Daniel Salinas, elected mayor of Sunland Park ... for now
One of the weirdest elections in the country was held in the little border town of Sunland Park on Tuesday (March 6) as a mayoral candidate who is facing charges of extortion defeated a rival who received a lapdance from a topless woman in his campaign office days before voters went to the polls.
Mayor pro tem and city council member Daniel Salinas – the extortion guy — defeated Gerardo Hernandez – the lapdance guy — 637-553 in unofficial results Tuesday night while a third candidate — Jose Luis Hernandez, who is unemployed and whose own parents had a Salinas sign posted in their home – received 66 votes.
Under the terms of the $50,000 cash bond he posted last week, Salinas cannot step foot into Sunland Park’s city hall or talk to any city employees.
So how is a guy facing felony charges going to do his job?
“My attorney has to change some of the bond restrictions that we have right now,” Salinas told KVIA-TV Tuesday night. “It might take a couple of weeks when I hopefully can step foot in city hall.”
But this thing may not be over for a number of reasons.
First, New Mexico law forbids anyone convicted of a felony from holding elected office and Salinas is facing charges that he tried to blackmail Gerardo Hernandez into dropping out of the race.
We’ll get to that later because there are a number of other threads to this story.
Such as the fact that officials from the state auditor’s office have come down to Sunland Park’s City Hall to begin a comprehensive audit of the city’s finances amid charges of mismanagement.
And the Secretary of State’s office says that it found that at least six people who live just across Sunland Park’s city limits in El Paso illegally came into New Mexico and voted early in the mayoral race. On Tuesday, a fifth person associated with a city official was arrested and charged in the voter fraud accusations. A sixth person is still being sought.
Wait, there’s more.
State police recently took city worker Silvia Gomez into custody, saying she approached a couple from Texas who came to city hall looking for a building permit in January and asked them to illegally register to vote if they would cast ballots for Salinas.
The district attorney for Doña Ana County, Amy Orlando, saw so much malfeasance that she asked to have to the election delayed but a district court judge refused her request and the election went off as scheduled Tuesday, although there was a large state police presence at the polls to make sure there were no incidents.
It all makes Putin’s Russia look like Athenian democracy.
Despite the extortion charges and being released on bond, Salinas ended up winning by 84 votes in unofficial results Tuesday night.
But Hernandez says he’ll challenge the results.
“We knew this was going to be a tough race, combating voter fraud and extortion. It’s hard to believe that someone who has attempted to sway the vote by intimidation and supported by illegal voter fraud is elected,” Hernandez told blogger Heath Haussamen Tuesday night. “Where the secretary of state and the district attorney were involved I was ahead 3 to 1. We will challenge since Salinas cannot fulfill the duties of mayor.”
Salinas insists he’s not guilty of trying to blackmail Hernandez, who was caught on videotape that was broadcast by KVIA-TV receiving a lapdance from a topless woman at his campaign headquarters. Hernandez says that two weeks ago he was approached by a Spanish-speaking stranger in the Sunland Park City Hall parking lot who threatened to release a sex video of him if he didn’t drop out of the race. Hernandez refused and then, last week, the video was leaked.
Salinas told KVIA-TV that he suspected that Hernandez was just making up the extortion claims to deflect embarrassment but investigators with the state police and the DA’s office descended twice on city hall and raided Salinas’ home. Last Monday (Feb. 27), they booked Salinas and city manager Jaime Aguilera on charges of conspiracy to commit extortion, tampering with evidence and conspiracy.
Sunland Park, a town of about 14,000, has seen its city government become the butt of jokes on multiple occasions.
Last August, mayor Martin Resendiz admitted in a deposition that he was drunk when he signed nine city contracts with a California firm that’s suing the border town. Technically, Resendiz is still mayor but he hasn’t appeared at city hall for months, officials say.
Then in September, Rep. Mary Helen Garcia (D-Las Cruces) called on the state’s Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) to take the extreme step of intervening and running the Sunland Park city government after she was appalled at the name-calling and backbiting at a city council meeting that degenerated into what the editorial board at the Las Cruces Sun-News called “the Jerry Springer show.”
Now with investigations from the state auditor’s office, the secretary of state’s office as well as the state police in full swing, a spokesman for Gov. Susana Martinez told Associated Press that the state is ready to take over the city should any signs of embezzlement or misspending turn up.
Update 3/7: According to the Sun-News, Salinas will take his oath of office by phone on Friday, given the restrictions he’s under concerning his bond.