Armijo backs Butler
Councilwoman says she will stump for her one-time district opponent

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — It's no surprise that Councilwoman Mary Ann Armijo is supporting incumbent Pat Butler for the city's southside seat in his March 29 runoff against Harry Mendoza. She acknowledged as much when she made the news official Tuesday afternoon.

Armijo came in third in the March 1 general election for the southside seat, just 22 votes behind Butler, who finished second. Mendoza came out on top, with only five more votes than Butler, but short of the 40 percent either of the candidates needed to win the general election outright.

"(Butler) is a better candidate to continue what we're doing," Armijo said, referring to the two years they've served together of the City Council, he representing the south side of town, she the east.

Butler's historic familiarity with city issues after 14 consecutive years on the council, and their shared emphasis on fiscal responsibility, also made the decision easier, Armijo said.

She plans to back up her endorsement by hitting the pavement once more.

"I am going to knock on doors and I'm going to talk to the people," Armijo said. "I might even campaign even harder this time than I did the first time."

Although voter turnout typically drops between a general and runoff election, Butler will be asking his supporters in the first round to back him up once more. Armijo, in turn, will be encouraging her supporters the first time out to cast their votes Butler's way also, and believes most of them the ones who come out will.

Mendoza says he's not worried about Armijo's endorsement possibly swinging the runoff election his opponent's way.

"Just because she's endorsing someone doesn't mean all her supporters will vote for him," he said. "They're not a bunch of sheep."

Mendoza claims that voters know Armijo entered the race only to split the Hispanic vote between them in order to help Butler cruise to another term, and that they resent it.

Armijo denies the charge, and doesn't appreciate Mendoza's decision to speak for her.

"I don't like anyone speaking for me; I can speak for myself," she said.

Armijo, who was thrown into the southside race by the strange magic of redistricting, is still allowed to serve out the remaining two years of her term representing the east side, the seat to which she was elected in 2003.

Armijo says she decided to run this year so that she might not have to fight the potentially even tougher battle of getting back on the council in 2009, after two years out of office. Although Armijo will have to fight that battle anyway, having missed out on the runoff, she says she has no regrets about her decision to run in 2005.

Mayor Bob Rosebrough, without uttering the precise words "vote for Butler," has also been encouraging voters to stick with the incumbent, impressing on the public the promise of the new guard Butler and the perils of the old guard Mendoza in the press earlier this week and on the radio late last week.

Mendoza thinks or hopes, at least that voters won't like the mayor's decision to get involved in the race, and will take it out on Butler. And with nearly three more weeks of campaigning to go, he'll be trying to shore up his base while wooing his opponent's supporters.

Butler, no doubt, will be doing the same.