The putative effort to “get big money out of local politics” spent more than $500,000 of left wing cash from every source imaginable (Planned Parenthood?) and the endorsement of not one but THREE Democrats running for president (Bernie, Warren, and Castro at least) it was going to be tough to convince Albuquerque voters to turn down a “mom and apple pie” proposal like “Democracy Dollars,” right?
Thankfully, the Rio Grande Foundation and a small group of ideologically-diverse opponents which included the New Mexico Business Coalition, former mayoral candidate Pete Dinelli, former Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones, attorney Pat Rogers, and a few other individuals and groups worked hard and kept education voters on this terrible idea.
And, as of 10:30pm on Election Night 2019, the “no” side appears to have carried the day: 51.25% to 48.75%. Albuquerque voters may elect liberal candidates and vote for too many bonds for my taste, but they rejected APS’s cash grab back in January and seem to have come through yet again by turning down the left’s attempt to control local elections….Will they try again? Who knows, but for now we celebrate a victory.
Small or large, at least you gained a victory. Hope returns to Alb. once again. Congrats… never let up. Hope springs eternal.
Did I see that the RGF spent the grand sum of $500 in opposition or 1/1000th of what the other side spent?
Actually we spent less than $500 on the Democracy Dollars issue (of course we did a lot of earned media which didn’t count against that total).