Walt Borton, a NM registered Democrat since 1996, was raised in Nebraska and Ohio. He served in the US Navy from Oct 1969 – Oct 1973. Bootcamp was at Great Lakes, Yeoman’s “A” School at Bainbridge and after several weeks helping at the US Naval Hospital prosthetics center in Philadelphia, spent the remainder of his enlistment at the NATO Southern Region Headquarters in Naples, Italy. He studied journalism at Ohio University from 1965-1968 and earned a political science degree from Boston University in 1975.
Walt was college administrator responsible for external affairs and marketing from 1973-1982 in Boston, MA and Ithaca, NY; vice president for marketing, government relations and foundation operations for a public company operating 7 TV stations, 14 radio stations and 50 daily newspapers in 25 states from 1982-1990; and Executive Vice President of an LA based international consulting firm assisting companies adapt digital technology in their “C Suites” from 1990-1992.
An independent consultant in communications, marketing, and fund raising, Walt arrived in Santa Fe in 1996. He’s volunteered on congressional and presidential campaigns; consulted for grass roots movements opposing fracking in the Galisteo Basin, storage of high-level nuclear waste in Eddy County, and public banking in New Mexico, and taught marketing at the Santa Fe College of Art and Design. Walt managed two Santa Fe City Council Campaigns and one mayoral campaign, was a precinct chair in Santa Fe County, is ward and precinct chair in San Miguel County, and was a primary candidate for San Miguel County Commission, D1, June, 2024.