Debbie Jaramillo

Jaramillo was elected mayor after serving six years on the city council. She was Santa Fe's first female mayor.^[1] As a city councilor, she had expressed concern about the gentrification of Santa Fe, which was forcing the primarily Hispanic local population to move out of its historical neighborhoods: "We painted our downtown brown and moved the brown people out", she said in 1991.^[2] She ran on a platform promising to place the interests of local residents above those of Santa Fe's booming tourist industry,^[3] in contrast to the more pro-development policies of the incumbent mayor, Sam Pick.^[4] Her campaign slogans included "Take back Santa Fe!", and in her victory speech she said, "This town is not for sale. It belongs to the community."^[5]

Jaramillo had previously run against Pick for mayor, unsuccessfully,^[4] and her 1994 election was viewed as an upset, since she had been outspent by her opponents and she had trailed in pre-election polls.^[6]

Jaramillo's administration was marked by controversy.^[4][7] She pushed through a plan for the city, assisted by The Trust for Public Land, to acquire the 50-acre (200,000 m²) Santa Fe Railyard property and begin its conversion into a public mixed-use development.^[8] A new police chief, Donald Grady, was hired in an effort to modernize and bring a community policing philosophy to the Santa Fe Police Department,^[7] whose previous chief had been a target of Jaramillo's criticism. However, Grady's efforts met strong opposition^[1] and he resigned in 1996.^[9] Grady was replaced by Jaramillo's brother-in-law.^[10] Since Jaramillo's brother, Ike Pino, was already the city manager, this appointment led to charges of nepotism, although Jaramillo defended her relatives, pointing out that Santa Fe had "always been a community that was related to one another."^[11] Shortly thereafter, Pino was removed from his city manager position by the city council.^[12][13]

In 1998, Jaramillo lost her re-election bid by a decisive margin. The winner, Larry Delgado, was viewed as taking a centrist position between the anti-development policies of Jaramillo and the pro-development policies of Sam Pick, who was also running for mayor again.^[4] Jaramillo received 11% of the vote, behind Delgado's 44% and Pick's 32%.^[14][15]

In 1999, Christine Marie Sierra, a political science professor at the University of New Mexico, produced a documentary about Jaramillo's election, entitled This Town Is Not For Sale!: The 1994 Santa Fe Mayoral Election.^[16][17]