Hull re-elected as Rio Rancho mayor
Rio Rancho Mayor Greggory D. Hull beat back a strong challenge by former mayor Thomas E. Swisstack to retain his seat in elections held Tuesday.
In addition to Rio Rancho, there were elections Tuesday in the villages of Corrales and Los Ranchos de Albuquerque and in the town of Bernalillo.
Results reported for all four elections are complete but unofficial pending canvassing later this week.
Hull received 5,102 votes to Swisstacks’s 4,486. A third candidate in the mayor’s race, newcomer Christopher J. Muldrow, got 479 votes.
Incumbent G. Robert Cook was reelected Rio
Rancho municipal judge, turning back challenger Ramon W. Montoya by a vote of 5,993 to 3,223.
In Rio Rancho city councilor races, incumbent Dawnn Robinson defeated Andrea L. Padilla 902 votes to 456 in District 2; Bob Tyler, unchallenged for the District 3 seat vacated by the incumbent, tallied 1,053 votes; and incumbent Jennifer Flor beat challenger Paul Joseph Howell by a count of 905 to 600 in District 5.
Rio Rancho voters approved a $10 million general obligation bond for road improvements by a vote of 7,624 to 2,187 and approved a $4.1 million general obligation bond for public safety facilities, vehicles and equipment 7,213 to 2,634.
In Corrales, attorney Jo Anne Roake easily defeated incumbent mayor Scott Kominiak, collecting 1,860 votes to Kominiak’s 629. Two other candidates in the mayor’s race, Chanda Vigil and Michael Fleming, received 176 and 65 votes respectively.
The incumbents in Corrales council districts 1 and 3 chose not to seek reelection, opening up the seats to newcomers. In District 1, Kevin Lucero defeated James Ward 260 to 186. M. Lawlor “Mel” Knight, the only candidate in District 3, got 290 votes. Incumbent David Dornburg was unchallenged for the District 4 council seat. He got 243 votes.
A $2.5 million general obligation bond issue for the preservation of farmland, open space and wildlife habitat was approved by a vote of 2,139 to 559.
Three other bond issues on the ballot also breezed to approval.
Voters OK’d $500,000 in general obligation bonds for public buildings; $1.5 million in general obligation bonds for fire protection and public safety facilities, vehicles and equipment; and a one-eighth of 1 percent increase in the gross receipt tax to fund improvements of roads, bikeways, pathways, bridges and drainage structures.
Incumbent Robert J. Maw defeated David H. McMann 132 to 83 in the race for municipal judge in the only contested race in Los Ranchos. The only other offices at stake in the village election were two village trustee seats, and the only candidates for those posts were incumbent trustees Donald T. Lopez and Pablo R. Rael, who were reelected with 176 and 174 votes respectively.
In the town of Bernalillo, 210 voters cast ballots in an election in which none of the candidates, all incumbents, had an opponent.
Reelected were Mayor Jack Torres, who received 210 votes, and town councilors Tina Dominguez and Dale Prairie who got 196 and 190 votes respectively.