the underdog," Jodie Ellis, 22, admitted.
A political science major who served as New Mexico's Youth Governor during his senior year of high school, Ellis expects to win. "But only because I hold myself to the highest of standards."
So far, a total of seven challengers have stepped forward to take on the four incumbents.
Typical political wisdom says that such a large pool of candidates tends to favor those already in office. However, this year is far from typical. The City Council has gotten the reputation of being mired with frequent in-fighting and dysfunction.
Another frequent criticism that also haunts the council -- that the elected body hasn't exerted enough fiscal control over its budget -- is what inspired challenger Ronny Bar-Gadda, an inventor and political novice, to make a bid for a seat.
"Maybe we do need a John Q. Public to step forward and say, 'I'm going to take a fresh perspective here,'" Bar-Gadda said.
After admitting that most of what he knows about the city is from reading the local newspapers, Bar-Gadda noted that his name means "son of luck" in Aramaic.
"Maybe there's something in the stars about that," he said.
As of Friday, the other challengers are bartender Scott Healy, long-time resident Ed Powers, homeless activist Victor Frost, former judge LaDoris Cordell, and attorney Harold "Skip" Justman.
All of the current council members with an open seat are attempting to get re-elected: Mayor Dena Mossar, Vice Mayor Bern Beecham, Councilwoman Nancy Lytle and Judy Kleinberg.
