County challengers win in MRGCD election

ALBUQUERQUE — Change trumped experience Tuesday night as a wave of voters sent challengers cresting to victory over incumbents in the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District board directors election.

According to unofficial election results, Karen Dunning, an employee of the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority, beat hydrologist and water broker Bill Turner, who had served since 2005. Adrian Oglesby, a water lawyer who works for the Nature Conservancy, defeated third-generation farmer and two-term director Jim Roberts. Both will represent Bernalillo County.

Derrick Lente, a lawyer, professor and water resources manager, defeated farmer Jimmy Wagner and will take his place as the director for Sandoval County. In Socorro County, Chris Sichler won an open seat against Cecilia Rosacker-McCord, Glen Duggins and Joe Lopez; all are farmers.

“The dynamic of the board has switched quite a lot,” Turner noted Tuesday evening. “You’re losing a huge knowledge base. It was five farmers and a hydrologist, and we all six of us knew the district intimately… For sure it’s gonna take these new board members a while to figure out what’s going on.”

Turner had often feuded with the board and MRGCD chief engineer and CEO Subas Shah. He had been endorsed by Conservation Voters of New Mexico, which praised his “commitment to reforming the policies and practices of the MRGCD to make it more open, transparent and responsive.”

In her campaign, Dunning emphasized her ability to work collaboratively and bring a “common-sense approach” to the board.

Dunning enjoyed the support of state Sen. Dede Feldman, who campaigned for both Dunning and Oglesby, on her blog, in her e-mail newsletters and in phone calls to voters. Feldman has long been trying to get MRGCD to implement a formalized system of recreation trails along the irrigation ditches.

Dunning sent two campaign postcards to what she described as a “targeted” list of voters in the district, culled from lists of voters in previous elections and lists given to her by friends, including Feldman. Oglesby also sent mailers.

The effort was noticed by Bill Turner who said late Tuesday night, “I was up against Dede Feldman, not Karen Dunning.”

Turnout for the election was significantly higher than it has been in the past. In 2007, Augusta Meyers beat two other challengers for her Bernalillo County seat with 709 votes. Only 1,801 votes were cast for the position.

On Tuesday night, Dunning beat Turner by about 700 votes of a total of approximately 2,800 cast.

“Partly more people voted just because MRGCD has been in the news more, but part of it was that there were a lot of people who hadn’t been involved before, who became involved,” Dunning said.

“It was mainly a group of people in Bernalillo County who aren’t necessarily irrigators and haven’t voted before because they didn’t have a lot vested. [This time] there was a real awareness of [the idea that] you pay taxes and because you pay taxes, you get a say in how this organization is run,” she said.

MRGCD is responsible for a network of irrigation ditches, levees, diversion dams and drains that stretch from Cochiti Reservoir to the Bosque del Apache near Socorro. It is funded by taxes paid by property owners who live along the river and fees paid by farmers who use ditch water to irrigate their land.

For final election results, go to the MRGCD Web site.

UNOFFICIAL MRGCD Election Results June 2, 2009 9:55 p.m. All polling

sites except provisional Tally Results – By Election