Back of Chavez "Record of Pride" t-shirt, paid for by the city

The Albuquerque mayoral campaign is about to enter the final three months, and one of the three men who qualified for and received about $328,000 in public financing has yet to formally declare his candidacy.

While Richard Romero and Richard “R.J.” Berry spend down their cash in active campaigns, Mayor Martin Chavez, as far anybody knows, hasn’t spent a dime of his campaign cash.

But that hasn’t stopped the non-candidate candidate from being out and about on a daily basis, showing up at community events and holding media events throughout the city, in his official capacity as mayor.

A good example is the recent Albuquerque Pride Parade, in which Chavez and top officials from his administration rode on a float that was emblazoned with Chavez’s “Record of Pride” on the side, and was pulled by an official city of Albuquerque truck. In addition to the float, Chavez and his entourage wore t-shirts that said “Mayor Martin Chavez” in big letters on the front, and listed his record of accomplishments in promoting the civil rights of the GLBT community on the back.

The photographs from the event showed up all over local Facebook pages immediately after the event, with the mayor receiving major accolades for his long-standing support of GLBT rights.

The t-shirts were paid for by the city, according to the Mayor’s spokesperson Deborah James, rather than the campaign funds the Mayor has sitting in the bank.

James told the Independent that the float and the t-shirts were legitimately paid for by the city because the Pride parade is sponsored officially by the city — and has been for years.

“It’s a city-sponsored event and it’s normal for the mayor’s name to be used for such things,” she said.

But on closer look at the list of accomplishments on the back of the t-shirt, it’s clear that the aim was solely to promote Chavez’s record, rather than the city’s as a whole.  The list is headed with “Martin J. Chavez’ Record of Pride,” and there’s a significant gap in years, from 1997 to 2003, which covers the period of time that Jim Baca was mayor — after Chavez’s first term.

In 1994, the list states, there was “the First Sexual Orientation Anti-discrimination Executive Order in New Mexico.” In 1995, Albuquerque’s “first Anti-Hate Summit,” and in 1997 “New Mexico’s first hate crimes ordinance that included sexual orientation language.”

Then there’s a jump in the list to 2003, at which time the mayor “enacted city gender identity anti-discrimination policy,” then in 2004 the city became an official sponsor of Albuquerque Pride.

At the top of the list are two undated items. First, there’s the extension of benefits to partners of city employees, and then the Aids Memorial Grove as part of the Bosque Restoration.

The Independent called Baca to find out about his record on promoting GLBT rights during his mayoral administration.

Photo by Cindy Pike

Photo by Cindy Pike

He immediately mentioned the extension of benefits to partners of city employees, and when told that item was at the top of the list under Chavez’s  “record of pride,” he had to go double-check his memory.

On his call-back, he said that city attorney Bob White drafted the employee benefits bill during Chavez’s first term but that Marty “never did anything with it.”

“It was on my desk when I got into office and then about a month or two later I enacted it as a policy,” Baca said. He added, “Not to say he hasn’t done things, he probably has. But he shouldn’t be taking credit for enacting that.”