{"id":14033,"date":"2010-03-02T20:57:49","date_gmt":"2010-03-03T03:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=14033"},"modified":"2010-03-03T10:46:51","modified_gmt":"2010-03-03T17:46:51","slug":"voters-in-mesilla-elect-a-new-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/03\/voters-in-mesilla-elect-a-new-mayor\/","title":{"rendered":"Voters in Mesilla elect a new mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The Mesilla Plaza (Photo by Sillysocks\/flickr.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

After 12 years as the town\u2019s leader, Michael Cadena is defeated by Mayor Pro Tem Nora Barraza<\/h4>\n

Voters in the Town of Mesilla<\/a> replaced 12-year incumbent Mayor Michael Cadena today, electing Trustee Nora Barraza to lead the city out of its current budget deficit.<\/p>\n

Cadena finished third in a three-way race, with 113 votes to Ella Nelson\u2019s 324 votes and Barraza\u2019s 488 votes, according to Town Clerk Juan Fuentes. The results are unofficial until a canvassing election that will be held at 9 a.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Nora Barraza<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt was a lot of hard work, but it all paid off,\u201d Barraza said this evening. \u201cI know what the issues are and I\u2019m just ready to move forward on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among Barraza\u2019s top priorities, she said, are addressing the city\u2019s budget deficit and improving communication between the mayor, the board of trustees, staff members, residents and business owners.<\/p>\n

Cadena could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

Two seats on the Mesilla Board of Trustees were also up for grabs and were won by incumbent Jesus Caro and newcomer Linda Flores. Caro finished with 451 votes, Flores finished with 423, Kathleen Foreman finished with 314, Christopher Alexander finished with 231, Carolyn Dixon finished with 209 and Dennis Burn finished with 122.<\/p>\n

Caro said he was pleased by his re-election and the victory by Barraza, who has been a trustee for 11 years and is the mayor pro-tem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that things are going to start looking up,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

Cadena had been dogged in recent years by some controversial incidents, including the firing of former Mesilla Marshal Angelo Vega. And in 2007, he was investigated by the district attorney\u2019s office but not charged after a Friday-evening outing<\/a> to the Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino in an unmarked police vehicle.<\/p>\n

The vehicle Cadena drove to the casino is a seized vehicle that federal regulations state can\u2019t be used for any purpose that\u2019s not law-enforcement related. The vehicle\u2019s siren blared when Cadena pulled up to the casino before he drove around other vehicles to the front of the valet-parking line.<\/p>\n

And when police found Cadena in the facility 45 minutes after he arrived, he failed field sobriety tests and they refused to let him drive the vehicle home.<\/p>\n

The district attorney said after investigating that there were no charges to pursue and no policies in Mesilla that prohibited what Cadena did.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople just got tired of what was going on,\u201d Caro said tonight of Cadena.<\/p>\n

Barraza agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the town of Mesilla is ready for a change. Michael had been mayor for the last 12 years,\u201d she said. \u201cThe residents were just ready for a change and ready to go in a new direction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voters in Mesilla replaced 12-year incumbent Mayor Michael Cadena today, electing Trustee Nora Barraza to lead the city out of its current budget deficit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,163],"class_list":["post-14033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-mesilla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}