Photo by Joey Trisolini

Photo by Joey Trisolini

Albuquerque City Councilor Michael Cadigan withdrew his bid for Mayor of Albuquerque yesterday and endorsed former state Sen. Richard Romero, saying in a prepared statement that Albuquerque was in “desperate need of a change in leadership.”

“I remain steadfast in my belief that Albuquerque is in desperate need of a change in leadership.” Cadigan said. “I endorse Richard Romero for mayor, and I encourage my volunteers to support his effort to obtain the necessary five dollar contributions and encourage voters to contribute five dollars for Richard. It is my hope and belief that Richard will continue the important work on planned growth, reducing wasteful spending, and confronting our crime problems in an honest way.”

In an interview with the Independent, Cadigan said the process of qualifying for the city’s new public financing system was incredibly time consuming and difficult, and may need to be adjusted.

“We found it to be incredibly difficult,” he said. “We were organized and had a strategy for getting out there. We attended a lot of community events, went door to door, held house parties — but if you think about it, most people don’t have $5 on them. I don’t. Not only do people often not have cash or checkbooks on them these days, but many also don’t know about the system so you have to spend a lot of time with them.”

Nonetheless, Cadigan urged in a letter to supporters that they continue to support the public financing system, calling it “the avenue toward clean elections and honest government. The process may have worn me out this cycle, but this does not mean public financing can’t successfully promote clean elections.”

In the lettter, Cadigan also announced he would not seek re-election to the city council this year, citing the personal sacrifice that serving on the council requires.

“Our city and our nation have become cynical about elected officials, and in some cases with good reason,” he said. “However, I hope people will understand that for many elected officials, service is a sacrifice, professionally, personally, financially, and often it is a sacrifice for their families.”

“It is my intent to complete my term on the City Council which ends in December 2009,” Cadigan continued. “I will not seek reelection.”

As his fellow Councilor Debbie O’Malley did Saturday when she withdrew from the race, Cadigan thanked his volunteers but said it wouldn’t be fair to keep them working for ”a goal that is not attainable.”

It wasn’t mathematically possible, he said, for him to meet the deadline for gathering $5 contributions from one percent of the electorate by March 31.