consider running for sheriff and also raised the idea of running for mayor. The latter stayed with the younger Gonzales, who said it made sense to him now.
“Basically, I’ve prepared my whole life for it,” he said, citing his years as sheriff, but also his time with the US Marine Corps and his experience with his father’s business.
Should Gonzales beat incumbent Tim Keller and radio host Eddy Aragon on November 2, Gonzales said he would run the town like the sheriff’s office. He would measure his success as mayor by whether crime is falling and the economy is growing.
And in his view, improving the economy depends in large part on making the city safer.
He is running as a “tough candidate for crime” and said his kind of persistent policing is needed in Albuquerque right now. While property crime has declined below Keller, the city is in the middle of a record year for homicides and has seen other violent crimes as well.
Gonzales is the elected chief law enforcement officer for a borough that includes Albuquerque, and his office has – and often does – the authority to conduct operations within city limits. But the sheriff said he took no responsibility for Albuquerque’s crimes. Its staff mainly focuses on the unincorporated areas of the county, leaving the streets of the city to the Albuquerque Police Department, who have roughly three times the number of officers.
“The mayor and the chief of police are responsible for (fixing urban crime). They get very high salaries for this job, ”said Gonzales. “The mayor said this would be his # 1 topic when he took office and he failed miserably.”
APD generally does not arrest people suspected of nonviolent offenses after they settle a federal complaint of poor detention conditions. As mayor, Gonzales said he would change that, arguing that doing so would not violate the settlement agreement. He claims that it is important to “restore” APD power by arresting people for offenses such as trespassing and vandalism.
“You need to be able to do this to mitigate some of these other problems like speeding,” he said.
While the sheriff has presented himself in response to Albuquerque’s criminal swamp, data from his own department suggests that both violent and property crime have increased in his territory by 2020.
Gonzales initially attributed this to the pandemic, telling the Journal earlier this month that COVID-19 lockdowns were causing criminals to change the way they work, citing several examples where his office had seen men “out.” flown in abroad to have sex ”. with children ”with whom they had communicated online.
His office provided the Journal with 2020 figures showing an increase in rape, aggravated injury, robbery, arson and theft, and a slight decrease in murder, burglary and vehicle theft – but with the caveat that the figures were incomplete. The new report also shows that crime will decline in 2021.
Regardless of the numbers, Gonzales said he mostly judges his success based on personal feedback, and he said the personal anecdotes he hears are positive.
“If you ask the public – from whom I always take my information – they say they have never felt so safe in the unincorporated areas,” he said.
As sheriff, Gonzales had long resisted providing his deputies with body-worn cameras, saying his department had different needs and that voters chose him knowing his stance. The New Mexico Legislature finally forced him in 2020 by passing a law making it mandatory.
Now, in addition to using cameras, BCSO has what the sheriff touts as some of the best smartphone-based devices available.
He said that as Mayor of Technology in all city departments, such as B. Priority will be given to planning in order to improve efficiency.
“We need to bring the city of Albuquerque to a smarter city technologically,” he said.
Gonzales also helps make city services like community centers more accessible. Some are currently not open on weekends when Gonzales claims they are most valuable to the general public. He advocates longer working hours, which make them “usable for people when they are outside of working hours, in contrast to the times when the city considers it most convenient for them”.
Gonzales, however, does not support the city’s proposed investment in another type of facility: a new multi-purpose soccer stadium that New Mexico United would play in. Keller suggested the idea of asking voters a question about a $ 50 million stadium loan, and the city council passed a bill in August to ensure it gets to the vote on November 2nd.
Gonzales disagrees with the project, saying the timing is wrong given the city’s crime and homelessness challenges and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“I am for sports. I love exercise in a selfish way. I think a lot of people would want that. But that’s not the way you prioritize (spend), ”he said.
Gonzales’ road to election day was rocky as a widely publicized battle for funding the public election was waged. He spent two months challenging the city clerk’s decision to deny him over $ 600,000 in taxpayers’ campaign money for breaking rules.
The city’s Board of Ethics & Campaign Practices, meanwhile, has fined Gonzales twice after discovering that his campaign violated city law in prosecuting public funds, including providing forged documents.
Gonzales said he was unaware of the fake and bears no responsibility as he has no control over other people’s behavior – just how he reacts to it. He compared it to how he runs BCSO today and how he would lead a city workforce if elected.
“If they go out and commit a crime, it doesn’t mean I have committed a crime,” he said. “But it’s my job to hold them accountable and I’ve been through my entire career.”
The sheriff eventually gave up his pursuit of public funding and is now working with private donations, but said he doubted his campaign would be harmed by the ethics complaints and battle for public funding.
“I have all the confidence that has come from my previous choices and success, and my performance will prevail at the end of this race,” he said.
Questions and answers about candidate for mayoral Manuel Gonzales III
Name: Manuel Gonzales III Political Party: Democrats Age: 58 Education: Wayland Baptist University, Bachelor of…
September 27, 2021 12:49 PM
Comments are closed.