Lawsuits, a Fake Profile and a County in Play: Inside Otero County's June 2 Primary Odds on Winners

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. — When Otero County voters finish casting ballots at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2, they will likely have settled most of the county's elected offices for the next four years — not because November is irrelevant, but because in a county where Republican registration runs near 60%, the GOP primary usually is the election.

This year, though, the path to those nominations has been anything but routine. A court has ordered the sitting state Republican Party chair to step down days before she faces a primary challenger who helped sue her. A sheriff's race has been rocked by with a candidate’s residency in question and allegations that a deputy ran an anonymous social-media account to attack rival campaigns out of loyalty to the incumbent administration.

Otero County, New Mexico, a county that Democrats have largely conceded, is producing some of the most combative intraparty politics in recent memory.

Here is a guide to what is actually on the ballot, what the candidates say they stand for, how to vote — and an honest accounting of the political currents swirling around each contest.

A note on sourcing: Candidate platforms are drawn from the campaigns' own websites and public statements. There is no scientific polling being paid for or reported by the campaigns nor media thus; any read on momentum is interpretive, not predictive.

How voting works this year

New Mexico's primary falls on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, with polls open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The county is administered by Clerk Selina Maes; the Clerk's Office is at 1104 N. White Sands Blvd., Suite C, Alamogordo, and can be reached at (575) 437-4942.

A few logistics matter this cycle:

Convenience centers, not assigned precincts. Otero County uses Voting Convenience Centers, meaning any registered county voter may cast a ballot at any of the following Election Day sites — there is no single "your polling place" by address. The June 2 centers, all open 7 a.m.–7 p.m., are:

Sgt. Willie Estrada Memorial Civic Center (800 E. 1st St., Alamogordo);

Tays Special Events Center (2400 N. Scenic Dr., Alamogordo);

Otero County Fairgrounds (401 Fairgrounds Rd., Alamogordo);

Tularosa Public Safety Facility (609 St. Francis Dr., Tularosa); C

haparral Far South Fire Station (827 Luna St., Chaparral);

La Luz Elementary School (99 Alamo St., La Luz);

Mescalero Community Center (108 Central Ave., Mescalero); Cloudcroft High School (10 Swallow Pl., Cloudcroft);

James Canyon Fire Station (2346 US Hwy. 82, Cloudcroft);

Mayhill Community Center (11 Civic Center Dr., Mayhill);

Weed Fire Station (32 Agua Chiquita, Weed);

Pinon Fire Station (4538 Owen Prather Hwy., Pinon);

Timberon Fire Station (27 Bobwhite Cir., Timberon);

Boles Acres Fire Station (10 Sage Ave., Boles Acres);

Burro Flats Fire Station (556 Laborcita Canyon Rd., La Luz);

High Rolls Fire Station (39 Old Railroad Dr., High Rolls).

Precinct 2 (Orogrande) and Precinct 3 (Cienega) are mail-ballot precincts.

Early voting runs from mid-May through Saturday, May 30, at sites including the County Administration Office (1101 New York Ave., Rm. 101, Alamogordo), the Fairgrounds, Inn of the Mountain Gods in Mescalero, and the Chaparral Far South Fire Station. Absentee mail ballots must be received
by 7 p.m. on June 2; secure drop boxes are located at the Clerk's Office, the Tularosa Public Safety Facility, and the Cloudcroft Council Chambers.

Unaffiliated voters can participate. New Mexico moved toward a semi-open primary, voters registered as independent or "decline to state" (DTS) may now choose a major-party ballot in the primary — a change that could matter in a close GOP commissioner and the sheriff’s contests. Independents and other unaffiliated voters who do not opt in during the primary will still vote in November.

Check your personalized ballot. Because the ballot varies by district, voters can pull up their exact races, confirm registration, and request a sample ballot through the New Mexico Secretary of State's Voter Information Portal or the county's voter tools. Enter your address to see whether you are in Commission District 1 or 2 and which judicial divisions apply to you.

The contested races

County Commissioner, District 2 (Republican) — the marquee fight

This is the race that has consumed the county's political oxygen. Incumbent Amy Barela, who until this week also chaired the Republican Party of New Mexico, faces Otero County Sheriff’s Deputy Jonathan Emery, a longtime Otero County Sheriff's Office lieutenant who is retiring from the department.

The contest collided head-on with state party politics on May 27, when Twelfth Judicial District Court Judge Cindy Mercer granted a preliminary injunction (Case No. D-1215-CV-2026-00406) ordering Barela to immediately vacate the party chairmanship.

The order of which there are accusations of her defying also barred Barela, the state party, and two other party figures from using official party channels to favor one Republican over another in any contested 2026 primary. The court grounded its ruling in party bylaws requiring an officer to step aside when running against a fellow Republican for the same office, and found the plaintiffs likely to prevail on the merits. Crucially, one of those plaintiffs was Emery himself — making this both a party-governance fight and a direct campaign clash. The injunction is preliminary, not a final judgment, and remains subject to further proceedings or appeal.

Barela's platform: Barela campaigns on experience as a "proven results" conservative record, emphasizing lower taxes (property taxes increased this year) and restrained county spending, public safety and cleaning up dangerous properties, opposition to state mandates and "government overreach," protection of property rights, and support for small business and the local "way of life." She points to fights against wastewater projects she argues threatened local agriculture and wells, and casts herself as a non–career-politician "fighter" against an establishment status quo.

Emery's platform: Emery, drawing on a long Sheriff's Office career spanning patrol, supervisory and administrative roles, frames his candidacy around integrity, accountability and equal application of the rules — the same themes underlying the lawsuit. He has cast the race as a "David vs. Goliath" matchup and, after the court ruling, said the outcome was a win for the party and the public rather than for himself personally, arguing no one is above the rules. His public messaging leans more on character and good-governance contrasts than on a detailed line-item county agenda.

The currents: More than any policy dispute, this race has crystallized into a referendum on ethics, honesty and trust — whether voters reward a sitting officeholder's record and brand or a challenger's argument that no one is above the rules. The injunction lands as a serious reputational blow to Barela in the final week, legally stripping her of party machinery and a platform, if she abides by the ruling, while handing Emery a "court victory" narrative that reinforces exactly that ethics-and-accountability framing. Visible online sentiment in local outlets and their comment sections has tilted toward Emery and a "time for change" message — but that sentiment may be influenced from out of county Republicans and should not be mistaken for a representative sample. Barela retains real assets: incumbency, name recognition, a donor base, and a well-defined brand among voters who see her as a combative conservative who delivers.

This is the closest thing on the ballot to a genuine toss-up. AlamogordoTownNews.org, again this election cycle, asked its contact at UC Berkely for input and odds making on three local races. Their take on this race was advantage Barela however the wild card is the reaction to the court ruling.
Prediction Election Night Results Barela 53% Emery 47%

While there is no Democrat set to challenge the Republican winner in the primary. An Independent, Evan Ross has said he will run to challenge the Republican nominee in the November General Election.

County Sheriff (Republican) — continuity vs. reform, under a cloud

No race has generated more heat. Three Republicans are competing: Raul Robles (undersheriff), Cesar Ramos, and Geraldine Yazza Martinez.

The contest unfolds against the backdrop of outgoing Sheriff David Black's tenure with Robles as his undersheriff this past year, longstanding cronyism allegations leveled by critics, and the fatal 2024 deputy-involved shooting of Elijah Hadley — the related first-degree murder case against a former deputy was delayed to an August 2026 trial window, suicide rates high at the jail, and issues around the Tularosa Basin Dispatch Authority that resulted in Alamogordo’s withdrawal from the compact.

Raul Robles — the current undersheriff — runs explicitly as continuity and naming Black as his undersheriff, citing more than two decades in law enforcement and pledging to build on the current administration's work; he has indicated he would bring Black on as undersheriff. His stated priorities include expanded rural patrols and visible presence, intensified anti-drug and anti-trafficking operations targeting fentanyl and meth, school and youth safety programs, support for neighborhood watch groups, protection of seniors and vulnerable residents, expanded domestic-violence victim services, wildfire and emergency preparedness, and safer parks and public spaces.

Cesar Ramos — a retired U.S. Border Patrol firearms instructor and former Otero County Republican Party chair — runs as a reform candidate, emphasizing transparency, professionalism, and enhanced deputy training, certification and education. He has been pointedly critical of the current office, citing what he describes as partisanship and mishandling, and favors closer, less adversarial collaboration with federal agencies and commits to weekly open press briefings and a more partnered approach with the press.

Geraldine Yazza Martinez brings arguably the most varied résumé in the field, spanning the military, federal training, county and tribal policing, and her current post atop a municipal department in Tularosa. Born in Mescalero and a registered member of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, Martinez graduated from Alamogordo High School and served in the United States Navy before entering law enforcement. She earned federal certification through the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in 2003 and state certification at the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy in 2008, holds an associate's degree in criminal justice, and is a certified New Mexico peace officer. Her career has included serving as an Otero County Sheriff's deputy, a sergeant in the narcotics unit, work with the Otero County District Attorney's Office, and service as a Mescalero tribal resource officer. In 2021 she became the first female undersheriff of Lincoln County, where she was a visible figure during the area's major wildfires, and she currently serves as the first female Chief of Police of the Village of Tularosa — a department she has been credited with helping professionalize after a period of turmoil. She centers her campaign on rebuilding public trust through transparency better relations with the media and the public, a more collaborative internal culture, interagency cooperation, and accountability, and her tribal and regional ties may carry particular resonance in Mescalero and outlying communities.

The currents: The race took an ugly turn in late May when Alamogordo Town News reported that a Sheriff's Office deputy had allegedly operated a fake social-media profile attacking opponents of the Black/Robles ticket, and called on Black and Robles to condemn it. Neither Black nor Robles publicly responded, while Yazza Martinez was the only candidate to address the matter directly — urging supporters not to retaliate and cautioning against judging the whole office by one person's conduct. At a May 5 candidate forum, Robles did not attend and sent no representative, while Ramos and Yazza Martinez drew praise for a civil, substantive exchange.

An undersheriff backed by the sitting sheriff would normally start as front-runner, but the controversy, the Hadley case shadow, and a three-way split raise the odds of a sub-50% plurality winner and give the reform lane real oxygen. This is a genuine toss-up. Our UC Berkely contact has been following the race. His take on this race is slight advantage Martinez. Prediction Election Night Results Martinez in a tight race by a 1% margin.

Magistrate Judge, Division 2 (Republican) — the race that wasn't supposed to make news

The county's one contested judicial primary pits incumbent Albert R. Greene III against challenger Joseph W. Cutts. Magistrate judges handle misdemeanors, DWI and traffic cases, and felony preliminary hearings; the role is nonpartisan in function but runs on a partisan primary track traditionally held by Republicans.

Greene has held the seat since October 2023, when he was appointed him to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Judge Michael Ryan Suggs. His legal background is extensive: a bachelor's degree from Drew University and a law degree from Quinnipiac University School of Law, early work as a public defender in Chaves and Doña Ana counties, more than a decade in private civil and criminal practice, and senior-attorney roles with the Twelfth Judicial District Attorney's Office and the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, plus a stint as the district's domestic relations hearing officer before taking the bench.

Public information on Cutts's professional background and judicial philosophy is comparatively thin, and his experience is primarily in the area of probation. His campaign has run largely through social media, with appearances at Republican forums and limited independent press engagement.

Judicial primaries in Otero County are normally low-key, even sleepy affairs decided on résumé and temperament. This one has not stayed that way. The contest has been marked by unusually sharp acrimony — not so much between the candidates themselves as among their supporters online. According to accounts circulating in the community, attacks against Greene have at times focused on his family rather than his record, with much of that activity attributed to supporters aligned with Cutts. Most seriously, a third party is said to have posted an online threat directed at the judge's family. Critics have noted that Cutts did not publicly condemn the threat, a silence that raised eyebrows locally and became a talking point in its own right.

There is no verifiable evidence indicating that Cutts solicited, endorsed or was personally connected to any threat or to his supporters' conduct; he has not publicly addressed the matter in coverage nor in any statements or social media posts.

Candidates are not automatically responsible for what their most overzealous backers do online, but they do have a responsibility to call for civility and to cool the temperature as it rises.

Still, in a race that would ordinarily turn on quiet questions of legal experience, the tenor of the campaign — and how each candidate has chosen to respond to it — has itself become a subject of local conversation heading into June 2. Absent a specific controversy touching the incumbent's own record, judicial incumbents typically enter primaries with an advantage. . Prediction Election Night Results Green for the win with a 2% to 3% margin of victory.

The races already decided (barring a write-in surprise)

Several county and district offices drew only one major-party candidate, meaning the June 2 vote is effectively a formality and the nominee is on a clear path:

• State Representative, District 51: John Block (R), unopposed in the primary. Seemingly will be challenged in the General by an independent.
• Magistrate Judge, Division 1: John Robinson Secrest III (R), unopposed.
• County Assessor: James M. Bowman (R), unopposed.
• Probate Judge: Jessica Lynn Suggs (R), unopposed.
• Twelfth Judicial District Judge, Division 2: Lori L. Willard, unopposed.

The race to watch in November

County Commissioner, District 1 is not a primary contest — but it is the rare Otero County seat with a real two-party general election ahead. Republican Christopher Glidden and Democrat Alan Gonzalez each filed unopposed within their parties and will meet on November 3. It stands out precisely because Democrats fielded almost no one else countywide; the party's near-absence from local ballots has itself become a talking point.

Similarly, State Representative District 53 features Republican Ben Luna Jr. and Democrat Sarah Angelina Silva, each unopposed in the primary, setting up a November contest across parts of Otero and Doña Ana counties.

Otero voters will also weigh in on the federal and statewide primaries appearing on the same ballot — U.S. Senate, both relevant U.S. House districts, governor, lieutenant governor and other state offices — though those contests extend well beyond county lines.

The bottom line

Turnout is what determines the winners. Who has the strongest ground game and brings the voters to actually engage is who wins. The door knocking and in person meetings matters. But who actually delivers the bodies to the polls will determine the real outcome verses the predictive outcome. 

For all the drama, the arithmetic remains stark: in a county this Republican, the June 2 GOP primary will most likely determine who holds the sheriff's office, the District 2 commission seat and the Division 2 magistrate bench unless the independents who are gathering signatures for the November ballot are prepared for a hard fought race.

Two storylines will define how this primary is remembered. The first is whether a court order issued five days before the vote reshapes the District 2 county commission race — a contest that has come down to ethics, honesty and trust — and what it signals about a Republican Party visibly at war with itself.

The second is whether Otero County's sheriff's office continues on its current course or turns toward the reform message its challengers are selling, in the shadow of a pending murder trial and a campaign marred by anonymous attacks. That the acrimony reached even a normally sleepy magistrate race underscores how charged this cycle has become.

Both questions get their first real answer when the polls close at 7 p.m. on June 2.

Voters can confirm registration, find a personalized sample ballot, and check voting options through the New Mexico Secretary of State's Voter Information Portal or by contacting the Otero County Clerk's Office at (575) 437-4942.

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