Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Two Tucumcari City Commission seats, District 4 and District 5, are contested in the March 6 municipal election. In both races, the incumbents are seeking re-election and face challengers.
In District 4, incumbent Robert Lumpkin, mayor pro tem, faces challenger Keith Hayes. In District 5, incumbent Todd Duplantis faces a challenge from David Hamilton.
Municipal Judge Joe Ike Dominguez is unopposed in seeking re-election.
Absentee voting and early voting continue through March 2. Voters may request an application to vote by absentee by visiting the city clerk’s office in Tucumcari City Hall, 215 E. Center St., or by calling 575 461-5997 or emailing [email protected]. Those who wish to vote before Election Day may come to the the city clerk’s office during regular business hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Early voters must file an application and cast their vote by voting machine.
The Quay County Sun posed six questions to the commission candidates. Below, in their own words, are their responses. All candidates were required to answer the questions on the spot. The candidates‘ responses are shown in ballot order.
District 4
Keith Hayes
What qualifies you for the office you’re seeking?
I have lived 40-plus years in this community in several business endeavors, not to mention I am a property owner and taxpayer.
What makes you the best candidate?
I may not be the best candidate, but at least I am offering to serve.
What are Tucumcari’s two or three biggest issues?
1. Lack of leadership
2. Streets and utilities
3. City government micro-managing citizens’ lives instead of taking care of the city’s poorly managed business.
What are Tucumcari’s greatest strengths?
There are a lot of hard-working, talented people who choose to live here, because of the climate, schools, fishing lakes, scenery and our laid-back way of life here. It’s a good place to raise kids.
What do you want to see Tucumcari accomplish while you're in office?
We need to promote what we do have here—farming, ranching, tourism, wind and solar energy. The farmers’ market was a big thing at one time.
What should Tucumcari and the city commission do to attract businesses?
We should find something that would move here and flourish. I know of several people interested in aquaponics projects, or fruit- and nut-tree farms as my ninth-grade science teacher suggested years ago. Grape vineyards for wineries would complement the cheese produced here.
Robert Lumpkin
What qualifies you for the office you are seeking?
I have a master’s degree in education, and education training concentrates on subject matter along with connecting with all people. I taught school for approximately 30 years. I worked as a consultant promoting renewable energy in our nation and in our area and continue to work with the departments and leaders in Santa Fe and Washington. I have lived in Tucumcari for 46 years and plan to stay here. I have and will continue to work for the people of Tucumcari and listen to all the people of Tucumcari and the area.
What makes you the best candidate?
I don’t want to get into saying I’m better than anyone else. If someone steps up to run for office, they must feel they have something to offer.
What are Tucumcari’s two or three biggest issues?
It takes revenue to run a city well. There are streets, utilities, quality-of-life concerns, cemetery, safety, aesthetics of the community, law enforcement and more. Our population, our economy, and grants are where we get most of our revenue. We must handle that revenue efficiently to serve the people of the area well.
What are Tucumcari’s greatest strengths?
Our greatest strengths are our people’s fortitude, our location, our water, our cost of living, our climate, our renewable energy resources, and our history.
What do you want to see Tucumcari accomplish while you’re in office?
I would like to see Tucumcari continue to promote Tucumcari as a place to be and to come to, whether it’s for business, for recreation or a place to live. Some of our attractions we should continue to promote are our Route 66 theme, our vacant buildings, our Five Mile Park restoration, our murals, and our events that bring people into the community.
What should Tucumcari and the city commission do to attract businesses?
We should continue to promote our inexpensive properties and other strengths, review our ordinances to make them people-friendly, visitor-friendly and business-friendly. Let as many people as possible know what we have to offer. Tucumcari has much to offer.
District 5
Todd Duplantis
What qualifies you for the office you are seeking?
The present experience I've gained in the past year as the current District 5 Commissioner. However, what experience is required to serve your community? I am very active and involved with our community. I'm invested, not just financially, but emotionally, in Tucumcari. This is not just my home, but my friends and families' home. As long as I have their trust to hold this position, and perform in a positive manner, then I am very much qualified for the office I'm seeking.
What makes you the best candidate?
That is in the eyes of the voters. I'm not going to brag, promise or blow smoke. I learned, while serving in the Marine Corps, that "talking the talk" is not as important as "walking the walk." I'd like to believe I've been doing just that, walking the walk. Tucumcari comes first.
What are Tucumcari's two or three biggest issues?
Roads, Youth Recreation Center, Economy.
What are Tucumcari's greatest strengths?
The people. We are resilient. I've watched negative people renew their love for Tucumcari and become a force for good. Being positive is great but being proactive in your community comes back ten-fold. I've been witnessing that happening for over 40 years. We may bicker, like most families, but we support and defend each other, like all families. Yes, our greatest strength is the people.
What do you want to see Tucumcari accomplish while you're in office?
The same thing I want to See Tucumcari accomplish if I wasn't in office, success. If our community fails, we all fail, not just the commissioners. Tucumcari isn't just a city or a small town, but a community--a community that has grown up together, cried together, endured losses together, celebrated wins together, mourned loved ones together, and greeted the little ones together. And I want to see us rise again, together.
What should Tucumcari and the City Commission do to attract business?
Display our greatest strength, ourselves. When a prospective business stops in to look at Tucumcari, we shouldn't talk about the town dying, because we are far from dead. Everybody that exits off the interstate should be considered a prospective business. You would be amazed at how many business leaders stop here while heading north, east, south or west ... I believe that we should be sending an advertisement out worldwide, asking for businesses willing to invest in a small community. Our greatest asset, our greatest lure is Route 66. We need to use that. No one invests in a company that's losing money while working the stock market. They invest in winners. We are winners. We should advertise that out to the world. I can prove that this works, not promise, but prove.
David Hamilton
What qualifies you for the office you are seeking?
The major thing that qualifies me to be for City Commissioner District 5 is that I have been in business for over 25 years. One of the two businesses that I’ve built here in Tucumcari started out as a small consumer fireworks company called Fireworks Haven Inc. In four years it became one of the largest fireworks companies on the east side of the state that shipped to all 50 U.S. states with a gross revenue of over $800,000. The current startup here in Tucumcari is Hamilton Realty, LLC with over 20 transactions in the first nine months of business, most of those transactions are clients from all over the country that have made Tucumcari their new home.
What makes you the best candidate?
With my experience with the city and two business startups over 20 years I would be able to bridge the gap between new businesses well as current businesses and the city. Businesses require a set of skills that most do not understand. As a business owner of many businesses over the last twenty years I have a unique skill set that will help bring city and business together.
What are Tucumcari’s two or three biggest issues?
A few of Tucumcari’s current issues are the lack of a tax base caused by past city policies that have impacted the city and its population in a negative way. Another issue that I see is the lack of infrastructure in the past years that the city has not taken advantage of that could have slowed or stopped the population drain. If we don’t give our population and the youth of our city the things that they can get in another city they will go somewhere else.
What are Tucumcari’s greatest strengths?
Tucumcari’s greatest strength is its geographical location in the nation with the intersection of Highway 54 from Kansas to the north, I-40 east to west and Highway 209 from Texas to south, to I-25 to the north, we could be a transportation hub for the nation if properly cultivated and nurtured.
What do you want to see Tucumcari accomplish while you're in office?
What I would like to see Tucumcari accomplish while in office is to have a more business- friendly environment that looks to promote new business and the recruitment of large to medium size business to Tucumcari. With this concept I believe we can build our infrastructure as well as tax base, which in the long term will give us a vibrant community that can compete in the 21st century.
What should Tucumcari and the city commission do to attract businesses?
Some of the things that Tucumcari should do is to set up infrastructure funding packages to offer businesses to relocate to Tucumcari or to new business startups “curbs, gutter, fiber optics and tax rebates.” We must remember that many cities across the U.S. will give businesses just about anything to entice them to relocate to their towns. With the understanding that to give a little in the beginning will pay out in the long term.
— compiled by Steve Hansen