As August Nears WHO is running for mayor and commissioners this fall to lead Alamogordo? Rumors Afloat!

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As August is soon to approach us school begins, the days get shorter and we will soon feel the winds of the municipal election upon us. The city charter states that "the elected officers of the City are six (6) Commissioners, one (1) Mayor, and one (1) Municipal Judge.  All Commissioners, including the Mayor, except as otherwise provided by this Charter, shall have equal voting power, privileges and prerogatives."

Rumors abound about potential candidates for Mayor and candidates for the city commissioners up for election. In addition to the city election in November there is a great possibility that the voters in the County Commission District 2 will decide the outcome of Couy Griffins office due to the recall effort that is presently under way and gathering signatures. 

Around the effort of the recall, AlamogordoTownNews.com reached out to Scott Frederick, the spokesperson for the Recall Couy Griffin Campaign and asked for an update on how the signature drive was going , if they felt pressure of a deadline and when further signature gather events were going to happen. 

Mr. Frederick was quick to respond. "we asked the clerk about our deadline date and it seems we may have a few more weeks to make the November ballot if we get the signatures  in by the first week of September." He continued, "we are asking for a hard date and I will update all parties when we got one. 

We are almost a month into the three month time frame and we are close to a third of the signatures needed. We will send an official statement of an update to all interested parties after next weekend with a 1/3 of the way total."

He further explained they would be in La Luz and Tularosa next weekend but won't announce the details until after the committee leadership meeting on Monday evening.

Interestingly Mr. Fredrick sent the email response with his name and the signature to the email that read:

"Scott A. Fredrick, Candidate for Alamogordo City Commissioner, District 2"

Inquiring minds want to know??? We saw the signature and had to ask Mr. Fredrick, if indeed he was a candidate for the Alamogordo City Commission seat in District 2? He was very quick to respond that, NO he was not a candidate. His response was "NO", he said his only political actions right now "are a commitment to recall Couy Griffin."

AlamogordoTownNews.com believes the signature to his email to have been a mistake, probably by an error in not updating his email system. As such, we moved on, but it did make for some interesting staff dialog, as to if it would complicate things if a member of the recall committee were to also run for office at the same time. 

As such we reached out to the former Committee to Recall Couy Griffin, spokesperson Chez Sanchez and asked him if he was aware of any candidates considering running for the offices coming up for election and rather Mr. Fredrick were considering a run or not? We mentioned we had heard a rumor of him, (Chez Sanchez) potentially running for the elected office of mayor and asked, if he was considering it? We also asked what his thoughts were and would it complicate matters if any person serving on the Couy Griffin recall committee were to run for office? He was kind enough to respond per attached:

"Chris, that is very surprising. I personally have no idea if Scott is or is not running for any office and I would be stunned if the Recall Committee was endorsing him or even knew that it was a possibility.

Yes, if this is true and not some kind of accident, the Recall committee’s job would be much harder. Not to mention that the committee is a non-partisan effort with the sole goal of giving the voters of D2 the opportunity to remove Commissioner Griffin. A run for any office by any current member of the committee would complicate the effort and certainly detract from the committee’s credibility.

I appreciate you calling me a “Republican insider”, but I am definitely not that any longer. But as someone that does pay attention to the local political scene, I will tell you that I am not aware of anyone announcing a run for any office in our area. 

In fact rumors lately have told me that I am supposedly going to run for Mayor this year. Let me assure you that there is absolutely ZERO chance of that happening. I am not now, nor do I intend to be a candidate for any office any time in the foreseeable future.


I hope that covers your questions, for other questions about the committee’s thoughts on this, I would refer you to the Committee Chairman, Everette Brown. I sincerely hope this is some kind of a mistake, this is the last thing the Recall committee needs right now. -Chez"

With that we dispelled any rumor that Scott A Fredrick nor Chez Sanchez is running for office at present. The facts are both individuals have responded that they are NOT seeking elected office this election cycle for the November elections.

We have also heard the rumor that Susan Payne is considering a run for the mayors position and a few other candidates that are lesser known are also in the mode of feeling out their chances. 

We sent a note to Ms. Payne asking for her response and will update the story once we hear from her. 

As for other candidates, the rumor mill is just that at this point, rumor! No papers have yet been submitted, and it does not appear that any formal political action committees, nor candidate committees have yet, to be officially recognized, by the clerks office or the state of New Mexico Secretary of States office but stay tuned. We will keep checking in with the potential players and want to be candidates.

Additionally, stay tuned as the campaign season approaches as we hope to hold a public forum for the candidates and moderate dialog for the various positions to help get public engagement into the process of the political leadership of Alamogordo. 

The next set of leaders will be in very important roles and timing in seeking solutions for educational issues, poverty mitigation, derelict buildings, rising meth problem and vandalism issues, street repairs and expenses to the public, jobs creation and employer recruitment and the overall health, welfare and prosperity for the future of Alamogordo. 

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