Located in the Northeast Heights, District 4 has two candidates on the ballot for City Council, the incumbent Brook Bassan and incoming candidate Abby Foster.
The district is home to many schools, religious structures and family-owned businesses. Neither candidate responded to the Daily Lobo's request to comment.
Brooke Bassan
The councilor up for re-election is Bassan. Her family has operated restaurants, commercial real estate locations and construction outlets in Albuquerque, including Capo’s Italian Restaurants and Territorial Scaffold Inc. She graduated from the University of New Mexico with a degree in Criminal Justice.
On her website, she expressed concern over the movement to “Defund the Police,” and plans to fight against “Catch and Release” practices in the Albuquerque Justice System in an effort to reduce crime from repeat offenders.
During her time in office, she also sponsored the bill to grant $10 million to small business owners who suffered during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bassan entered District 4 as an elected councilor to represent the area with “more common sense leadership and less political divisiveness,” her website reads.
Her goals for office, according to her campaign website, include reducing crime, supporting small businesses and creating more high-paying jobs for residents of the Heights.
Abby Foster
Foster – the district's incoming candidate – is a licensed attorney and small business owner. Foster decided to run for District Councilor to “tackle Albuquerque’s serious challenges (with) the drive to turn ideas into real action,” Foster wrote on her campaign website.
Foster has a history of practice in adult guardianship law and volunteers for those who are in need of help, including disabled persons and seniors.
If elected, she plans to “attack the root causes of crime and homelessness” by employing the “Housing First” method by first providing housing for homeless individuals in order to continue providing them with the care that they need. Her campaign site details short, medium and long-term approaches to Albuquerque’s homeless rate while preserving standing neighborhoods.
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Foster also states on her website she believes in defending women’s healthcare and plans to continue funding reproductive healthcare practices, stating that she “unequivocally stands with women and strongly supports New Mexico laws that protect a woman’s access to abortion.”
Sadie Hopkins is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com
