Ledes from the Land of Enchantment

Radio presenter Aragon wants to become a “city manager”

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of profiles the Journal will publish this week of Albuquerque’s mayoral candidates.

Conservative radio host Eddy Aragon is running for Mayor of Albuquerque. The Albuquerque native is the only Republican on the ballot. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis / magazine)

Eddy Aragon is a born salesman.

Born in Albuquerque, he spent about 13 years in the commercial real estate industry, starting out on the IT side, but later discovered he had the soul to sell through a personality test, and eventually brokered deals in the booming Las Vegas, Nevada, 2000s market .

It’s been more than a decade since the recession hit the industry and finally set Aragon on a different path. Back in Albuquerque, he bought a radio station and hosts a conservative talk show every day.

But now the man behind “The Rock of Talk” is back in sales mode, working to convince a city with 75% more registered Democrats than Republicans that he – the only Republican in the 2021 mayoral election – is the best man to be to direct them.

Aragon has never held an elected office, a badge he proudly wears that says he has something in common with former President Donald Trump, a man he admires.

“I don’t need a job,” said Aragon during a press conference in August. “I’m not going to run to be a professional politician. I run to serve the people, the city and the state. “

Aragon, 46, arrived in the race for mayor like lightning during a summer monsoon.

The campaign developed as a two-man race between incumbent Tim Keller and Bernalillo County’s Sheriff Manuel Gonzales, both Democrats, when Aragon decided to launch a voting campaign just weeks before the deadline.

In 14 days, the Republican made himself the third contender for the race by collecting enough signatures and then a few to put his name on the ballot – an accomplishment he attributed in part to his reach as a radio host.

The campaign encountered some early turmoil when a critic attempted to disqualify him from the vote and question his stated residence in the Southeast Albuquerque office building where he broadcasts. Aragon said he lived there – showing a journal reporter the small kitchen and even the futon he sleeps in in a room next to his radio studio – and that his residence was a legal use on the property. He called the legal challenge a “political hit job” for those trying to thwart the dynamics of his campaign. A state judge rejected the petition and confirmed Aragon’s place on the ballot.

His name will appear on the ballot with no party affiliation as the city elections are officially non-partisan, but Aragon has vocalized as the only Republican option on the list.

That may seem counterintuitive – 61% versus 37% – in a district where Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in 2020 – but Aragon believes there is an appetite to recalibrate a local political landscape that he argues that it is leaning too far to the left.

“I will do my best to keep our struggle going so that we can maintain some balance,” he said in a recent Journal interview. “Everything that is great in this country has always been achieved through quarrel, conflict and confrontation, but also a certain amount of compromise that organically results from people presenting their arguments or decisions.”

Aragon actually came to the Republican Party because of a deep bond with the other side.

A graduate of the University of New Mexico with degrees in political science and economics, Aragon was once a college intern in the Washington, DC office of former U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman and said he had spent years of his young adulthood helping fellow Democrats to bring elected offices. He said he worked on campaigns for Tom Udall and former State Representative Raymond Sanchez. He still describes Bernalillo County Commissioner Maggie Hart Stebbins, a Democrat who now serves as the state’s trustee for natural resources, as “the smartest politician in our state, without exception.”

But Aragon said his break with the Democratic Party happened during the 2004 presidential cycle while he was working on Wesley Clark’s bid for the Democratic nomination. Senior Democrats treated Clark, a retired Army general, with open contempt, Aragon said.

“At that point I was done with the party,” he said.

He essentially retired from politics and delved deeper into his commercial real estate career. He worked intermittently in Phoenix and Las Vegas, Nevada, and rode the wave before the Great Recession decimated Sin City’s economy.

He returned to Albuquerque and worked with KIVA Radio (1600 AM), initially as an operator. With the help of his father, a construction supplier specializing in steel laying, Aragon acquired the station in 2014.

Aragon said he had started listening to more talk radio and that the tea party movement in particular had resonated with him and pushed his shift to the right.

“I felt more ideologically connected to some of the things we were talking about – certainly personal choices, freedom, freedom … and seeing the government less and less as part of the solution,” he said.

In his quest for Albuquerque mayor’s office, Aragon has made COVID-19 one of the five cornerstones of its platform – namely, challenging the state government’s public health orders designed to curb the spread of a virus that now has 4,764 deaths in New Mexico. He protested against the compulsory vaccination for entry into the State Fair and described Backstreet Grill as “brave” because the now closed restaurant in the old town refused to comply with the mask requirement. He said he wasn’t vaccinated.

While the courts have repeatedly affirmed the authority of Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s government on such matters, Aragon said he would question her as mayor in every possible way and said the state’s largest city should have some control. He refuses vaccination and mask mandates, saying he would not require urban workers to be injected. It should be a choice, he said.

Aragon said he would love to hire a city-level epidemiologist, but as someone who has been vocal about pandemic-related business closings, what would he do as mayor if the in-house epidemiologist recommended closing some over virus risk?

“We would listen to the scientific evidence from the epidemiologists, but I don’t think they are making the final decision on behalf of the city,” he said.

Aragon claims the government’s response to the pandemic has deprived Albuquerque of its quality of life.

“We all have some level of craziness that comes with COVID and I ask that that be dampened,” he said.

Aragon may never have appeared on a ballot paper for elected office, but he has flirted with politics before. He registered as a candidate for mayoral in Albuquerque in 2017, but later dropped out and pursued the Republican Party’s nomination for this year’s special elections for May 1.

Aragon, father of two young sons, doesn’t actually want the title of “mayor” and would instead call himself “city manager”.

“This is not about you or your political career; It’s about getting a job done for the city of Albuquerque, ”he said.

Aragon said he would take office to get in-depth analysis of existing functions – he speaks of “forensic audits” to assess the efficiency of spending patterns in areas such as public safety, homeless services and even public transportation.

For example, he would work to remove the $ 133 million Albuquerque Rapid Transit project from Central Avenue if it is economically feasible, though he’s still unsure of the feasible number.

He also sees potential for improving morale within the Albuquerque Police Department and advocates changes such as a no-settlement policy and an overtime system that spreads the workload – and extra pay – more evenly across the department.

He wants the city to think differently about employees’ working hours and encourage varied working hours – something that he believes meets the needs of modern workers and has the added benefit of reducing traffic.

“We’re trying to talk about a smart city, but I think it’s pretty unintelligent how we approached some of the issues,” he said. “I think we can improve it if we professionally judge what it is.”

Questions and Answers on Candidate Mayor Edward Joseph Aragon Jr.

Name: Edward Joseph Aragon Jr. Political Party: Republicans AGE: 46 Education: BA Political Science / BA Economics …

September 27, 2021 12:41 PM

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