District 3 candidates court Steve Seeger
Gallup city council runoff election set for April 7

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — The decision on who becomes the next representative of the Northside on the City Council may rest in the hands of one man — Steve Seeger.

Seeger, a local defense attorney, came in third for the position during the city election on March 10, but it could be called third with a bullet since he was only 11 votes behind Pat Butler who came in second. Emmett Bryan Wall came in first with 314 votes.

But all those votes is nothing to ignore, which is why both Wall and Butler would like to see Seeger come over to their side before the runoff election is held.

The city of Gallup called an emergency session of the City Council to adopt a resolution to conduct a runoff election for District 3, between Butler and Wall. All councilors were present except for Jay Azua.

The runoff election is set for April 7 and there will be two District 3 polling places open. Precincts 42, 42A, 43, 44, 45, will vote at Red Rock Elementary School, 1305 Red Rock Drive and precincts 24, 46 and 56 will vote at John F. Kennedy Mid School, 600 Boardman Drive. Both polling places will be open from 7 a.m., to 7 p.m. Absentee ballots may be obtained from the city clerk and an application for an absentee ballot must be completed and accepted by the city clerk before 5 p.m., April 3. The city clerk will accept absentee ballots delivered by mail, or in person by the voter casting the absentee ballot or by a member of the voter’s immediate family, until 7 p.m., April 7.

Early voting will be March 30 through April 3 at City Hall.

Wall said he has tried a couple of times to talk to Seeger but has been unable because of Seeger’s court work. It is something he will definitely be doing in the next few days.

“Our platforms were very similar,” he said, adding that the two had the same stance on most of the issues that came on up the campaign trail. Both were also, he said, preaching the need to bring change to the City Council.

Butler has talked to Seeger since the election and he said that he felt he and Seeger were better fits.

He mentioned that Seeger has been in Gallup for the past 25 years while his family came here 50 years ago. Wall has been back to Gallup less than two years.

“Both of us are businessmen,” he said, “and we both have a financial responsibility to this area.”

Most importantly, he said, in order to have a good council, you have to have stability and he, not Wall, will bring that stability to the city government.

As for Seeger, he’s not saying right now who he will be endorsing.

“I’m not sure I will endorse anyone,” he said.

— Gaye Brown De Alvarez contributed to this article.