Bernalillo County Commission race: Conflict or coincidence?

Cordova re-election office in same shopping center as early voting site

County Commissioner Teresa Cordova

The location of Bernalillo County Commissioner Teresa Cordova's re-election campaign headquarters in the same South Valley strip mall as one of the county's early voting sites has at least one former county official and a voter concerned.

Al Valdez, who served as a county commissioner from 1989 to 1996 and was in the state Legislature before that from 1980 to 1988, said he thinks Cordova has "manipulated the system in order to get the results she wants."

He said he has heard from people who have used the early voting site in the Goff Plaza at Bridge and Tapia SW, and they tell him Cordova's campaign workers are usually waiting in the parking lot with literature about their candidate. He said that while her office is more than 500 feet from the voting site, as required by law, she is treating the parking lot as her personal political front porch.

Cordova said the commissioners don't recommend the voting sites and that they are not involved in the approval process.

"Reporters from TV and the newspaper have looked into this and they didn't find there was a story here," she said. "We've done nothing improper."

South Valley resident Ronny Chavez said he and his mother were parking at Goff Plaza when Cordova's campaign workers approached the car.

"They were bugging us to walk across the parking lot in the same shopping center to vote early for Teresa Cordova before we went shopping," Chavez said. "I told them that wasn't the purpose of our trip, but they kept pestering until I got aggravated."

He said the Cordova campaign workers offered them pastries and refreshments and kept asking them of they could vote early.

Chavez said both he and his mother are registered Republicans, and don't have any interest in the Democratic County Commission race.

"I happened to drive my mother to that shopping center that day, but she still drives herself every once in awhile," he said. "I think had I not been with her she might have been talked into voting for candidate not of her choosing, and I think there might be other vulnerable people like that. I think it's inappropriate for a candidate to have a headquarters next to a voting place."

Art De La Cruz, one of her opponents seeking the District 2 seat, also is concerned that Cordova is getting an unfair edge in the election because of the location of the site. Andrew Leo Lopez also is seeking the District 2 seat.

"It's concerning when it appears that an elected official is using her position for an unfair advantage," De La Cruz said. "We're running a clean campaign with absolutely no unfair influences. What she has set up over there might be technically not illegal, but it's the appearance that she used her influence to secure this spot that is harmful to the voting public."

Specifically, Valdez said he wants to know which came first, "the chicken or the egg" when it comes to the voting site and Cordova's headquarters. He said Cordova, like all the commissioners, recommend early voting sites to the County Clerk for approval.

Bernalillo County spokeswoman Liz Hamm said Friday that Cordova and a staff member from the County Clerk's office worked independently to find office space in the South Valley, and that it just so happened that both the early voting site and Cordova's office were in Goff Plaza.

"I don't think it's a coincidence that she just happened to find space in the same strip mall," Valdez said. "This isn't the first time she's used her position for personal gain, either."

Valdez was referring to last year's grade-change scandal, in which Cordova requested that her son's English grade be changed so that he could graduate with his Rio Grande High School classmates. The grade was changed by an APS administrator, despite protests from the teacher, and Cordova's son graduated. The change set off a firestorm of controversy and put Cordova on the defensive about whether either she or her ex-husband, former APS board member Miguel Acosta, used their influences to get the grade changed.

Valdez said he and a group of concerned citizens will be protesting at Goff Plaza to let voters know about what he perceives as a conflict of interest involving Cordova.

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