'Past their due date'? Justin Greene's rivals in Santa Fe mayor's race call out his 'lack of experience'

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10 hours ago

Santa Fe County Commissioner Justin Greene came out swinging Wednesday when he formally announced his campaign for mayor.
Though he didn't drop any names, Greene, now the seventh candidate to jump into the crowded race, asserted some of his rivals are "retired" and "just past their due date" — perhaps not the wisest choice of words in a city with an increasingly growing graying population.
In a wide-ranging interview Thursday on The New Mexican's Around the Roundhouse podcast, Greene, 56, sought to clarify his remarks after being asked whether such a message would resonate in a city where a quarter of the population is over the age of 65 and among the most loyal voters.
Santa Fe mayoral candidate Justin Greene shares his vision for the city and touts his experience
"The point that I was making there is that we need an effective mayor, right?" he said. "Everybody, everybody — even kids that can't vote, right? — have a voice in our governance, right, and talking about the future and talking about things that are needed in the time right now. Right now, we need somebody that's effective, so somebody that's at the peak of their career with the knowledge base, you know, hasn't been sitting on the sidelines for a decade."
Former councilors fire back
Asked which candidates he was specifically referring to who are has-beens, Greene didn't call out anyone by name.
"Some people had run for mayor in the past, and maybe this is time for some new blood," he said.
Two of the candidates, Ron Trujillo and JoAnne Vigil Coppler, are both former city councilors who have unsuccessfully run for mayor. Both were defeated by Mayor Alan Webber, who announced in May he would not be seeking a third term.
"Is that who we're talking about here?" The New Mexican asked Greene.
"I'll let you. Yeah. OK. Thank you," he responded with a smirk.
Vigil Coppler fired back at Greene with a retort reminiscent of former President Ronald Reagan when he was asked during a presidential debate in 1984 if he was too old to be president at age 73.
"If Mr. Greene wishes to display his ego by making discriminatory remarks about a candidate's age, then I am free to exploit his middle-age youth and complete lack of experience," said Vigil Coppler, 71.
During the 1984 debate against Democratic opponent Walter Mondale, Reagan, a Republican known for his sharp wit and sense of humor, quipped, "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."
Vigil Coppler said Reagan's remark remains one of the best lines in American politics, though she noted her remark wasn't plagiarized because it was different.
"I'll tell you something else," she added. "Perhaps Mr. Green is taking a line out of the current mayor's playbook [because] he told one of the department directors that she reminded him of an expired date on a milk carton on the shelf."
Vigil Coppler declined to disclose the director's identity, saying she asked her not to.
A spokesperson for Webber declined comment.
Trujillo, who is the same age as Greene, swung back at Greene, too.
"There's no expiration on fighting for Santa Fe or caring about its future," he said.
Trujillo also noted Greene is campaigning for mayor while serving out his first term as a county commissioner.
"Commissioner Greene serving half a term doesn't make him the expert on who's seasoned or who should run for mayor," Trujillo said, adding he delivered "real results" to his council district during his 12 years in office.
"I fulfilled my commitment to the voters who elected me to three full four-year terms," he said. "I didn't quit on them to chase a higher-profile office."
Greene said he has a responsibility to finish out his term as a county commissioner.
"I'm sure that I can balance both of them," he said, referring to his mayoral campaign and his elective office.
Not the only Spanish speaker
During his campaign announcement Wednesday, Greene also said he believed he is the only mayoral candidate who speaks Spanish, which is false. At least two others, Trujillo and Oscar Rodriguez, a former Taos town manager and Santa Fe finance director, can speak the language.
Rodriguez, whose Spanish is impeccable, unlike Greene's, said he's known Greene "as a friend" for years.
"Now I'm thinking that I regret so much that I was not able to talk to him in Spanish. Had I known, I would have told him about all my consulting experience in Latin America, precisely in the area of city services," said Rodriguez, who repeated his response word for word in Spanish.
Greene speaks closer to what is known as Portuñol in Latin America, or a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese. He said his first second language was Portuguese, which he said he is stronger in than Spanish, primarily because of his Brazilian wife.
When informed by The New Mexican on Thursday that other mayoral candidates speak Spanish, Greene said it was good to know.
"I think that is definitely an aspect that allows us to reach out to different communities across Santa Fe," he said.
As far as saying some of the candidates are past their prime, Greene said he has friends who are seniors who say they wouldn't have the energy to be mayor.
"This is going to be an energetic, hard job to do for four years," he said. "As a county commissioner, I'm super hardworking."
Greene said he attends "meeting after meeting," routinely collaborates with county staff and responds to constituents at all hours of the day.
"I get responses from constituents that are like, 'Wait, did you just email me [on] Sunday morning at three o'clock in the morning?' " he said. "If I'm up, and my phone is near me, I will respond as best I can, and that's just who I am, just a hard worker.
"And so that was the point, there, right? You know, some people when they get to a point in their life, they should enjoy retirement. I'm just not there yet."