CNM election

CNM will elect five members to its board in February

Central New Mexico Community College will have at least one new board member and a new chairman following the February election, based on candidate filings Tuesday in the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office.

CNM’s board is made of seven seats, five of which are up for election.

Michael DeWitte, the current chairman of the board, is not running for re-election following eight years on the board, he said Tuesday.

Michael Glennon, 68, of Albuquerque, and Harold Murphree, 65, of Sandia Park, filed their intent to run for DeWitte’s seat in District 7, an area that includes eastern fringes of Albuquerque and the Joseph M. Montoya campus.

Glennon served as the president of CNM from 1997 to 2000. Murphree is retired from the armed services and served as an assistant professor of political sciences at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Pauline J. Garcia, 68, of Albuquerque, a former CNM and Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education member, is seeking re-election in District 1, an area that includes the West Side campus.

Robert Chavez, 57, of Albuquerque, a retired Albuquerque Police Department lieutenant and current APS employee, also is running for the seat.

Board member Thomas Swisstack, 70, of Rio Rancho, is a former mayor of Rio Rancho and a state lawmaker. He is seeking re-election in District 3, which includes the Rio Rancho campus. He is running unopposed.

Annette Chavez y De la Cruz, 57, of Albuquerque, a former director of the CNM’s South Valley campus who also has held other positions at the school, is running in District 4, a swath of land that includes the South Valley campus. Melissa Armijo, 49, who works at the University of New Mexico, currently holds that seat and is running for re-election.

Nancy Baca, 56, of Albuquerque, a residential property manager and a former journalist who worked in the Albuquerque area, is seeking re-election in District 5, an area that covers much of central Albuquerque and includes the CNM main campus.

She will face Gina Naomi Dennis, of Albuquerque, who the Journal could not reach Tuesday night.