Voters in Calexico appear to have recalled the city’s two youngest council members, Raul Ureña and Gilberto Manzanarez. Unofficial results show the recall measures passing with 73.62% and 72.61% respectively.
Calexico is a working-class town along the US-Mexico border, which has experienced its fair share of political turmoil in recent years. Ureña – who is the city’s first transgender elected official – won a seat in 2020 after the last council member was convicted of bribery charges. Ureña won again in 2022, along with political ally Manzanarez. Just months later, the two were served with recall notices.
There has been widespread speculation that Ureña’s gender fluidity motivated the recall effort. Maritza Hurtado, the former mayor and councilmember who led the recall, has flatly denied that charge.
Hurtado accuses Ureña and Manzanarez of being anti-business and anti-police. Their support for a needle exchange program and a homeless shelter downtown have incensed local business owners, who complain that they put social justice policies above their own community. Hurtado has also accused Ureña of violating California law by conducting meetings in Spanish.
Capital & Main’s Evelyn Nieves once described the recall battle as “an intense local power struggle — young progressives versus establishment politicians, social justice warriors versus business owners, upstarts versus the old guard…”
At least in this round, the old guard has won.