Berry's Next Step

Christie Chisholm [ Tue Oct 6 2009 10:59 PM ]

After giving his victory speech, Berry said he wanted to "roll up his sleeves" and get to work. He's meeting Mayor Chavez tomorrow for lunch, and one of his first items of business is to sit down with councilors.

He restated the same things he said during his campaign: Crime is his first priority, and he's interested in hearing APD's ideas about how to address it. He wants to trim some fat from the city's budget.

Berry is the first Republican mayor the city has had for a couple decades. After tonight, the Council is going to lean Republican, too. But Berry says he's interested in working with everyone and just "doing what's best for the city."

Berry is the only candidate to publicly say he doesn't support gay marriage. When asked if he'd like to tell the gay citizens of Albuquerque something to ease their concerns, he said "Albuquerque is a great city, filled with great people. I want to be a good mayor to everyone." He did say during his campaign that he had no plans to change the domestic partnership benefits given to city employees.

The room has mainly emptied out, with more people cleaning up wires and cups than waving signs, but the excitement of Berry's supporters lingers.

Public Comments (5)

- simonm
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What the hell? [ Wed Oct 7 2009 2:23 PM ]

Someone told me there was a poll that showed Berry was ahead. I could not believe it, and I still can't believe this guy is a mayor now.
- jerry
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Thank the scared white guy vote [ Wed Oct 7 2009 2:38 PM ]

That and two Hispanic Dems in the race to split the opposition's voting bloc.
Chavez shoulda stayed out like the term limit statute said he shoulda.
- Jessica
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Republican mayor [ Wed Oct 7 2009 2:55 PM ]

As Noz pointed out to me this morning, we've replaced our republican mayor with a republican mayor.
- sloppy
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Chavez wanted to win [ Wed Oct 7 2009 3:22 PM ]

Chavez shoulda stayed out like the term limit statute said he shoulda.
Are you saying that if you were in Chavez's shoes, you wouldn't have tried for another 4 years? The guy wanted to do something, went to court and won. (Would we stop printing Alibis (instead of going to court) if there were a statute that limited freedom of the press?)
Dont' blame someone for running. Chavez can just blame Romero and his argument will be just as good. Nader could have blamed Gore for Nader losing the 2000 presidential election. (Sound twisted? It's all about point of view. Your guy is always the one who should have stayed in, and the other is the one who should have dropped out. It's subjective.)
Quit bitching about an election, and fix elections. Approval voting (easy to explain/understand/audit) and Condorcet voting (geekier) fix the spoiler problem. Democrats and Republicans -- the two parties who complain about spoilers and vote-splitting the most -- could pass voting reform trivially and unopposed, if they wanted to. What are they afraid of?
- jerry
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Me in Marty's shoes ... [ Wed Oct 7 2009 3:43 PM ]

I don't know if I can wrap my head around that one.
Albuquerque residents voted for term limits and Marty went up the chain of command to get them rescinded. He was in a race voters (in 1994 at least) didn't want him to be in. So on that basis he's certainly more of a spoiler than Romero.
Funny how even a "non-partisan" election is totally partisan.