Mayor Candidate Questionnaire
This Q&A was submitted to all six 2023 Cloudcroft Mayor race candidates. We published their responses in October. You can read all the Q&A’s here
See candidate answers here:
Note to candidates:
In order to share with the Cloudcroft community why you are running for mayor and why they should vote for you, we are asking for your answers to the following 9 questions. Please keep your answers concise. We reserve the right to edit answers that are more than 650 words in length.
(1) Why do you want to be mayor?
(2) As mayor what will you prioritize as the top issues to address? Why those?
(3) Roughly two-thirds of the homes in the Cloudcroft area are owned by people who do not live here full-time and aren’t registered to vote locally. Many others live in nearby communities and work and own businesses in Cloudcroft. These people pay Cloudcroft taxes and support local businesses and services. They are invested in the community and its health. What role, if any, should they have in the governance of Cloudcroft? How would you address this disconnect?
(4) Cloudcroft has a modest budget and limited resources. What experience do you have managing a multi-million dollar budget? Grant money is one way to add new dollars. Discuss what kind of grants you would seek and how you expect to win them.
(5) In Cloudcroft, making a living wage and finding affordable housing is difficult. The same is true of running a profitable business here. How can the community best create a healthy, sustainable economy that supports local businesses and residents?
(6) Tourism is vital to Cloudcroft. What is your vision of how we attract more visitors year-round and enhance Cloudcroft’s offerings to that market? We have plenty of competition from other New Mexico communities.
(7) A common refrain heard here is, “We don’t want to be another Ruidoso.” Do you believe Cloudcroft could become another Ruidoso even if it wanted to since we don’t have horse racing, casinos, a destination ski mountain, or enough water? Is there a better way to express what should be our aspirations than to say what we don’t want to become?
(8) Water is vital to our community — its quality and availability. What is the current state of the community’s water supply, and what would you do to ensure we have an ample supply of good water in the years ahead? How do you see balancing the tension around very limited water resources against business and community development for high use businesses?
(9) How can people contact you and/or learn more about your campaign?