Tim Keller (politician)

Keller was born and raised in Albuquerque, with his two siblings. His father was a founder of Union Savings Bank and his mother was a public school teacher and homemaker. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and following his graduation from Saint Pius X High School, he attended the University of Notre Dame.^[2] Growing up Keller struggled with dyslexia, though he did not discover he suffered from the learning disability until he was in graduate school. He went on to co-found a social enterprise, Digital Divide Data (DDD), which employs and trains disadvantaged persons in Cambodia.^[3] DDD is now also present in Laos and Kenya, and has more than 1000 employees. The organization was ranked by Fast Company magazine as a global Top Innovator and by The Global Journal as one of the Top 100 NGOs worldwide.^[4]

After completing his M.B.A. at the Harvard Business School, he returned to New Mexico where he worked in the community, volunteering for groups that foster economic opportunities in Albuquerque's International District. Keller has served on the boards of the Open Hands Foundation, the Asian American Association, and Albuquerque Southeast Team for Entrepreneur Development. Additionally, Keller spent fifteen years in the private sector, initially in strategic planning for fortune 500 companies and most recently helping Native American governmental financial operations.

Keller was elected in 2008 to represent the people of New Mexico Senate District 17, otherwise known as the International District.[2][3] In the 49th Legislative Session, Keller introduced 30 pieces of legislation passing 8; 4 of which were signed into law by Governor Bill Richardson.[4]

In the 2011–12 50th Legislative Session, Keller introduced 55 pieces of legislation,[5] passed 14 pieces of legislation, and 5 were signed into law by Governor Susana Martinez including reforming the In-State Business Preference that gives local businesses bidding preference on state government procurement. In December 2012, Keller was elected to the New Mexico State Senate leadership as Majority Whip and served two years until resigning after his election to State Auditor.[6]

Keller announced in spring 2013 that he would seek the office of State Auditor.[7] He ran on a platform of transparency and good government policies that would stop fraud, waste, and abuse before it occurs.[8] During the election, Keller released a TV commercial that received national attention for being one of the most innovative and entertaining political ads of this cycle.[9] On November 4, 2014 Keller was elected State Auditor, defeating Robert Aragon, 54%-46%.[10]

Keller served as New Mexico's elected State Auditor from January 2015 through November 2017 when he resigned to assume his role as Mayor of Albuquerque. As Auditor, he primarily focused on helping government work better by providing transparency and accountability for government spending; informing policy choices; and tackling fraud, waste and abuse.^[14]

These initiatives included:

• A special audit of New Mexico's backlog of untested Sexual Assault Evidence Kits, commonly known as “rape kits” ^[15]
• Investigating a lack of oversight, doctored receipts at La Promesa Charter School ^[17]
• Discovering preferential tax treatment and abuse of power which ultimately lead to the resignation and potential prosecution of State Tax and Revenue Secretary [11]
• Money on the Sidelines: Report on Unspent Fund Balances. ^[29]
• Discovering financial mismanagement at the University of New Mexico Athletics Department, costing the institution hundreds of thousands of dollars.[12]
• A financial audit of the New Mexico Office of the Superintendent of Insurance that rendered 31 findings that ultimately lead to a better run agency.[13]

In January 2017 Keller announced his intention to run in that year's Albuquerque mayoral election to fight for a safe, inclusive and innovative city. He stated that he would pursue public financing for his campaign by initially raising thousands of five-dollar donations, and pledged to expand the city's Police Department from around 850 officers to 1,200 if elected.[14] Of the final eight candidates to make the Mayoral ballot, Keller was the only one to receive public financing, collecting nearly 6,000 five-dollar donations from the community, an impressive organizing feat. Keller would receive roughly $380,000 from the city to run his campaign, while his opponents would have no cap to the amount of money they could raise.[15]

In spite of his monetary disadvantage, Keller still maintained his position as the clear front-runner in the race.[16]

Throughout the course of the Election, Keller took part in multitudes of debates and forums, ranging from the standard televised debates for local channels, KRQE [17] and KOB,[18] as well as community based such as MIABQ's Forum for Young People, Young Professionals and Young Families,[19] Dukes Up #RealTalk Forum [20] and the Weekly Alibi's candidate Q&A.[21]

On October 3, Keller topped the ballot with 39 percent of the vote, 16 percentage points ahead of the second-placed candidate, Republican Albuquerque City Councilman Dan Lewis, whom Keller would face in a runoff election in November.[22]

Run-off Election: Seen as the front-runner,[23] Keller continued to garner broad support from across the City, including endorsements from the Fraternal Order of Police,[24] recognition for his bipartisan work as Auditor and Senator,[25] and his pragmatic vision for the City's future.[26]

In the Albuquerque mayoral runoff election in November 14, 2017, Keller defeated Lewis with 62% of the vote.[27] Keller resigned from his position as State Auditor on November 30, 2017.

Keller played quarterback for the Duke City Gladiators for their 2018 season opener.[46][47] A heavy metal enthusiast, Keller was profiled as the “#MetalMayor” by the New York Times[48]; on a podcast with Robb Flynn, he named Chaos A.D. by Sepultura as his favourite album of all time.[49] Tim is also an advocate for Dyslexia awareness after being diagnosed and re-learning various reading and processing skills as an adult.[50] He lives in Albuquerque with his wife Liz and their two children, Jack and Maya.

• List of mayors of the 50 largest cities in the United States

• NM State Auditor
• Timothy M. Keller at New Mexico Legislature