“There are no losers,” Miguel Chavez’s energetic wife, Liz, told SFR before the mayoral results were sealed. Chavez, though, was philosophical.

Tico of Tico's Health Food Shop shows off some homemade posole at the Chavez HQ.

“The campaign had a message: to take the money that’s influenced our elections out of the [process],” Chavez, who imposed a $1,000 contribution limit on his campaign, says. He grimaces when he says the newly reelected mayor’s grand contribution total—$170,000, which dwarfs Chavez’s own total of $15,000. “That’s way overboard,” he says.

City council district 1 candidate Doug Nava, who raised the least amount of any candidate at $1,274, takes more issue with the political process itself.

“In four years, if people complain about the economy, they need to realize it’s because they keep electing the same people,” Nava says. Continue reading »

OK, I know we’re Santa Fe and we shouldn’t mess around with Albuquerque politics, but tomorrow is election day and…I can’t help myself. This is, hands down, the silliest 11th hour appeal I’ve ever read from a candidate. You may need to click to enlarge.

For the search engine crawlers, here’s the text of Mayor Marty Chavez’s 10pm, election eve tweet:

I humbly ask u 4 ur vote tomorrow & ur help keeping ABQ moving forward. Click here 2 find your polling place tomorrow: http://bit.ly/138s6h

OK, so set aside for a moment that the Mayor of Albuquerque is writing messages to us as if we were 15 year olds. That’s just annoying and a little bit pathetic. One could even argue it encourages illiteracy. But, no, let’s not go there. Let’s analyze.

Mayor Chavez spells out “tomorrow” not once, but twice, a totally of 16 characters. In order to pay for his double helping of tomorrow, he steals six letters from you and yours. He collects another eight letters by gutting Albuquerque. Then he cuts corners with the prepositions and leaves a single unspent character. Technically, he can claim he’s a pay-as-you-go type of Tweeter, who can come in under budget to boot.

Call me capricious, but if I was a voter teetering between Chavez and challenger Richard Romero, this slimy tweet the night before would’ve pushed me over. But maybe I’m reading too much into it…. (ba-dum-dum).

Former Journal North City Hall reporter Russell Simon filed papers today to run for Santa Fe Councilor Chris Calvert’s District 1 seat.

Running is “something I’ve been thinking about for a while,” Simon, 27, tells SFR. “This is my city; I want to make it better.”

Simon left the Journal in 2007. He now works as a community manager for the family business, WestGate Properties, and under temporary contract for Repower New Mexico, the state outpost for Al Gore’s “climate protection” campaign.

Simon, pictured, says a campaign website and platform will be rolled out in the next couple of weeks.

That clears up any coy speculation. Former Santa Fe City Manager and target-shooting aficionado Asenath Kepler tells SFR she’ll file papers this afternoon to declare herself a candidate for mayor. Kepler will be challenging Mayor David Coss, who’s running for another term.

We published this short quote from SNL-alum and Santa Fe resident Jack Handey’s EIGHT MONTHS AGO on our award-winning election blog SwingStateofMind.com. Back then, Norm Coleman had a 300 vote lead on Al Franken, and shrinking.

Al Franken is an old friend of mine. We worked for many years together on “Saturday Night Live.” You know how there’s a person who can always make you laugh? I could always make Al laugh.

Our politics aren’t totally in sync, but I hope Al wins his recount — if for selfish reasons. If I’m ever in jail in Mexico or Turkey, I’d like to be able to call Senator Franken and go, “Hey, Al, get me out of this.”

That said, I have mixed feelings about Al becoming a professional, full-time politician. I think he’s a brilliant comedy writer. No doubt he’d make an excellent senator, because he’s very ardent and knowledgeable and has a great sense of humor. But it’s sort of like a great baseball player deciding to become a florist or something. He might make a good florist, but damn, he was a really good ball player. Wish he’d play some more ball.

Franken, now the winner of the Minnesota Senate seat, is defunnifying himself (to TPM’s vexation).