Seated behind an electronic piano keyboard, the candidate looked at sheet music illuminated by two white light bulbs. The dance floor at the Fraternal Order of Police lodge darkened, and the band struck up a tune.

Without a hint of irony, Bill Dimas, a former magistrate, sang backup vocals into the microphone: "Can I get a witness?"

The fundraiser for Dimas' campaign drew a big enough crowd that there was talk of calling the fire marshal. His band, Surprize Package, used the event to stage a final appearance together.

Clad in a black sweater and dark suit, Dimas worked the room before introducing dozens of other candidates for various county and state races who were using his event as a chance to see and be seen. Sounding every bit like the DJ he's been for nearly three decades, he teased a laugh out of the audience.

"We've gone door to door," the City Council candidate said while introducing his energetic wife, Candy Kane. "We've worn out about three pairs of shoes between the two of us."

Dimas, now 66, was 38 when he was elected to an at-large position on the Santa Fe City Council in 1984. He only served about half that term, however, because he realized he needed to earn more to support his family.

"You could not work for the county, or you could not work for the state or you could not work for the federal government. Things were rather limited," he said. "I stayed on the council for as long as I possibly could until it got to a point where I was working three jobs at a time just trying to make it."

He had majored in music at the College of Santa Fe but didn't get a degree, he said, because he was the only student pursuing such a degree, and his teacher quit. He applied for and was accepted to the state Law Enforcement Academy.

After working for the city police department, he worked for the Workers' Compensation Administration as a criminal fraud investigator before deciding to run for a county magistrate position. He was re-elected to two additional four-year terms before retiring in 2006.

Now, he says, he's looking for more to do.

"I think I can do well for some people. It's certainly not for any kind of monetary gain or any political gain, because what do I have left to gain? I am 66 years old. I don't have in mind a higher office or anything like that," he said. "What I've seen is too much soapbox going on at the council. It appears that everybody is trying to get attention to their particular issues, and they get on a soapbox and go on and on and on."

Dimas said he's counting on past name recognition to help him along in the city election race.

"This is different for me. This is a whole different ballgame. When I ran for judge, it was countywide. So, I'm used to dealing with a whole lot more people than just one district. And I feel that when you are elected, you are not elected just to represent a district, but you are elected to represent the whole city of Santa Fe."

Dimas hopes his experience in public safety will benefit the city, he said.

"[Police] have done a great job with the burglary situation and bringing down the burglary rate, but it is only a Band-Aid because they're not really dealing with the issue of what is causing burglaries," he said. "Unfortunately, that is drug abuse."

Aside from his experience presiding over criminal cases that involved drug trafficking, drug use or associated thefts, addiction is a personal issue for the candidate. He's not shy about telling one of the saddest stories he knows, the one in which his daughter died from a drug overdose at the age of 32. She's been gone for more than a year.

"We're not getting at the root of the problem, and we need to start concentrating on getting our drug traffickers off the streets. Police are not putting those people away. But once we start doing that, we're going to see a real decline in property crimes all the way around -- shoplifting, even violent crime will be affected by that," he said. He later added that his research shows the number of arrests for burglary and receiving stolen property last year in the city was more than seven times the number of arrests for drug trafficking.

"That should be the opposite," he said. "Because if you affect that, then your crime rate is going to go down."

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.

Bill Dimas

Age: 66
Education: Santa Fe High School graduate; course work at Adams State College in Colorado and the College of Santa Fe; New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy.
Occupation: Retired.
Experience: Elected three terms as county magistrate before retiring in 2006; city police officer before serving a partial term as a city councilor from 1984-87; former board member of Recovery of Alcoholics Program.
Personal: Lifetime resident of Santa Fe; married to Candy Kane; three adult children.
Campaign info: Privately financed, with $2,000 in loans and $6,000 in contributions, including more than $5,000 from a fundraising dinner and $400 from a retired couple, Bill and Lee Rougemont. Dimas can be reached at 920-4645.