Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales announced Wednesday that he will not seek a second four year term in office. Gonzales said the decision not to run “wasn’t easy.”
The mayor announced the news in an email to supporters, highlighting his accomplishments while in office. The one-term mayor said he wishes to spend more time with his two daughters.
Gonzales’ decision leaves the city’s mayoral election, six months away, wide-open.
While Gonzales didn’t mention his political future, he indicated he will take some time out of public service.
“With one girl starting college and one in middle school, I can’t reconcile being a good full-time Mayor and a good full-time single father, and those two jobs are far too important to compromise either one,” Gonzales wrote.
Gonzales had been mentioned has a potential candidate for governor. There are already four Democrats vying for the party’s nomination.
Gonzales cited another 2,000 jobs in the county, efforts to have the city use 100 percent renewable energy by 2025 and “overcoming a $15 million structural deficit” among his accomplishments.
He acknowledged that “We didn’t win every battle we fought,” citing the soda tax rejected by voters. If it had passed, it would have funded early childhood education efforts.
“Fear of losing, or of losing popularity, isn’t a reason not to try to build something better,” he wrote.
Gonzales is a former chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico and became a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, especially when it came to Trump’s attempts to crack down on so-called “sanctuary cities” and the president’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.
