Two incumbents and one former candidate running for the second time are vying for the two open Town Council seats in the upcoming Bernalillo municipal elections.
Former businessman Phillip Valverde and former Magistrate Judge Sharon Torres-Quintana are each seeking to retain the seats they first won in 2020 and James Baca, who works for the Sandoval County Bureau of Elections, is looking to earn a seat that eluded him four years ago by 37 votes.
Early voting begins Feb. 6 at Town Hall, while in-person Election Day is set for March 5.
For the incumbents, both expressed a desire to push the government forward after having to deal with Covid issues through most of their prior tenure.
“We had our pandemic and after that, we lost a little bit of time,” said Valverde, 63, who grew up in Bernalillo and owned a tire shop in town for 25 years before turning to politics. “It was a very good learning experience. I’ve just been learning and getting my feet wet. I’m hoping I’ll be able to do at least another term and continue the progress on our existing projects and keep the progress in our town going.”
Bernalillo native Torres-Quintana, 54, who was the magistrate judge for 14 years, added the town is just now getting projects underway that were waylaid by the virus and subsequent economic derailment.
“After Covid hit, everything got behind,” she said. “We’re still on those projects.”
One of the projects that did get off the ground that Torres-Quintana is proud of, she said, is the move to partner with Street Cat HUB to provide spay and neutering services to free-roaming – or feral – cats.
And Valverde said he appreciated being able to bring to fruition a unique skating and bicycle and skating layout in Rotary Park that he helped promulgate. The park features “pump” technology that allows riders and skates to extend their runs.
“We were able to bring something state of the art to the community, something to keep our youth involved,” he said. “It’s been a role model throughout the southwest and through the state of New Mexico. We’ve had other towns calling us, asking where this came from. It’s one of those things, kids using it, they blew up the social media when it came out.’
Providing more recreational opportunities is something that Baca also wants to see continue.
“I’m a new face with some fresh ideas,” said Baca, 54. “My focus would be on the youth in the community. Maybe have more activities, more in the sense of working with the schools for more after-school programs and try to get some programs that every child can participate in. We’ve got some programs but they cost the children some money. Let’s look at trying to get inclusion.”
Both Valverde and Torres-Quintana said in addition to a greater focus on youth activities going forward, infrastructure projects need to be a priority, particularly those dealing with roads and water, as well as continuing to upgrade both the police and fire department facilities.
In the only other slot open on the ballot, current municipal judge Geoffrey Rinaldi was the only one to collect enough signatures to run for that position.