t's been six years since Carol Robertson Lopez last sat on the council dais at City Hall.

Depending on how the candidate frames the discussion, that's either a long time or a short time ago.

It's a short time when compared to the eight years Lopez served as a District 4 councilor, including stints as mayor pro tem under then-Mayor Larry Delgado and as head of the city Finance Committee. But she prefers to characterize it as a long time since she lost that council seat to first-time candidate Ronald Trujillo, who is now in his second term.

"This is a totally new campaign for me," Lopez said. "When I decided to run again, six years was a long time. I needed to go reintroduce myself to voters."

Before losing the 2006 race by a few votes to Trujillo, Lopez had enjoyed wide margins of victory in council races. In 2002, she received 74 percent of the vote against another first-time opponent, Jon Miller. In 1998, she took 71 percent of the vote against a candidate whose name was on the ballot but had formally pulled out of the race.

Her first attempt at the seat was in 1996, when she lost to Peso Chavez. She also lost a bid in 2004 for a seat in the state House of Representatives.

While Lopez has worked to rebuild name recognition, she said many people remember her from her previous service and from community activities in which she is involved, such as the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market. She also has had visibility as director of the New Mexico Children's Foundation, a job she took in 2008 following a stint working for real-estate developer Don Tishman after leaving the council.

"I have been watching what has been happening in my country like everyone else, and I am worried," she said. "All of us have levels where we are effective, levels where we can make a difference, and I feel that the City Council is the level that I can work at to help restore and rebuild the middle class."

One significant difference between this campaign and the one in 2006, she said, is the level of financial distress among those in her district.

"People are telling me how their hours have been cut where they are working or they have had to take on additional employment," she said. "I hear a lot more stories of what people are going through right now. People are having a tough time in Santa Fe."

Her six-year absence from the governing body sometimes shows up in a lack of knowledge about current details of city operations. For example, Lopez said she thinks it's time for children to get free city bus fare. District 3 Councilor Carmichael Dominguez also thought that was a good idea when he led a council effort to establish the policy several years ago.

Lopez is familiar with the city's economic-development strategies and recent spending. She said she believes the city could build on its previous relationship with a company called Clean Air Systems that was subsequently purchased by Caterpillar.

The local community college established a sheet metal training program to help provide skilled employees for the firm, she said, and now it's time to approach the company again to get more jobs in Santa Fe.

Jobs is one of the issues that has Jon Hendry in her corner. In addition to being president of the New Mexico Federation of Labor and a former official with the local film workers union, Hendry lives in her district and has known the former councilor for about 13 years, he said.

Hendry said he respects Lopez because she understood how the film industry could become an even bigger player in Santa Fe's economy and acted to support it from her council position.

"As a union guy, she was always with us," he said. "She was with us on a [minimum-wage ordinance] and she was with us with affordable housing, and, as a union guy who represents private sector workers, she really got our business."

Lopez said she has leveraged her relationships with state legislators to get attention and money, evidenced in this year's introduction of a resolution in the state House that would order the Transportation Department to study the intersection of Zia Road and St. Francis Drive and make necessary improvements. City officials last year gave the green light for the initial opening of a nearby passenger-train station that has stood unused for several years.

In her spare time, Lopez enjoys growing things in a plot that she keeps at the Milagro community garden off Rodeo Road. She also swims the backstroke in the Senior Olympics.

If she returns to City Hall, she said, she knows she'll be starting from scratch.

"You have to have a good working relationship. I am not part of any clique or any group. I would be a freshman councilor just like everybody else," she said. "I will just have had eight years' experience prior to that."

Carol Robertson Lopez

Age: 62
Education: Bachelor's degree in secondary education from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania; master's degree in education management from New Mexico State University in 1977; working on doctorate in education.
Occupation: Executive director of New Mexico Children's Foundation.
Experience: Chief of New Mexico Department of Transportation procurement office before retiring in 2005; elected twice to City Council starting in 1998, before narrowly losing a bid for a third term in 2006; worked for developer Donald Tishman after leaving office; first ran for council seat in 1996.
Personal: Grew up in Pennsylvania, moved to Santa Fe from Las Cruces. Married to Jeff Case; one adult son; lives with her mother to provide Alzheimer's care.
Campaign info: Publicly financed campaign, www.carolrobertsonlopez.com.