Albuquerque city councilors on Monday finally decided how much public financing future council and mayoral candidates will get. 

During their last two meetings, councilors debated and deferred a proposal, sponsored by Councilor Joaquín Baca, to clean up campaign finance sections of the city’s charter. Without any discussion Monday night, councilors approved the proposal on a 7-2 vote. 

YES: Brook Bassan, Joaquín Baca, Tammy Fiebelkorn, Renée Grout, Dan Lewis, Klarissa Peña, Nichole Rogers

NO: Dan Champine, Louie Sanchez

The proposal raises the amounts council and mayoral candidates receive by $0.25. Council candidates will now receive $1.25 per registered voter in the district they are running in and mayoral candidates will receive $2 per registered voter in the entire city. 

There will also be a cap on contribution limits for privately financed candidates. 

“No privately financed candidate shall, for any one election, allow total contributions, including in-kind contributions, from any one person with the exception of contributions from the candidate themselves of more than $2,000 for Council Candidates and $6,000 for Mayoral Candidates,” the legislation states. 

Read more about the proposal and debates here.

Elizabeth McCall covers Albuquerque City Hall and local government for nm.news. She is a graduate of NMSU's School of Journalism and previously reported for The Independent News.

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