Vote Informed about Bicycles and People-Centered Development in ABQ

Pictured from L-R above: Mayoral candidates Mayling Armijo, Tim Keller, Louie Sanchez, Alex Uballez, Eddie Varela

Bicyclists don’t always feel like they have a voice, but at election time, your vote is your voice.  To help you make informed voting decisions, BikeABQ and Strong Towns ABQ hosted a joint City Council Candidate Forum on September 2, 2025, and a Mayoral Candidate Forum on October 7, 2025.  Moderated by Patrick Martin, President of BikeABQ, both events offered candidates a platform to share their experiences, priorities, and plans with constituents - focusing on four areas: biking, housing, transit, and traffic safety.

City Council Candidate Forum

Councilors for odd-numbered city council districts are all up for election this November.  For District 1, the candidates are Arhen Garcia, Daniel Leiva, Joshua Neal and Stephanie Telles.  For District 3, incumbent Klarissa Peña is being challenged by Teresa Garcia and Christopher Sedillo.  The District 5 election has Athenea Allen challenging incumbent Dan Lewis.  Write-In candidate Jaemes Shanley is running against incumbent Tammy Fiebelkorn in District 7.  For District 9, Colton Newman is challenging  incumbent Renee Grout, who did not attend the event. A full transcript of the City Council Candidate Forum is available for further reading and can be searched to find specific candidates’ responses.  Candidates' answers to questions, collated by district, can be found here:  District 1, District 3, District 5, District 7, and District 9.

Mayoral Candidate Forum

The Mayoral Forum was filmed and can be found here.  Candidates Mayling Armijo, Tim Keller, Louie Sanchez, Alex Uballez, Eddie Varela participated.  The remaining candidate, Darren White, did not attend. 

In addition to long format questions, Mayoral candidates were asked yes or no questions, and their answers to these give quick insight into their understanding and stance on issues.  Here's a review of the yes/no questions and answers. 

Will you commit to pursuing the completion of the Rail Trail project on a reasonable time scale?  

Armijo - Y    Keller - Y    Sanchez - N/Y    Uballez - Y    Varela - Y

While 5% of transportation General Obligation (GO) bond funding is set aside for bicycle infrastructure, we at BikeABQ have struggled to identify how this money has historically been spent.  Do you commit to completing an audit of the 5% set aside for bikes for the GO Bond over the last 10 years? 

Armijo - Y    Keller - Y    Sanchez - Y    Uballez - Y     Varela - Y

Do you support the presence of scooter-share, currently Lime and Beam, in Albuquerque? 

Armijo - Y    Keller - Y    Sanchez - Y   Uballez - Y    Varela - Y

Six years ago ART (Albuquerque Rapid Transit) launched service on Central. Do you think it was a good idea to install a rapid transit system on Central? 

Armijo - N    Keller - Y    Sanchez - N   Uballez - Y    Varela - Y

Do you support measures like those currently being considered by the Environmental Planning Commission that would permit duplexes and triplexes in most residential areas?

Armijo - N    Keller - Y    Sanchez - N    Uballez - N    Varela - N

Do you support reducing or eliminating mandatory parking requirements?

Armijo - Y   Keller - Y    Sanchez - Y   Uballez - Y     Varela - Y

Do you support the automated speed enforcement system, the speed cameras?

Armijo - N   Keller - Y    Sanchez - Y   Uballez - Y    Varela - N

In Summary

Both the City Council and Mayoral candidate events were well-attended and insightful.  Hopefully, all voters can glean information from this process to help them make an informed decision before they vote.  The final day for voting is Tuesday, November 4th, the same day as BikeABQ’s next General Membership Meeting at Juno Brewing, 1501 1st St NW in Albuquerque.  Please plan to vote early enough to come to this BikeABQ meeting at 7pm and hear guest speaker, Avi Stopper from https://bikestreets.com/