Two of Bernalillo County’s former top cops are seeking seats at the Roundhouse in November, despite being named in a federal indictment as key players in a gunrunning scheme that allowed gun store owners to buy illegal weapons.
Manny Gonzales, a former Democrat and former Bernalillo County Sheriff, is running in the primaries for a State Senate seat on the Republican ticket for District 23, against Republican Terry Lynn Arragon. His former undersheriff, Rudy Mora, is also running on the Republican ticket for State Senate in District 10.
Mora is unopposed in the primary election and will face incumbent Democrat Katy Duhigg in the general election.
Both Gonzales and Mora have previously run for office on the Democratic ticket but switched parties this year.
City Desk ABQ reached out to both campaigns for comment on this story, but calls weren’t returned by press time.
Before seeking a state senate seat, Gonzales swapped parties and announced a short-lived campaign to secure the Republican nomination challenging U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich this fall. Gonzales was disqualified from that race because his campaign didn’t earn enough signatures from Republican supporters to make the primary ballot.
In a KOAT interview when he announced his U.S. Senate race, Gonzales said he switched political parties because he had strong personal convictions and needed to follow his values.
“My decision to run for the U.S. Senate under the Republican banner stems from a deep conviction that our state needs practical, common-sense solutions, not partisan rhetoric,” he said.
From Democrat to Republican
Gonzales was appointed sheriff in 2014 after then-Sheriff Darren White resigned to serve under newly-elected Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry. He later won election twice as a Democrat. Mora served as Gonzales’ undersheriff until 2019.
During his second term as sheriff, Gonzales threw his hat into the 2021 Albuquerque mayoral race but lost to incumbent Mayor Tim Keller by 30 percentage points.
While term limits prevented Gonzales from running for a third term as sheriff, Mora ran for the post as a Democrat in 2022 but was bested by current Sheriff John Allen. Mora then supported the Republican sheriff candidate against Allen.
Speaking with City Desk ABQ this week, White says that it’s always difficult for candidates to switch parties because opponents will accuse them of not really being a member of their new party.
“They’ll have to overcome that,” he said.
Gunrunning indictment
Both candidates are no strangers to controversy.
Last year Gonzales and Mora were named in a federal indictment for helping gun store owners buy and sell over 1,000 machine guns under the pretense that they would be used for law enforcement purposes. Many of the weapons were never received by the agencies and ended up being sold to the public instead. Neither man has been charged, but six others, including former Albuquerque gun store owner James Tafoya, have been.
The indictment states that for 5 years beginning in 2015, Gonzales signed nearly 600 “law letters” so that gun store owners could buy illegal firearms — including machine guns — even though BCSO had already started phasing out the use of these guns in 2013. Mora, who at the time was the Pueblo of Laguna police chief, also signed letters that helped a local gun store acquire over 400 weapons under those pretenses.
White told City Desk ABQ that he believes the candidate’s opponents will use the indictment against them if they make it past the primary election.
“It’s clearly not a positive when you’re running for office that you were somehow involved in basically a gunrunning federal investigation,” he said. “But they’ll counter that they fully cooperated and weren’t ever charged.”
White, who has also run for Congress and has advised numerous Republican candidates in New Mexico, says the onslaught of mailers attacking them for their involvement in that case will be relentless.
Elections fraud and meeting the president
As surprising as the federal investigation may have been, many voters will likely remember another high-profile controversy during Gonzales’ last election.
During his 2021 mayoral bid, Gonzales faced two ethics complaints and was denied $661,000 in public funding by the Albuquerque City Clerk’s office after fake signatures and $5 campaign contributions were found on campaign documents.
An appeal later affirmed the city’s actions.
In 2020, Gonzales, then the Democratic Sheriff, appeared at the White House with former Republican President Donald Trump, to announce the controversial law enforcement initiative — Operation Legend — in which federal agents were deployed to cities across the United States to combat violent crime.
For his part, Mora drew controversy in 2017 for his participation in the investigation of a controversial shooting where his son Joshua Mora — who was a Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputy — shot and killed two people. The incident resulted in a $3.3 million settlement against the county for the deputies’ actions.
Eyes on the prize
Despite the controversies surrounding him, Gonzales stands by his motto to “bring New Mexico values to Santa Fe.”
On May 7, Gonzales’ State Senate campaign reported that it had raised $12,320 in campaign contributions at this point in the primary election cycle.
Gonzales’ top contributor so far is International Protective Services Inc., a large Albuquerque-based private security company run by former Valencia County deputy Aaron Jones. Jones has donated $5,500 to the candidate. Gonzales’ campaign contribution reporting page lists him as compliant with state campaign finance laws.
Mora has raised $21,205.07, with his top contributor as of the last reporting period being Rudy Guzman, who donated $5,200 to the campaign.
The next primary campaign finance report is due May 30.
If Gonzales wins the primary election for State Senate, White said it will come down to how much money his opponent has raised.
“To remind people that he had controversies and that he switched parties,” he said.