District 6 voters are motivated and have good choices

In my view, the story from Monday evening’s Las Cruces City Council District 6 candidate forum wasn’t the candidates. It was the 150 people who showed up to hear the candidates.

At a time when we’re seeing record voter and caucus-goer turnout in the presidential election, I was pleasantly surprised to find an overflow crowd show up to the Methodist Church on Morningstar Drive to hear the council candidates. There wasn’t this much interest in November in forums for the regular city election that included races for mayor, municipal judge and several council seats.

Too see this sort of interest in a forum for one open council seat in a special election was exciting. I hope the interest on Election Day – a week from today – is even greater.

I was also pleasantly surprised to learn from watching the forum that voters have five strong candidates vying to represent them. I left with the impression that any would be a good representative for the district.

• Karen Trujillo comes across as moderate and reasonable, someone who listens but also has strong opinions, someone who believes in serving and cares deeply about her community and, as a real-estate broker, knows on a practical level about the issues the city faces.

• Sharon Thomas comes across as extremely intelligent and articulate, as one who has the knowledge to keep up with city staffers when they’re talking about complex issues or tossing lots of numbers at the council. She’s clearly passionate about bettering her community.

• Lawrence Joy successfully portrays himself as the independent voice in the race who won’t bow to the special interests that are backing Trujillo and Thomas. He convincingly promises open government and to make the residents his priority. His humor makes him approachable.

• Berchard Ray Shipley has the benefit of having dealt with many of the issues facing Las Cruces – with success – when he was a planning commissioner for a fast-growing city in California. He can cite examples of what he’s done when asked about many hot-button issues.

• Patrick J. Curran is the consummate public servant. He’s highly educated, intelligent, funny and articulate. He’s approachable. He’s blunt. As a former magistrate judge, he understands life under a microscope and has the experience to know how government works.

Now here’s the reality of the race: The activists who backed Ken Miyagishima, Miguel Silva and Nathan Small in November – those who say the city’s growth policies need serious revision – are generally behind Thomas. Many business owners, particularly those in the real-estate and other growth industries, are generally behind Trujillo.

But, despite what anyone says, this race does not boil down to a candidate who favors moderate growth versus one who’s anti-growth, or a candidate who favors smart growth versus one who wants out-of-control growth as long as her friends profit. The main issue in the election is growth, but the candidates all have some good ideas about how the city should grow.

To the residents of District 6: This isn’t a race where you would be voting for the lesser of two evils. You have good choices. So get out there and pick one. Vote.

Here’s video of each candidates’ closing statement from Monday’s forum:

Curran