Manny Gonzales has had a turn in fortune this last week in campaign contributions and is expected to qualify for public funding in Albuquerque’s mayoral race. As of June 14, Gonzales is now just 152 campaign contributions away from officially qualifying for public funding, according to the latest report from the city clker.
There were doubts that Gonzales would be able to collect enough campaign contributions by the June 19 deadline after weeks of negative press. At a fundraising event on June 2, Gonzales was interrupted by a drone that had a sex toy attached to it. Gonzales later accused the mayor of staging the interruption.
Campaign staffers for Tim Keller also filed an ethics complaint against Gonzales for submitting a fraudulent campaign contribution on behalf of a voter. Gonzales has denied any wrongdoing.
Last week, The Paper reported that Gonzales was still short of the qualifying 3,779 campaign contribution threshold by 1,237 contributions as of June 11. Since then, Gonzales submitted, and the city clerk verified, more than 1,000 $5 qualifying contributions from registered voters. He should easily reach the 3,779 threshold by the June 19 deadline. If a candidate is able to collect 3,779 campaign contributions by June 19, they will qualify for $600,000 in public funding for the mayoral campaign.
Keller has already qualified with 4,119 campaign contributions collected.