First lady says husband will keep ABQ moving forward
City deserves better than challenger’s ‘blatantly untrue accusations’
Every four years, Albuquerque voters convene to elect city leaders whose vision best meets the needs of our community. In 2017, my husband and I were humbled when he was chosen by the people of Albuquerque to serve as mayor, and I was honored to assume the role of first lady. To be sure, the challenges in our path were many. Rising crime plagued our neighborhoods and the unhoused population was the highest it had ever been. Despite these challenges, we set out to build a better future for everyone in Albuquerque.
Since he took office four years ago, Tim and his team have built a foundation to combat crime, hiring 100 new police officers each year, tripling the staff in our city’s homicide unit, and creating an innovative new Community Safety Department to respond to some 911 calls with social workers. The city has started on the new Gateway Center to bring integrated, compassionate services to the unhoused. And, when New Mexicans were faced with an unprecedented public health crisis and subsequent economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, this administration stepped up to protect both lives and livelihoods. The city provided care for 10,000 kids of essential workers, delivered over 1 million meals to seniors, and invested $300 million in construction projects to help stimulate small business, create jobs and improve our infrastructure.
I am proud of Tim for all we have accomplished — not just as a family or an administration, but as a community. Unfortunately, another candidate and his team have attacked our family with malicious and unsubstantiated claims about Tim and our police officers. While I am confident that our friends, neighbors and community members are able to see through these blatantly untrue accusations, it saddens me to see their political discourse has become so toxic. As a working mom and champion for civic engagement, I feel that it is important to push back against lies like these, which are designed to turn people away from public service and the political process that belongs to all of us. Our family, and everyone in Albuquerque, deserves better.
Looking ahead to the next four years, there is still much work to be done. As we continue to recover from the pandemic, we will need ongoing investments in housing services, criminal justice reform and good jobs. Now, more than ever, we need a mayor who will address these complex challenges with honesty and integrity, and we need a leadership team with the vision, knowledge and experience to work together for a better future for all. I am incredibly proud of my husband and … of his team’s leadership and unwavering values, and I know I’m voting to Keep Keller on Nov. 2.