Butler wins runoff
Mendoza eyes mayor's seat

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

Gallup City Councilman Pat Butler shares a hug with former opponent Mary Ann Armijo on Tuesday evening after she tells him that he had defeated Harry Mendoza in a runoff election for the Gallup southside district seat. Butler defeated Mendoza 626-510 votes and retains his seat on the council. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

GALLUP — "I'd say that's more than a win; I would say that's an edict," said Pat Butler inside City Hall Tuesday evening, staring at the final vote tally of the day's District 3 City Council runoff election.

At the end of the night, that tally put Butler 116 votes ahead of his rival, Harry Mendoza, and in the same seat he's occupied for the past 14 years on the City Council for yet another term. Butler finished with 626 votes 55.1 percent of the total to Mendoza's 510.

A few minutes earlier, upon unofficial news that he'd won from people who had already visited the precincts that evening, Butler was a little less diplomatic.

"We kicked ass," he said.

"If somebody kicked my ass, I wouldn't be here, too," a friend of Butler's commented on Mendoza's absence at City Hall during the vote tally.

Perhaps it was the sheer exuberance at a hard-fought victory. Perhaps it was a little steam being let off at the end of a bitter runoff election that saw the candidates and Mayor Bob Rosebrough trading harsh accusations for the past month.

Mendoza went negative first with his campaign during the run up to the March 1 general election. That election ended up roughly in a three-way split between Mendoza, Butler and District 1 Councilwoman Mary Ann Armijo, who was thrown into the race by recently redrawn district lines.

None of the candidates secured enough of the vote to win outright, so the top two finishers Butler and Mendoza moved on to the runoff.

Knocked out of the race, Armijo soon threw her support behind Butler, and began encouraging her supporters to back her fellow councilor in the runoff. Rosebrough joined the fray soon after that, slamming Mendoza and praising Butler on the radio and going on to run a series of "open letters" in the local press along the same lines.

"What I like about (the runoff results) is that my people did come out to vote," said Armijo, looking at the votes that came in from the polling station at Jefferson Elementary School, inside the Mossman neighborhood where she lives.

Armijo carried the precinct in the general election. On Tuesday, Mendoza picked up an extra 12 votes there, but Butler picked up an extra 15 to carry it 99-77.

Of the three precincts reporting in the runoff, Mendoza ended up carrying only one at Gallup Middle School as he did in the general election, and gave up the absentee votes to Butler as well.

"I think they helped," Butler said of the support he received from Armijo and Rosebrough. "It didn't hurt."

But he was more interested Tuesday evening in giving credit to the entire City Council than to any individual.

"I think this administration has helped me win," Butler said.

"It's a testament to this administration and past administrations," he continued, calling them "springboards" for each subsequent administration to build from. "And this administration is going to continue to move forward for the betterment of Gallup."

Though thrilled with their victory, Butler and his supporters expressed regret for the harsh tone the election took on.

Though glad it was all over, Armijo said, "I don't know if relief is the word after seeing the division that this caused."

"I wish some of the bad feelings would go away," Butler added.

In his defeat, Mendoza sounded decidedly less than conciliatory.

"They ran a vicious campaign, they tried to discredit me, and it worked," he said.

"He's like a dictator," Mendoza said of the mayor, with whom he traded the harshest words in their ad campaigns. "He wants a council he can control, and that's what he got."

And unlike Butler, who expected a closer race, Mendoza said he was not surprised by the margin of victory.

"After all, I was running against three candidates, I mean three different people," he said, referring to Armijo, Butler and Rosebrough.

The former city councilman and county commissioner also left no doubt about his future political aspirations: "I plan on running for mayor in two years."

Considering Rosebrough's decision to jump into his race with Butler, Mendoza said, it's as though his campaign for mayor has already begun.

By the time Rosebrough is up for reelection in 2007, he said, voters will have felt the full effect of his administration's decision to raise water rates and will realize "that the citizens of Gallup are going to get screwed."

Rosebrough and the council have defended the water rate hikes, which took effect last year, as necessary to pay for crucial improvements to the city's water system.

They also hope they'll show Congress that Gallup is doing its share to curb water use when it comes time to build and pay for the long anticipated Gallup-Navajo water pipeline being haled as the solution to the high desert city's long-term water woes.