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The City of Albuquerque will once again pay to rebroadcast Mayor Tim Keller’s 2025 State of the City address Sunday, Oct. 5, on KRQE — the fifth taxpayer-funded airing since September as he seeks a third term and just two days before absentee ballots are mailed to voters in the hotly-contested mayor’s election.
According to advertising buy records and a city memo obtained by City Desk, the city paid KRQE $7,537.80 to air Keller’s 30-minute State of the City speech, delivered Aug. 23 at the ABQ Biopark Botanical Garden.
The public version of the file normally available from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was not accessible on Thursday due to the federal government shutdown, but an archived version saved by City Desk preserved the information.
City Desk first reported in early September that the city intended to air the speech as a paid advertisement for the city. A city webpage was updated to show other dates for the paid rebroadcast, including on KOAT and KWBQ on Sept. 14, KASY on Sept. 21 and FOX New Mexico on Sept. 28.
A Sept. 12 purchase order from the city, was issued three days after City Desk‘s first reporting on Sept. 9. An accompanying memo from an employee in the mayor’s office acknowledges that the airing falls inside the political window for Albuquerque’s nonpartisan mayoral race, though the employee included a disclaimer saying the broadcast “does NOT communicate a message to any political matter of national importance” and “relates only to local issues.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Keller has aired his annual address by buying TV time. But this time the rebroadcast occurs during the mayor’s contested re-election campaign and his opponents criticized the broadcasts in September as a misuse of taxpayer money during campaign season.
“To use city funds to broadcast something that could be uploaded to the city’s YouTube page for anyone interested is a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars and continues to blur the line between Keller the incumbent and Keller the candidate,” former U.S. Attorney Alex Uballez said at the time.
Former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, another candidate opposing Keller said in a statement at the time, “It’s nothing more than a campaign infomercial for 30 minutes, paid for by the taxpayers.” While filed a complaint with the city’s Board of Ethics specifically citing a line from the speech where Keller says, “For the first time in a long time, we are seeing what is working and now is no time to abandon the progress that we’ve made.” White complained that the messaging was political and the ads provided a taxpayer-funded benefit to the mayor’s campaign. That complaint has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.
Keller’s speech touted crime reduction efforts and announced plans to position Albuquerque as a quantum computing hub.
He faces five challengers in November — former Sandoval County deputy manager Mayling Armijo, retired Fire Chief Eddie Varela, City Councilor Louie Sanchez, former U.S. Attorney Alex Uballez and former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White. Business owner Daniel Chavez dropped out of the race earlier this week.
A city spokesperson reached Thursday for comment did not respond to our questions by print time.
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The post City to air Keller’s State of the City address on local TV, again appeared first on Sandoval Signpost.
